INTERVIEW: The Tomorrow War Cast Including J.K Simmons & Chris Pratt

In this interview with the cast who plays the present day characters in The Tomorrow War they discuss their challenges and more.

In The Tomorrow War a group of soldiers from the future come to the present day in order to recruit people to help them take on a an alien threat, that is destined to destroy the planet. Chris Pratt stars as Dan Forester who is one of those selected individuals. In this cast interview, the actors who play present day characters discuss the filming challenges they had, what drew them to their roles, and more. The Screenwriter Zach Dean also joins the press event, and talks about making the book into a film.

Participating Talent:

• Chris Pratt (Dan Forester)
• Betty Gilpin (Emmy Forester)
• J.K. Simmons (James Forester)
• Edwin Hodge (Dorian)
• Sam Richardson (Charlie)
• Screenwriter Zach Dean

Filming Challenges

The Tomorrow War is action packed, and with that comes a lot of physical acting. When Chris Pratt is asked about the most intense and challenging part of making the film, he didn’t even hesitate with an answer.

“You could ask me this question on 10 different days and I might give you 10 different answers because it really was a physical film and there is so much to choose from. Off the top of my head, there’s a really great sequence – I know that we’re focusing on the people of present day 2021 – but when we do make that jump to 2051, there’s this transition and we fall from the sky in Miami and land in a pool. There was some serious water work that we got to do and that is a lot of fun.

We got to jump off of this high dive that we built out of a fork lift and jump off into the water. The camera followed us down and then you had stunt people jumping down and landing on top of you forcing you under water. That whole sequence probably took two or three days and was really cool, really fun, really physical. There’s a camera down there, you’re trying to get smashed into the ground and come up, and struggle into a close up underwater. It was a lot of fun. That’s something that stands out.” – Chris Pratt

Sam Richardson says that he remembers that same scene and felt the same way. He explains that when watching a movie, viewers might think with a scene like that they shot it once or twice, but this was all day, for three days. He remembers it being really fun, but really exhausting.

J.K. Simmons adds in that he didn’t get to work in the water, but he did work in the frozen water which was a different kind of exhilaration. It was fun, challenging, and really cold. “It was great. I’m still a little miffed that McKay let them drag my traumatic slide down the glacier, but that will be in the sequel, I guess.”

Edwin Hodge points out that everything was exhilarating. “This entire film was just action packed non-stop. There’s the sequence when running around – I’m not going to tell you exactly what it is – but running around after the drop from the sky there. I feel that scene itself took a month to shoot alone. We were trying to film on the weekends buying that time here and there. Yes, it was just amazing to run through Atlanta, shooting guns, blowing things up. What more could you ask for?”

Betty Gilpin plays Dan’s wife, and she jokes that she did not see a lot of action, but her biggest adrenaline rush was when they ran out of bagels on set. “I play the frowning therapist wife. I mostly sob in a cardigan, which is action emotionally. There was a day where they announced there are almost no more bagels and my adrenaline was sky high. We were rolling and luckily I ran outside, got a second bagel and came back just in time for action.”

What Drew Them To Their Roles

One of the most submitted questions from press was what drew the actors to their roles in The Tomorrow War. J.K. Simmons did not miss a beat joking that first and foremost, he wanted to work with Chris Pratt, but went on to get more in depth about why the script hooked him.

“There’s beautiful family stuff with Chris’ character at home with Betty and their daughter. When my sort of estranged dad kind of non-relationship, when we first get a glimpse of that, I was claiming that there was going to be some kind of a worthwhile journey there. There is – no spoilers. It was great to be able to incorporate that small picture with the gigantic picture of are we going to save the world or not?” – JK Simons

Chris Pratt weighs in on the reason his character, Dan, decides to accept this job and go into the future to fight an unknown alien race. He is doing this because if he doesn’t go, they are going to take his wife in his place. This is something he has to do to protect his family and his daughter, which is a different theme than we have seen before. This movie makes viewers think about someone being drafted away from his children instead of children being drafted away from their parents. 

“Everyone who goes forward into the future is over the age of 30 and everyone who’s come back to train us is under the age of 30 because you can’t live in both timelines at the same time. They’re really just drafting a crop of people who are going to be dead in 2051. You are dealing with people who are making life decisions based not on the life that they could lead, but rather the world that they’re leaving for their children.” – Chris Pratt

What Sam Richardson loves about his character of Charlie is that he is sort of an every man. He relies on humor as a defense mechanism, much like a lot of people do. Sam jokes that in a group of people in the theater watching The Tomorrow War, most of them will react like Charlie — himself included. “That’s very real, so I wasn’t trying to play very broad wackadoo comedy – you also need that release valve of all the action and so much happening in these high stakes. It was fun to get to play that release valve. I was also trying to ground that with emotion. [Charlie’s] very fearful – he’s afraid. The emotion of fear is what I was playing with.”

Betty Gilpin explains how her character feels about her husband leaving for the future, with the possibility that he might not come home.

“It’s the blessing and curse of being in love with the right person. His wife sees that there’s something in him that he wishes he could channel into something, and maybe felt that as a veteran, when he was at war, he could use that internal passion and purpose to funnel into something. Now as a suburban dad is like, ‘Where do I put this energy?’ and can’t really find the right outlet.

It’s this strange thing that this burst of soldiers from the future announcing that humanity is going to be wiped out if we don’t try to save the world, is the outlet that Dan was looking for, and the very outlet to funnel that sense of purpose into. I think that as big and action-y of a concept that is, that’s a very familiar thing, especially with what’s going on in the world now.” – Betty Gilpin

Edwin Hodge used real life experiences and people he knows in order to channel his character of Dorian.

“I’ve spent many years with Wounded Warriors talking to vets who suffer from PTSD, things of that nature, just to understand a different perspective of how we deal with war and the consequences that reflect on us physically, emotionally, and mentally. Dorian feels like there is no hope for him either way, whether the aliens were going to take him out or whether [his cancer] was going to take him out. He was going to go. There wasn’t a hope for him.

It’s a mix of different emotions – wanting to be courageous, but also be vulnerable, and not showing that vulnerability. I think he’s an everyday man to just like Charlie’s character, but he’s tormented. He’s seen death, he’s taken lives, and it’s not easy to come back from that.” – Edwin Hodge

It’s All About Family

When Zach Dean is asked about writing the screenplay for this movie, he explains what made it so easy for him — the family aspect of it. 

“At the beginning and the end of this movie, for many ways, it’s a family story. It’s what made it easy to write and important to write. We have to figure out if we’re going to learn, not learn, or just implode. This family is really multifaceted, and we look at it from a lot of different angles. [Dan]’s got to figure out how to be a dad. At the same time, he’s looking at his own father’s thing.

The idea of not having it be about, necessarily, an ideology or patriotism or loyalty to produce your country, but being about literally your desire to save your own kids. Who doesn’t sign up for that? It’s a different thing. We’re not asking for an abstract idea. It’s about parenting. That’s what it’s about.” – Zach Dean

About The Tomorrow War

In the thrilling science-fiction action adventure The Tomorrow War, the world is stunned when a group of time travelers arrive from the year 2051 to deliver an urgent message: Thirty years in the future mankind is losing a global war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians from the present to be transported to the future and join the fight.

Among those recruited is high school teacher and family man Dan Forester (Chris Pratt). Determined to save the world for his young daughter, Dan teams up with a brilliant military scientist (Yvonne Strahovski) and his estranged father (J.K. Simmons) in a desperate quest to rewrite the fate of the planet.

The Tomorrow War comes to Amazon Prime Video on July 2, 2021.