I spend a lot of time with my characters.
Drill instructors worked seven days a week, fifteen to seventeen hours a day in many cases, with no time off in between platoons.
I don’t have any respect at all for the scum-bags who went to Canada to avoid the draft or to avoid doing their fair share.
Everybody respects the Vietnam Veterans of America.
That’s all I cared about too, was getting it right.
America’s trying to do the best for its veterans.
I was stationed at a marine recruit depot in San Diego from 1965 to 1967.
I try to get over to Iraq and Afghanistan as much as I can.
In order to be a good actor, I’m a firm believer that you need to bring something to the table.
I play well with everybody.
I don’t have to be concerned about everybody else’s character.
I always love to come to Austin.
There have been a lot of changes in recruit training in the past twenty years.
Kubrick’s films have life – they just never die.
I go the VA Hospital when I have a problem and the doctor jumps on me.
Kubrick ate it up. He loved it. He just let me go crazy.
I’ve never had to spend any time in the VA hospital, so I really can’t speak for those guys.
The best part about the movie, and everybody seems to rave about it, is the boot camp part.
This is for fighting, this is for fun.
Back in the old Corp, we weren’t training those privates to infiltrate into the peacetime Marine Corp. We were training those privates to go to Vietnam.
I disagree with a lot of those changes, however at the end of the day – I go down to recruit graduation at least once or twice a year.