For casting directors Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu, seeking talent for writer-director David Ayer’s World War II drama “Fury” came with two major challenges: finding actors who were authentic and finding ones who could hold their own alongside Brad Pitt.
Centering on Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Pitt) and his five-man crew on a deadly mission to take down Nazi Germany, “Fury” is a war thriller that portrays true heroism in the face of danger.
Of that crew, Vernieu says Pitt and Michael Peña (who previously starred in Ayer’s “End of Watch”) were signed on when she and Graham began their search for the remaining three soldiers—the most difficult role to fill being that of rookie trooper Norman.
The youngest of the platoon, Vernieu says Norman needed to be either a new face or a familiar face seen in a new light.
“We just saw all the best, youngest guys,” she says. “We really scoured all of the talent pools in all of the cities. We had cast Logan [Lerman] in ‘Noah,’ so we knew him very well from that, and he just—”
“You just knew,” adds Graham.
Vernieu says Lerman (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”) “nailed it in the room” in a way that surprised everyone, noting that he “inhabited Norman” and made them cry.
Another discovery was Shia LaBeouf, who plays Boyd “Bible” Swan. “We were talking about different people and Shia really came after it hard,” Vernieu explains. “[He] really expressed his passion for the part and convinced David how committed he would be and what he would bring to Bible, and he did it.”
But while casting the film’s main crew, supporting roles, and extras, the casting directors never once strayed from finding performers who brought authenticity. “One thing about the way David does his films is that he wants to be authentic,” says Graham. “If you look at ‘End of Watch’ and ‘Harsh Times,’ I think he makes such an effort to make it feel as real as possible, so that’s always in the back of our heads when casting any role.”
This was particularly important with “Fury,” considering Ayer served in the Navy himself.
Many of the actors who auditioned had served at one point, according to the CDs. “We’d get certain calls from agents saying [their clients] had served and were very interested in this film particularly,” says Graham. “It just brings a different kind of authenticity to the table.”
The Los Angeles–based casting directors had help finding actors from Lucy Bevan, who “was instrumental in helping us put together a lot of the guys in Europe” and found the two German women who play important roles in one especially intense scene.
Of working on the film, the two agree that it’s been both an honor and an emotional task. Graham notes that there were World War II veterans at the premiere: “It’s just kind of amazing that these men, who are sort of the last of those guys still alive, get to see something like this that they lived,” she says.
“We just feel very proud of it. It’s a very important movie,” adds Vernieu. “We do, we feel honored.”
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