Interview: BRIDGE OF SPIES Actor Austin Stowell Tells Us What It's Like Shooting an Action Scene For Spielberg

In Steven Spielberg's new movie Bridge of Spies (read my review here), Tom Hanks plays a Brooklyn lawyer tasked with defending a Soviet spy (Mark Rylance) caught operating on American soil. It's the height of the Cold War, and Hanks' character convinces a judge to let the spy live in case the government loses one of our own soldiers behind enemy lines; that way, they can negotiate a trade. It ends up being a prescient suggestion, as CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers gets shot down in enemy territory while taking photos in a U2 spy plane.

Up-and-coming actor Austin Stowell plays Powers in the film, and this week I spoke with him on the phone about what really happened to his character, Hollywood dramatizations, what it was like shooting an action scene for Steven freaking Spielberg, and more. This interview contains some spoilers for the film.

When you were preparing for this film, did you do research on the real Powers, or were you only interested in this script’s version of him?

Austin Stowell: I did a lot of research on the real Powers. First off, I read his book called Operation Overflight, and I got in touch with his son, Francis Gary Powers Jr., and he was kind enough to give me hours and hours of interviews that he had in his possession from when his father was writing the book. And it was basically what the author had to sift through in order to write it. It allowed me, A) to hear his voice, which, as an actor, is a present wrapped with a bow. But also to get to know him in the way he speaks about the situation and about his imprisonment and about the crash and about how he was treated when he came home — it gives you a firsthand account of how he felt about the entire ordeal. It was invaluable. It was absolutely incredible to get those tapes.

I was shooting Public Morals, Steven [Spielberg]'s show at the same time and I was walking around the streets of New York, usually with my dog, and listening to Powers, and really creating the character as I was out there walking around.

For me, one of the most interesting moments in the film is when Powers tries to convince Tom Hanks’ character [James Donovan] that he didn’t crack and give away any information when he was captured, and Hanks says, “It doesn’t matter what people think. YOU know what you did.” What do you think you would have said to Powers in that situation?

AS: I think I would have agreed with Donovan. I probably would have made sure that Powers was all right, first and foremost — physically OK, you know? "You good?" [Laughs] I probably would have played stewardess to him for a second. Got him some peanuts, some salted pretzels, probably a strong drink or two. And that is actually what they did. He and Donovan both drank on the way home.

Nice. So much of this movie is about perception — especially public perception. I read that people weren’t thrilled with Powers when he got back to the U.S. They were disappointed he didn’t hit the plane’s self destruct button or kill himself —

AS: He did hit the self destruct button. A lot of what happens in the film is dramatized in order to...you've got two hours to tell a story and the story is about Donovan. Actually, it was one of the areas that Steven and I had most of our conversations about. I was very concerned that we were not going to paint Powers as a patriot in that he disobeyed orders. He absolutely did not disobey orders. There was no protocol. There was not any kind of regulation that told these men to kill themselves. There were no bylaws that said he had to carry the silver dollar [the film shows a poison-filled coin given to all the soldiers before their flights, with the instructions to kill themselves if their plane goes down so the enemy can't torture them for information]. "If you are captured, spend the dollar" is a wonderful line for Hollywood, but it's just not true for what was told to these gentlemen, to these pilots that were doing the overflights.

Interesting.

AS: That being said, what made it so difficult for people to receive Powers as the hero that he was and the patriot that he was when he came home, was that Soviet propaganda had been saying that Powers was having a wonderful time, that he was learning Russian and thinking about staying in Russia, that he thought Communism actually wasn't such a bad idea after all — which was all total malarky. Powers was a terrible linguist. He never picked up a lick of Russian, he had no inkling to stay in Russia. He wanted to get home so badly. He wrote letters, he was doing everything that he could in order to get out of the Soviet Union. This was a guy who bled red, white, and blue. He believed in his country, believed in the life that it had afforded him and his family, and he felt that it was his duty to get back. This was the last guy on the planet who would ever sell out his country and give away information. It was almost an honor to him to serve that sentence.

A lot of this movie centers on guys sitting around talking in back rooms, and the sort of wheeling and dealing that comes with political negotiations. But you were in the movie’s one big action sequence, when the plane gets shot down. What was it like shooting an action scene for the man who’s directed some of the best action scenes in the history of film?

AS: [Laughs] It was a lot of fun, to be honest with you. I got to literally be Steven Spielberg's puppet for three days. I say that because I truly was hanging from the ceiling by string. We were in Tempelhof Airport and they had set up a three way green screen area and built a hydraulic arm with a cockpit at the head of the arm, which could bring me up, down, put me sideways, backwards, it could vibrate, it could twist. And then we had huge 70 mile per hour fans pointing down from the ceiling, and so basically we were shooting everything inverted because of gravity — we had to do it all upside down. So the way it looks when we were doing it looks like I was hanging from the ceiling, but of course when you flip that upside down, it looks like I'm being dragged towards the Earth. In a combination of all of those extremely talented graphic artists and Steven's vision, we were able to put together a really intense sequence. That was...I've never been in a plane crash, and I have no desire to be in one, especially after seeing that. That only reaffirms my feelings about ever being involved in a fall from that far. That's scary stuff.

You've worked with some pretty legendary people before, but Spielberg and Tom Hanks are on a whole different level. Did you get a chance to geek out with them at all on the set?

AS: I guess I come from the school of "mouth shut, eyes open." Eyes and ears open. Of course I was able to conversate and enjoy their company, but I focused on my job as well: that I was playing a real man who made a real sacrifice and went through an extremely painful and agonizing three years, and felt it was my duty, more or less, to pay homage to Powers and keep my mind focused on that. All the while wanting nothing more to ask questions about The Money Pit and Splash and Bosom Buddies, and pick Spielberg's ear about E.T. and Jaws and Indiana Jones and Catch Me If You Can, which is one of my all-time favorite films. Jaws is my number one, but I love Catch Me If You Can. I just think it's phenomenal storytelling and he did an amazing job with cinematography on that film.

One more question for you: what was the vibe like on Spielberg's set? The way you're describing it now — and I don't know if this is just your outlook on your specific job — but it makes it seem sort of somber, like you guys are dealing with some serious stuff. Did the set have that kind of feeling, or was it a little more lighthearted?

AS: It's a very comfortable place to be, I'll say that much. But it's not fun and games. We're certainly not there for our own pleasure, so to speak. We were outside on Glienicke Bridge and it's freezing cold, the wind is whipping around, all the actors are in dress shoes. Of course you can't have scarves or anything like that for continuity, and you're sitting there in an outfit that is not at all useful for the weather, and I just get my mind focused on the struggle that Powers went through. At the end of the day, I knew I was going to go back to my hotel and have a nice hot shower and have a good hot meal, and I had nothing to complain about. But I'm also not trying to say that I wasn't looking forward to going to work every day. It's still a place of work. I think at the end of the day, that's what people have to remember: that this is still a job and it takes a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of energy. You can have a good time doing it — I had a blast. I would gladly do it all over again, flying back and forth to Berlin and shooting Steven's show at the same time, I would do it all over. I would pay them double, do it all naked, and do it with a smile on my face. [Laughs] But it's not fun and games.

Bridge of Spies is in theaters now.