Tom Green tells us about Boot Camp and becoming Thomas Lasky

For generations, humans travelled the stars and worked together under the banner of the United Nations Space Command. Now that peace is shattered by insurrectionists, causing a galaxy-spanning civil war.

Cadet Thomas Lasky and his fellow students at Corbulo military academy now train to make this war their future. But Lasky is conflicted about his path, and his resolve is tested when the academy comes under attack from a terrifying alien assault.

Lasky and his fellow cadets fight for survival, only to find assistance from a mysterious ally – a mythic, armored super-soldier known as the Master Chief.

The Fan Carpet‘s Marc Jason Ali was fortunate to talk to Tom Green over the phone to support the home entertainment release of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, he tells us about working with the director Stewart Hendler and fellow cadet Anna Popplewell and being in awe of Daniel Cudmore as Master Chief…

Congratulations with Halo, you must be really proud of the result?

I am, I’m incredibly stoked! It was definitely something that was a complete surprise when I got the phone call, but it was a great experience, definitely am stoked.

For those that don’t know, can you tell us a bit about Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn?

Well Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn takes place at the Corbulo Academy of Sciences and basically centres on a group of teens who are cadets training to fight for humanity against the Insurrectionists who are rebels on a different planet.

It follows their journey and kind of centres on my character Thomas Lasky who is like any other typical teenager who isn’t sure he believes in what he’s fighting for, he feels like he’s almost been forced to participate in all these activities in this hostile and unforgiving environment.

And halfway through we find the Academy under attack from an unknown force which turns out to be the Covenant and from then on it’s a war on the planet.

How did you get involved with Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn?

I was in Los Angeles at the time for pilot season and I was auditioning for a bunch of things, and I was given an audition scene to read for something; it wasn’t Halo at the time it was under a code name and I went in and read and didn’t thing much would come of it and then I got a phone call asking me to come back and read for it.

So I went in and the next thing I knew I was meeting with the director and he spilled the beans on it, and they got me into a stunt course and then asked me to fly to Canada, that’s basically what happened, it all happened so fast.

Did you play the game to get into the spirit of the character?

Well, I’ve played Halo as a kid with some of my friends, I never owed an X Box but I was at my friends playing it.

Thankfully we all played a lot of Halo beforehand but it wasn’t a requirement because the characters in the game don’t play Halo, when we were given all these free Halo games that’s when we played a lot of it.

What research did you do for the role?

We were given a bunch of books to read and basically a Halo encyclopaedia to give us an idea of the aliens that we would come across and everything like that, and the kind of weapons we would be using to get us into the spirit.

We were also given DVD’s on Bootcamps and Army training facilities and a DVD of a young man being trained and drafted into the Army, so a lot of it was to do with Army and Military mediums.

I watched some online videos of cadets growing up in the Army, with their parents being affiliated with the Army in some way or another. It helped to prepare me for when I walked on set.

It’s a physically demanding role, what training did you do to get into the mindset of Lasky?

Well, we were required to attend a Boot Camp for one and a half to two weeks before we started shooting and during that Boot Camp I was really able to tap into Lasky; a teenage who is put under all this pressure who just almost wants to rebel in a way.

In the Boot Camp we were required to do Obstacle Courses, learn how to salut and address commanding officers, how to march, how to command a squad of our own and weapons – how to hold and load rifles and everything in between; hand to hand combat.

And when you’re doing that from day to day to day you feel that you are at the Academy, when I was at Boot Camp that was when I really started getting into the character of Lasky.

How was it working with Stewart, Anna and the rest of the cast?

Firstly Stewart is one of the best directors that I’ve worked with you know, he’s so young and so professional, very personable and easy to get a long with, pretty hands on, so that’s always a bonus.

The rest of the cast were awesome, I mean all of us just got on so well on and off screen. Anna, I watched Narnia, I’m not ashamed, so I was a little bit star struck there. Anna was just great, really easy to get on with.

Very lovely, really sweet girl.

Are there any memorable moments you can tell us about when making the film?

Yeah, definitely there were so many but one of the ones that comes to mind is when we were underground and none of the cast had actually seen Daniel Cudmore in the Master Chief armour until this moment. we we all on set, we were all holding our rifles and there’s a scene where we are coming down a corridor littered with dead bodies and blood everywhere and we are forced to hold our own in such a scary environment and we had the Master Chief with us but no one had seen him until the last second, they got him dressed in another room.

Then they rolled in the cameras and have him come in from round the corner, just this intimidating mass of awesomeness. Daniel Cudmore is like six foot just towering over us and that for me was just like holy shit this is the real deal.

That was definitely one of the most memorable moments; on top of the warthog was another one, and just all of the green screen stuff, but that one with Daniel Cudmore is definitely one to remember.

Do you have any plans to return to the world of Halo?

At the moment there are no plans just yet, but who knows.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently working on an NBC series in Australia called Camp, so I’m working with Rachel Griffith and Adam Garcia and a bunch of other Aussies over here, I’m working on it until July and then I’m back to LA.

Can you tell us anything about that?

Basically it’s a ten series for NBC called Camp, it’s based around a family camp in the Midwest, and it’s run by a councillor called Kinsey who is recovering from a broken marriage and trying to pick himself up.

It follows the lives of a bunch of other people who are there, some romances, and a lot of other people. Hopefully we’ll bring in people who have attended summer camp all over the world. Some great script writing.

I’m from The Fan Carpet, what are you a fan of?

I am a fan of lots of things, I’m a fan of movies, some of my favourite films; There Will Be Blood, A Clockwork Orange; it’s a little messed up but it’s cool and I like it. But overall I’m a fan of cinema.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Film Page | Anna Popplewell Interview | Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn on Amazon

HALO 4: FORWARD UNTO DAWN IS OUT NOW ON BLU-RAY AND DVD