‘Pressure of the movie’: Damian Lewis on working alongside ‘meticulous’ Brendan Fraser and the co-star he ‘can’t compete with’

Exclusive: Actor Damian Lewis has worked alongside many Hollywood greats but he has high praise for his latest co-star Brendan Fraser.

Lewis, 55, plays General Bernard ‘Monty’ Montgomery opposite Fraser’s General Eisenhower in the upcoming WWII movie Pressure, directed by Aussie Anthony Maras.

The film zones in on the true story of how the weather almost destroyed Operation Overlord, the military invasion onto the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, which became known as D-Day and was a turning point for the Allied Forces.

Fraser, 57, took his role as Eisenhower - the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, overall commander of Operation Overlord and the man who went on to become a US President – so seriously that the Oscar-winning actor organised a special excursion for some cast.

"Brendan is a meticulous actor, and he was unbelievably well researched," Lewis tells nine.com.au.

“And we’d gone to the Imperial War Museum together and looked at archive files there, arranged by him, and he was utterly committed to Eisenhower.”

Lewis says “the pressure of the movie sits with” Eisenhower, adding that “Brendan plays this brilliantly”.

But another man in the hot seat for the surprisingly gripping weather drama is Scottish meteorologist RAF Group Captain James Stagg, played by Andrew Scott.

Scott goes toe-to-toe with both Lewis and Fraser’s characters at different points in the film.

Referencing Scott’s famous Fleabag character, Lewis jokes that he “can’t compete with the Hot Priest”.

“The Hot Priest survives his showdown with Monty,” he adds, reassuring fans.

Stagg was summoned by Eisenhower on June 2 – just days out from the planned invasion on June 5 – to prepare a forecast the entire operation depended on.

He was given 61 hours to decide if the brewing storms over European waters made the mission safe or unsafe for the hundreds of troops involved.

The safety of the soldiers was something Eisenhower was particularly worried about after hundreds were killed during the rehearsal exercise, Operation Tiger, six weeks earlier.

‘Lewis inspired me to increase the role’

The true story had been turned into a play by Four Weddings & a Funeral and Two Weeks Notice actor David Haig, who then started working on a screen play 14 years ago, after the stage production was delayed.

Adelaide director, Maras, later joined the project and reworked the script alongside Haig.

“I just fell in love with the story,” Maras tells nine.com.au about coming on board.

“I think it’s quite a unique story, and I just thought it was cool to make a film about this one decision that had such big implications.”

After Maras met with Lewis and hearing him compare the “unbearable but necessary” general to a gangster who would steamroll others to get what he wants, the writer/director/editor decided to expand Monty’s role in the film.

“We focused a little bit less on some other characters and gave a bit more to Monty, and that was very much born from my discussions with Damian, and Jesus he was brilliant in it,” Maras says.

Lewis tells nine.com.au, the British hero might be “annoying” but he was worth fighting for.

“He’s a complex, complicated, at times unlikable guy who was loved and revered by his troops, so there’s just a lot going on,” Lewis says.

“He irritated people. He was always just slightly getting in your grill … so that’s always a fun part to play.

“I think acting is like advocacy, you advocate for your character … and I enjoyed doing that for Monty, whilst being the first to acknowledge that he’s quite annoying at the same time.”

‘Art imitating life’

There were a number of “strange coincidences” between making the movie and the real life events it’s based on, including one particular weather moment that threatened to derail the entire production.

“We had our own team of meteorologists in place, who for a month [before filming the D-Day scene] were checking the weather,” Maras revealed.

“Who were at the beach, they even had these measuring sticks in the water to see what the tide was going to be at what point of the day, and all this sort of stuff.

“And they said, ’listen, I’m sorry to say, but on the Monday there is probably going to be a horrific storm. It’s going to be six foot waves, it’s going to be 40 knot winds - you’re not even able to go on the beach, let alone film there.”

Reluctant to use CGI for the pivotal scene, they pushed on with their plans.

“The meteorologist came back, just like in the movie, and they said, ‘if we hold out on the Monday, we think there’s going to be a small gap on the Tuesday’.

“Monday came, and the storm came in, washed all our production design gear away but true to their predictions, a gap came on the Tuesday. We moved all our stuff back in, and art imitating life imitating art, we had a situation where we were able to film, and we got it.

“So, weirdly, 80 something years later, our little shooting experience echoed what had been happened on a much larger scale many years earlier.”

Pressure is airing now in Australian cinemas.

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