Summary

• The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare showcases Guy Ritchie's stylized approach to real WWII events, enhancing action and cinematic experience.
• Henry Cavill's portrayal of Gus March-Phillips in the film represents a mix of English decorum and madness, adding depth to the character.
• Working on a Guy Ritchie film like this offers a unique, collaborative experience for actors to bring characters to life in a spontaneous and magical way.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is based on the Damien Lewis book, Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII, chronicling a secret mission carried out by a covert British World War II organization. Founded in 1940 by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to conduct espionage and sabotage missions against the Nazis, they were significant contributors to the Allied victory. These highly skilled soldiers lead a strike against German forces behind enemy lines in what seems like an impossible mission.

The Witcher's Henry Cavill brings his impressive skills as an action star as well as a fun, dynamic energy to the leading role of Gus March-Phillips. Although The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is based on real events, director Guy Ritchie brings his stylized approach to the story, amping up the action and cinematic experience. While these were real soldiers who fought during World War II Ritchie puts his own spin on the story to take the performances to the next level every step of the way.

Screen Rant spoke with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare stars Henry Cavill, Alex Pettyfer, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin. Cavill broke down his approach to the character and how working with Guy Ritchie impacted his acting choices. Pettyfer discussed the spontaneity of Ritchie's directing style and Tiffin shared insight into his character Hayes.

Henry Cavill Reveals Guy Ritchie's Approach To The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Screen Rant: This movie is phenomenal. The cool thing about this is it shines a light on something that I had no idea about. These guys were so crucial to the war that what an incredible mission. Henry, March-Phillips is a straight-up badass, and he's the team leader of Operation Postmaster. Can you talk about the research you did for the role? Where did the look come from in some of the mannerisms, like the sticking the tongue out while he's killing Nazis stuff, come from?

Henry Cavill: Right, with something like this, because it's a Guy Ritchie movie, I didn't approach it in the same sense as a biopic, also because these files were only declassified in [about] 2016. A lot of these folks died during the war or shortly afterwards, and if they did die shortly afterwards, all the stuff they did was very secret. There's not much in the way of information on these people.

You couple that with Guy Ritchie's sense of hyperbole with his characters, so I didn't approach it in a biopic sense. I approached it from the idea of going who is this person? What were they like? What was their drive? And then you lean into how Guy does things. Guy's way of approaching story is you have the bones of a script, and you have all the dialogue in there and everything, and he gives you an idea of what's going to happen during the scene, but the morning of is when you learn what's really going to happen to the scene. Sometimes that'll be a new monologue.

You also build the character throughout. For example, we were playing Gus March-Phillips as this slightly cavalier, because he was definitely cavalier, that's for sure, but very English type dude. And then Guy went, "When you burst into that room with Hero and you machine gun everyone down, I want you to really enjoy it. Be a bit crazy, stick your tongue out."

Because you're working with someone like Guy, you can go as big as you want because you can trust him. You know if you end up looking silly, he's never going to put that in the movie because he knows character, he knows good storytelling, he knows movies. You get to that point where you go right, I'm going to go as big as I want, and I went big and he's like, "This is perfect. It is great." We lent into that and that became part of the character, that sense of English decorum or British decorum and also that little bit of madness, which makes missions like this possible.

Alex Pettyfer Believes Working With Guy Ritchie Is "A Really Magical Experience"

Alex, Apple is the strategist of the team. If Gus Phillips wants him on the mission, he's going to the mission. Tell me what you wanted to bring to the role that wasn't on the page.

Alex Pettyfer: Just leaning into what Henry said, when you work on a Guy Ritchie film, you are collaborating with Guy in a very unique way. He is this conductor, this maestro where this collaborative experience, you are making the film and creating the character as you're going along. It's a really magical experience. So spontaneous that allows you to have this peak of... I can't even articulate it into words because I've never had an experience like this before.

As an actor, you go, you prep, you take as much time prior to making the film to do your research or whatever skill set you need. But walking onto this film, you are in this heightened reality, and you are in this Guy Ritchie world, and he is navigating you and the character that he wants you to play, that he's specifically chose you for, that he knows and can see that you can execute. This character is really down to the navigation of Guy.

Hero, you play Hayes. He's the sailor of the team and also looks at March-Phillips almost as a mentor. Can you tell me a little bit more about that character and the camaraderie amongst your cast members that you guys created on set?

Hero Fiennes Tiffin: Yeah. Again, that's credit to Guy, as these guys have said. In every film you do, you kind of learn who your character is as you go, but especially with a Guy Ritchie movie. It felt right. It's a parallel because I'm looking up to all of these guys as actors as well and being the youngest one in the crew, it really made sense for me to make sure...

Hayes is very, very competent and if he was to be challenged, he would back himself but at the same time, I think he's very happy being the slightly man of fewer words. He would get the job done for his actions and I think he's very reliable. I think there's something very noble and respectable about that trait in him, I thought of, not needing to prove himself in any way. I think he's very, very self-assured and he looked up to these guys, that's for sure. Specifically March-Phillips.

About The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare

The top-secret combat unit, composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks, goes on a daring mission against the Nazis using entirely unconventional and utterly “ungentlemanly” fighting techniques.

Check back for our other The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare interview:

• Eiza Gonzalez, Cary Elwes & Babs Olusanmokun
• Jerry Bruckheimer

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare hit theaters on April 19.

Source: Screen Rant Plus