You would be forgiven for thinking Taylor Kitsch is the ultimate all-American guy. In his most prominent acting roles, the native Canadian has played a Navy Seal (Lone Survivor), a California detective (True Detective), and a star football player (Friday Night Lights), all with a thread of homegrown panache. He’s also, by his count, played at least six real people (including cult leader David Koresh, in the upcoming series Waco).
In his next film, Only the Brave, the actor combines all that accrued experience for one of his most daunting roles yet: firefighter Chris MacKenzie (“Mac,” as Kitsch calls him), a 30-year-old wildfire specialist who died in the devastating Yarnell Hill blaze that claimed the lives of 19 firefighters in 2013.
Based on a harrowing GQ article, Only the Brave, directed by Joseph Kosinski, paints a familial portrait of the 19 “hotshots”—firefighters who are specially trained to tame unforgiving wildfires—who died that day. Kitsch remembers hearing about the Yarnell Hill Fire when it happened, but never knew the full story until he got the script for this film.
“I didn’t even know what a hotshot was,” he tells Vanity Fair. “The beauty of this job is you get to really envelop yourself in these kind of beats.”
The film is told largely through the purview of Brendan McDonough (played by Miles Teller), a young ne’er-do-well who gets a chance to straighten up when superintendent Eric Marsh (played by Josh Brolin) lets him train with and join his firefighting division. While preparing for the film, McDonough and fellow trainers took the Only the Brave actors through hotshot training for two weeks. “Long hikes, 50-pound backpacks,” Kitsch recalls. “You’re carrying the fuel and the chainsaws. It really is an artform to fight these fires.”
In real life, Mac and McDonough were roommates, constantly ribbing each other. He was one of the first people to give McDonough the nickname “Donut.” In an exclusive clip below, you can see a prime example of Mac playfully hazing McDonough, who was still new to the world of hotshots and wildfires.
To prep for the film, Kitsch would pepper McDonough with questions and pore over Mac’s old Instagram account. “There’s times when McDonough’s passed out on his rug and Mac would take an intimate photo and post it and just rip it,” Kitsch says. Through his research, he also learned that Mac was a talented surfer and snowboarder, and companies would often send him shoes, a detail that slyly makes its way into the film. “That was just one thing that I loved to hang my hat on,” the actor says.
Kitsch also met with Mac’s family on set, later going to dinner with his father, who’s been “a rock star through this whole thing.”
While shooting in Santa Fe, the actor also built a special bond with his co-stars. They first met for a table read (“I don’t know what actor likes table reads,” Kitsch quips), then went into hotshot training, where Brolin immediately took up a leadership position. “He was just an enormous influence,” Kitsch says of the actor. “We really bonded on this.”
Kitsch, who just shot in Santa Fe for Waco, says the actors would often go into town to drink, play pool, or go bowling. “I knew the city well and it’s obviously an older demographic, so you hold on to each other,” he says. Co-star Miles Teller would organize basketball games a couple times a week to blow off some steam (“He’s really good,” Kitsch promises). The actors also have a group text that’s still going strong months after the film has wrapped, where they swap jokes and share family photos. “Not a birthday’s missed,” Kitsch adds.
Which raises the most important question of all—does tough-guy Josh Brolin use emojis?
“Everyone texts emojis,” Kitsch says. “You can’t say no to emojis. I was a big fan of the boxing gloves for a bit. I’m all over the map. Gotta keep ‘em on their toes. ”
