‘Thank You for Your Service’ shines a hard light on the trauma of war

Atlanta — also known as Hollywood South, or Y’allywood — recently drew actor Miles Teller, veteran Adam Schumann, and a full film crew to the Clermont Lounge. “Thank You for Your Service,” released on Oct. 27, is Oscar-nominated writer and director Jason Hall’s newest screenplay, following his 2014 box office hit “American Sniper.” This new release was filmed here in Atlanta, allowing The Connector to sit down and interview the stars.

Teller plays the lead role of real life soldier, Adam Schumann in “Thank You for Your Service.” The screenplay, whose story originates from a book written by David Finkle, tackles the tough topic of a group of United States soldiers returning from Iraq and struggling to integrate back into family and civilian life.

The film brings to light a disappointing aspect of our society, which is the way we handle veterans returning from war. This includes societal response as well as the government’s Department of Veterans Affairs.

“As a civilian population, we want to know what the cost of war is,” said Hall. “We have to know what the cost of war is because we’re a country that enters into conflicts and if we’re going to enter into conflicts, number one: we need to learn how to bring these guys home better, and number two: these are brave men with honor and we need to make sure we’re entering into conflicts for honorable reasons.”

Schumann is one such honorable man. He maintained a smile throughout the interview and an eagerness to share his story in hopes it will help other veterans. “Bringing up the trauma is painful but you have to bring it up, you have to talk about it, because you can’t hold that burden forever,” said Schumann.

Playing the role of Schumann proved to be a huge undertaking for Teller, who was tasked with portraying a soldier and his struggles. Seated at a grand dining table in the Ritz Carlton Buckhead, he looked out at the Atlanta skyline. He wore a blue button up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, and he relaxed into the chair as if it was the first time he had relaxed since filming.

“With any other movie I’ve done there is a way to get first-hand experience,” said Teller. “Nobody can just tell you about war, nobody can tell you about being a staff sergeant in the military. We were lucky because they ran us through a boot camp with some highly trained, professional bad a**** who didn’t take it easy on us and kind of beat that military training into us. Knowing that we represent guys that paid the ultimate sacrifice to wear that uniform, or knew somebody that had — we were taking it very seriously.”

Teller also said he drew upon his own traumatic experiences in order to relate to, and portray, the intense trauma that Schumann experienced in Iraq. “These guys are trying to reckon with immense trauma, things that no person should ever see or be witness to and these guys are facing those images everyday,” said Teller. “In a way, I was fortunate that I had some real-life stuff and I didn’t have to imagine what it would be like. I’ve lost some buddies in my life. I had one buddy on life support, all this s*** shoved down his throat, and his brother just walking down the hallway screaming, ‘That’s my brother.’ So, I definitely had some stuff to pull on, and then other stuff nobody can relate to unless you’ve been to war, so then you kind of fill in the blanks.”

The most challenging scene for everyone involved was one filmed at the Clermont Lounge on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The intense scene involves Teller carrying a wounded soldier down a staircase. “The choreography of this stairwell where Miles is carrying Scott Hayes down the stairs was really tricky because you have rigs set up, you have wires coming off of Scott to unburden some of the weight but you want to give Miles enough weight that he’s able to not have to act it, but also that you’re not going to break your lead actor’s back,” said Hall. “There’s blood so we’re trying to choreograph the blood as it drips onto his mouth, as we work our way down these stairs with a Steadicam. Mile’s got blood in his eye and it was the wrong kind of blood.”

“It had something in it I did not react well to,” Teller added.

“It was a challenging scene and at the same time you want to pay reverence to this intensely personal moment that these two guys had,” Hall said.

While there are countless films released every year about American soldiers in war, there seems to be an absence of American films involving veterans suffering from the effects war and the accompanying trauma. “Thank You for Your Service” is starting a conversation that needs to be had in our country.

“Hopefully this movie takes a swing at people and hits them in the mouth,” said Hall. “Not for the sake of being just exciting or thrilling or something, but this is a real issue. There’s two and half million veterans walking around that came home from these wars and they’re walking by us in the street, and they’ve had experiences like this that are intense, and whether they have any kind of trauma or not these things still resonate inside of them. These people are passing you on the street corner, they’re in your classrooms probably, they’re on the bus with you and we have no idea what these people went through. These heroes are walking around among us.”

The real-life hero seated at the table in front of me, Schumann, maintained his smile and nodded along with Hall as he explained how this movie will help veterans who are struggling in the same way he has. He is happy with the outcome due to “all the positive messages and what this film is doing for people.” Schumann also described his, as well as his family’s, experience seeing his personal story portrayed on screen. “It’s all good, everybody’s extremely happy about it. The other day, Jacks was going to the movies and there was a poster and he pointed to it and screamed out ‘That’s my dad.’”

“Thank You For Your Service” is now showing in theaters nationwide.