Orientation: Cast Members Learn the Ropes

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At Fort Bragg's Special Forces orientation, Eric Bana, William Fichtner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau received detailed instruction on the proper handling and operation of weapons used by the soldiers in Somalia, as well as "breaching training" (entering locked or obstructed doorways or windows using explosives, and learning how to enter and clear a building of possible threats).

On their final day, Bana, Fichtner and Coster-Waldau trained at Fort Bragg's Urban Terrain site, a cinderblock mock village where Special Forces soldiers demonstrated movement through a city that poses threats at every turn... which Mogadishu certainly did on that fateful day and night in 1993. The actors-now starting to resemble Special Ops soldiers-fought their way against an opposing force using simulations through the mock city to a fictional helicopter crash site.

Eric Bana, who had packed on the poundage to portray "Chopper" Read, began shedding it as soon as he learned he had the role of "Hoot." In fact, Bana lost 35 pounds in three months, which involved weight training and what he called "a very strict, extremely boring insanity diet," which he would stick with throughout the entire four-month shoot. Recalls the actor, "I got as fit as I've ever been before going to Special Forces training, 'cause I knew that it could be severely embarrassing if I showed up in bad condition.

"Let's face it," Bana continues, "embarrassment is the key thing here! So luckily, orientation was almost exactly the opposite of what I expected. I was predicting some kind of horrendous physical torture, but it was very hands-on, extremely interesting and very specific. We got to learn some incredible things, some of which I can't even reveal."

Meeting actual Delta operators "helped in ways I couldn't have imagined," Bana says, "and not only in terms of learning tactics and weaponry. Since there were only three of us-me, William Fichtner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau-we spent a lot of time with our eight instructors. We'd go out to dinner with them, hang out and really get to know them. They were very worldly, extremely well-read, incredibly intelligent and had an amazing sense of humor. It gave me the confidence to go with things for my character that I had been thinking about, but wasn't quite sure were relevant. And it also allowed for an on-screen rapport between Bill, Nikolaj and myself that was completely non-manufactured."

Willam Fichtner amusedly describes the difference between training with Delta and the bigger group of actors training with the Rangers. "Let me give you an example... the first day the actors were at Fort Benning with the Rangers, they were in a classroom. The first day we were at Fort Bragg, our instructors were saying 'See that door there? Let's blow it up.' It was a phenomenal experience. The three of us were sponges for the information. I would have paid money to go through that course."

Also to receive an extraordinary education was Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, cast as Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Gary Gordon. "To be honest, before being cast, I didn't even know what the Medal of Honor was," admits the actor. "I mean, I'm Danish, and have always lived in Denmark. But when I went to Fort Bragg for training, I visited a Special Forces museum on the base, and Gary Gordon's name is on the wall. I soon came to realize how much of a hero he was, and I'm truly honored to portray him."

Along with his fellow actors, Coster-Waldau was surprised by the character and personalities of the Special Forces soldiers he met and befriended. "I had an image of these people that just didn't fit the bill," he acknowledges. "I was expecting some hardass Rambo kind of guys, and these were just laid back, friendly people. I never would have picked them out as soldiers if they were out of uniform."

Further west, at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Ron Eldard and Jeremy Piven were learning some of the ropes of what it takes to be the best of the best with the men of the 160th SOAR, the legendary "Nightstalkers" (so called because of their expertise at night flying). The actors met with several veterans of Somalia, "flew" missions in the unit's flight simulator under the same conditions faced by Wolcott and Durant during the mission, and received an in-depth briefing by the recently retired Mike Durant himself.

Along with many of the Black Hawk Down actors who had the opportunity of encountering or speaking by telephone with their real-life counterparts, Eldard met Mike Durant, who retired just a few weeks before the orientation began. "He was taken hostage for more than a week and had very bad injuries from the crash, but he stunningly survived it all," says Eldard admiringly. "For all that he went through, he's such a great guy.

"And that's what they're all like," Eldard continues. They're so heroic, but so normal at the same time. I was surprised by how moved I was meeting them. At one point, I remember saying 'This could be a convention of schoolteachers in the Midwest.' The pilots are not chest-out, macho guys. They are all very calm, relaxed, very professional."

Adds Jeremy Piven, who portrays Chief Warrant Officer Cliff Wolcott, "Flying Black Hawks is incredibly intense. All of one's motor skills are needed at every moment, the controls are so responsive and delicate. We trained in simulators and studied the actual Black Hawks on the ground, and these machines are incredible, the highest level out there. They can maneuver into anything. They can fly at night. They're jet black; they're ominous. You have to be at the top of your game to fly them. The guys of the 160th have such a sense of loyalty and camaraderie towards each other.

"Every pilot who came up to me during training just said, 'Just do Cliff Wolcott proud, because he was the real deal. All we ask is that you all try to keep it real.'"

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