MERIN: In the combat sequences, you really establish the dangers and the closeness of the soldiers and the way they depend on each other. Then you follow them home from their tours of duty and we see the difficulties they’re having readjusting to ordinary life--not to mention the problems they face about the threat that they may be stop loss-ed and have to go back to Iraq. Do your characters’ stories parallel stories you heard when you were interviewing soldiers who’ve actually fought in Iraq?
PIERCE: I found the story in the soldiers’ interviews, and the conflicts, and also a lot of the background information that explains the way the character behave when they get home. For example, in the Iraq war, unlike previous wars, there’s no ‘green zone,‘ no safe area where soldiers go after completing a mission, where they can feel relatively secure and let down their guard for a while. There’s danger all around them at all times. These soldiers were trained to fight in the desert, but combat actually occurs in towns, in streets and alleys, hallways and kitchens, and they’re attacked from unmarked cars approaching check points. Their quarters are near towns, within reach of incoming mortars. I asked one soldier how you know when a mortar is coming, and he said, “When it lands next to you.“ So, they’re never shielded from danger. The intolerable stress level stays with them when they come home. They become alcoholics, experience flashbacks, have bouts of violence. All of the characters’ behavior in [I[Stop Loss is genuine, based on my interviews not only with soldiers, but with their families and with experts in and out of the military.
MERIN: So, what elements of the story are true, which are your fabrication?
PIERCE: Well, in reality, you’d have to say they all are. I made the choices that felt right for the truth of the story--about what characters to include, what happens to each of them and how they resolve their conflicts. The lead characters are composites of various soldiers I spoke with. As a group, they are a typical unit--but I’ve taken liberty in creating their personal histories and relationships to make a better story--for dramatic impact. There’s a Latino soldier--there would have to be, because so many Latinos are enlisting and serving in Iraq.
MERIN: And his comment about if he dies his family gets green cards? Is that true?
PIERCE: I actually heard that from soldiers. I don’t know if it’s true that they do, but they believe it--which is what was important to me and to the story.
I set the soldiers’ home base and homecoming in Texas because there are quite a number of small military towns there, and it seemed a reasonable location.
MERIN: I thought it was because Texas is George Bush’s home turf, and he’s the Commander-In-Chief who’s invoking stop loss…
PIERCE: That’s true. But that’s more circumstantial than the actual reason why I located the film in Texas.
MERIN: But it does hit close to home. And the film does present information about the war--which seems to be being marginalized by the media, and about stop loss, which isn’t widely known outside the military--so I think it’s fair to ask whether you have a political agenda for this film…
PIERCE: I’m interested in the human story, in storytelling and I chose this subject because of its dramatic potential. My personal opinion about the Iraq war or the issue of stop loss isn’t the point, and I don’t think that’s what audiences are looking for or what they get from the film. In fact, we’ve gotten positive comments from audiences across the political spectrum, and that’s because the film’s not anti-anything--it‘s pro-soldier, pro-family. Audiences get that--we get positive comments at screenings and on our Website from people whose believes are all over the political map.
MERIN: Without giving away the ending, let me ask you about the decisions that Brandon (Ryan Philippe) and Steve (Channing Tatum) make. Why?
PIERCE: We considered several alternative endings, and felt that this was truest to character and to what soldiers and their families have told us about options. There can be truth in fiction, too.
MERIN: So far, your films--Boys Don’t Cry (1999) and Stop Loss--focus on stories and pressing issues that aren’t well covered in the media. [I[Stop Loss brings questionable governmental policies to light. If, in the future, you take on other such issues? And, do you think you’ll choose to make documentaries about them?
PIERCE: If it felt right for the story, I would The main things is to tell the story in the best possible way.
MERIN: Women directors have more opportunity to make documentaries--perhaps because they require smaller budgets. It‘s unusual for a woman to get a project like Stop Loss green lit. How‘d you do it?
PIERCE: With this project, I financed the development myself--and when I went to the studios, it was with a script that was ready to shoot and a reel that showed I could direct it--a testosterone-driven reel with combat scenes that showed I could handle making a war movie. My deal was ‘you buy it, you make it--no development, no sitting on the shelf. And several studios wanted it, so the project was green lit when I sold it--which is rare.
After Boys Don’t Cry, I was in the unusual position of leaving film school with a Hollywood career in place. I went into development on a project I really liked--about a scandal that shook Hollywood. I went into development on it, but eventually found that the studio wanted me to made a 30-million dollar movie for 20-million, and I knew it wouldn’t work. So I dropped the project. That’s why I approached this project the way I did--and sold it green lit already. I want to be independent, to be able to make the films I want to make, films that I feel are worthwhile, whether they’re narrative features or documentaries.
