How Dean-Charles Chapman Felt Filming Sam Mendes’ ‘1917’

While most may remember him as Tommen from “Game of Thrones,” Dean-Charles Chapman is re-entering the spotlight as Lance Corporal Blake in Sam Mendes’ upcoming World War I movie ‘1917.’ Speaking with Variety on his time spent filming, Chapman discussed the value in surprise and the nature of going into a film knowing very little about its inner workings.

“We never got to read a script, so I learnt just, like, four pages from this scene,” relates Chapman. “It wasn’t until [director Sam Mendes] told me, personally, it was going to be a one-shot. And I was nervous, and it blew my mind.”

“1917” is loosely based on the stories told my Mendes' grandfather, Alfred Mendes. The plot follows two British soldiers on a harrowing quest through the ravaged wastes of war with an important message to cease the start of a mission that would spell disaster and the loss of over 1,000 British troops.

Mendes himself also opened up to Variety about the importance of bringing “1917” to life with the one-shot technique. “I wanted you to feel like you were there with the characters, breathing their every breath, walking in their footsteps. The best way to do that is not to cut away and give the audience a way out, as it were.”

Starring alongside the likes of talented individuals, such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, and Andrew Scott, Chapman seems to have understood what was needed in bringing his character to life in "1917." Reading “The Western Front Diaries,” a group of journal entries by soldiers from the war, Chapman not only tried to get into the mind of his character but incidentally discovered a section written by his own great-grandfather.

Six months of research and rehearsals, however, seemingly could not prepare the actor for the one-shot epic of “1917.” He relates that while he may have practiced scenes from the film “a hundred million times” before filming, it all vanished the moment the cameras started rolling.

“It all goes away,” Chapman admits. “Because things changed every two minutes, lines were changed, movements and placements were changed…As soon as we started rolling the cameras, it was just—didn’t feel like we were rehearsing, it felt like we were actually in the war.”

“1917” hits cinemas on Dec. 25.