It took Noah Centineo a few moments to finally get in position for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at Thursday night’s Warfare premiere because every step he took towards the camera led to another hug and tight embrace with one of his co-stars.
“We’ve all gotten quite close,” the 28-year-old actor explained of the bond formed after shooting the intense Iraq-set actioner from the co-writing and directing team of Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, the latter of whom’s harrowing experience as a U.S. Navy Seal inspired the A24 film. The cast became so close in fact that they shaved each other’s heads in preparation for a three-week boot camp and all got matching “Call on Me” tattoos inspired by the film’s opening scene. (Two actors declined the ink, sources confirmed.)
Warfare follows a platoon of American Navy SEALs on a surveillance mission gone wrong in insurgent territory in Ramadi, Iraq in 2006. It unfolds in real-time and the “unflinching realism” leaves viewers “breathless,” per THR chief film critic David Rooney. The 95-minute film stars Centineo opposite his band of brothers D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Evan Holtzman, Henrique Zaga, Joseph Quinn and Charles Melton.
Asked to explain their newfound closeness, Centineo took another moment. “Difficult to explain,” he said, pausing to choose his words carefully. “I think Alex Garland, Raymond Mendoza really curated a group of guys that they knew would care and would recognize what’s important with the story and commit to it, and they did. It’s really because of them. They put all of us together, we all got along and it was phenomenal experience.”
Noah Centineo, Will Poulter, Charles Melton, Kit Connor, Taylor John Smith, Adain Bradley, Evan Holtzman, Michael Gandolfini, Joseph Quinn, Cosmo Jarvis, Finn Bennett, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai and Henry Zaga at the L.A. premiere at DGA Theater Complex. An afterparty followed at Sunset Tower.
(Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
The bond lives on. “We do have a group chat,” Centineo said of what turned out to be the carpet’s buzziest topic, adding that it’s a “powerful” and “profound” relationship. “We’ve all engaged and been talking since we started the film, which was when we started boot camp all the way until now. We continue to catch up with each other. Whenever there’s more than one of us in a city, we’re usually hanging out.”
Centineo’s appearance at the premiere comes on the heels of the cancellation of his Netflix action series The Recruit, which has ended after two seasons. “It is what it is,” he said when asked about the show’s abrupt ending. “Netflix, they have a certain mandate that they need to fill, and I’m very proud of the show, very grateful to our audience. We have a pretty strong cult following. And with Netflix, it just didn’t really fit what it was that they needed, I suppose. And so onto the next, I guess.”
The Recruit followed Owen Hendricks (Centineo), a CIA lawyer, who becomes involved in massive international conflicts with dangerous parties after an asset tries to expose their relationship to the agency. The Recruit was among Netflix’s top 10 TV titles following its season two debut.
“I mean, I learned so much from season one to season two. I really got to see behind the curtain of how a show gets made, and that to me was probably the most educational part of it, without a doubt,” he said. “And also having such a great cast.”
Warfare opens in theaters nationwide on April 11.