Sponsor And Quick Welcome

George Blitch 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Son of a Bleach podcast, and I'm here to tell you that this podcast and all my podcasts are powered by Neuro. That's right. Neuromint and Neurogum, they're my favorite. I take a Neuromint before every single podcast, 10 minutes beforehand, gives me the perfect caffeine, the perfect L-thenine, B vitamin balance, no sugar, no crash, scientifically backed. I'm telling you, neuromants, neurogum, you gotta learn more. Go to neurogum.com today, pick out your favorite flavor, or go to your favorite retailer near you.

The Call That Changed Everything

George Blitch 0:46

LaMonica Garrett, welcome back to the Son of a Bleach podcast. How are you doing today, sir? I'm good. Real good today. Uh, thanks for having me back on. Man, I'm excited to have you here. You're very welcome. And today we're gonna be talking about Man of War, action thriller that will be starting the stream on July 3rd. Uh, Amazon Prime, Apple TV. This is your first leading role in a major motion film. Tell me about this experience, kind of bringing you back to the beginning. When did you first hear about this? And let's walk through the process of filming this up until you seeing the screener last night.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Yeah, so um it was I worked with the director before we did Osiris together a few years ago in New Orleans that came out and it turned out very well. And he's great to work with the producing team, all those guys. So this came about. We were filming the season two finale of Lion S in Fort Worth. And we're, you know, it's 110, 115 degrees out. It's miserable, big tanks, black hawks, everything's going on. We're on this ranch shooting this, and we had no reception. So I'm in a cooling van in between camera setups, and my phone rang. I'm like, How am I getting reception out here? It was the director, and they had hired another actor to do this job, man of war, but he was injured. Something happened with his shoulder or something. I don't know who the actor was, but he couldn't do the job. It was a physical job. So the director, having just worked with him, he called me up and was like, Hey, I'm sending you this script now. We're in they're already in Europe, like two weeks out of filming. They're rehearsing and prepping. Uh, you need to read this script in the next few hours. Get back to me if you want to do it. I told the other producers about you. You'd be perfect for it, but we need an answer like right now. So I'm like, okay, dang, all right. Let me um, I'm reading, I'm reading, I'm reading. And I got to the end of it. I hit him up. Do not give this role to anybody. This is my job. Don't don't play with me. You know, we'll figure out the nuts and bolts later, but this is my job. So uh cut two, we finished filming season two line S. Three days later, I'm on a flight to Europe, uh, rehearsing, we're doing all this stunt work, choreography, all that stuff. And it never had, I never had time to um to let it sit on me like this is my first lead in a film. It was just go, go, go, learning lines, learning the character. What does this guy want? What's gonna happen if he doesn't get it? The surrounding world that he's in, where does he fit into this? And learning how to use an AK-47. Never worked with an AK before, so that was every minute, every day. I could figure out mag changes, where's the safety at? You know, switching shoulders, all the stuff that a you know, tactical special force guy would would need. And uh, we shot it and it turned out well. It was a real physical job. It it beat me up. It was a lot of Epsom salt bats during the shoot. Uh, and last night was the first time I saw it. And we did it maybe a year and a half ago, and I was blown away at what what they put together and what we all did, you know, out in Bulgaria when we shot it.

Building Michael Connor’s Mission

George Blitch 4:00

Well, so you're playing Michael Connor, former Navy SEAL CIA operative, and you're basically on a very uh true to heart emotional mission to go ahead and save your niece, adopted daughter, um, from Ruthless Mercenaries. I mean, this is insane. The preview really sets this up for just a banger of an action flick, and I'm very excited to to to see this on the third. You know, tell me a little bit about your character, Michael Connor, kind of set up the story, and I we're not gonna give away any spoilers, but but just kind of walk us into, you know, kind of what's on the the preview, and maybe a little bit more if you uh would would be so inclined.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah, this guy, he's um he, you know, CIA, former operative, uh he former Navy SEAL. He's good at what he does. He's you know, he's he's a warrior, he's a a soldier. His niece gets abducted. It takes place in Ukraine, Russia. It's the opening days when Russia invaded Ukraine. And um his niece, his adopted daughter, his Navy SEAL brother that passed away. I told him I'd look after his kid, and that's we became had this really close relationship. And she works at an orphanage like this, you know, out in Ukraine. They rated it. I see it all go down, it kind of like taking a little bit with Leem Neeson, and that's where it kind of stops because it turns into like Rambo, where this guy is, you know, he's the only one that can go in and get her. War torn. And when I read the script, the thing that jumped out at me that was different from other projects that I've seen, it was the effects of war, like not glorifying this uh, you know, this badass going in and just being a one-man wrecking crew. He's more of a reluctant hero. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want to do any of this. And he's kind of a the character is not really a likable guy when it starts off. Like he doesn't get along with people, he's not good with people. He has one mission, and he's not interested in helping all the chaos and the civilians and just the the fallout you see that happens during war. He's not interested in that, he's just there to get his niece. Andrew Howard is the opposite. Andrew Howard was a Ukrainian, you know, he's my my tour guide, as you could say, that's that's helping me navigate this field to try to find my niece. And Andrew Howard wants to say his character wants to save everybody. So the humanity that my character lost over the years of just seeing war and seeing what it does to you, the effects of it. He slowly gets his humanity back and watching Andrew Howard's character navigate, helping people. You see littered bodies on the street, you see the chaos that war brings, and and the people caught in the crossfire. And that's really what this movie is about. The the left the links that someone will go to to save someone they love, and also the effects of war and how it, you know, the story that's told with the people in the middle, not the two powers going at it, you know, the two countries or it can be political, but this movie wasn't about that. It was about what war does to civilians and what it does to people in the middle.

George Blitch 7:11

Well, and I mean, it obviously all that stands for tons of action happening. But you know, you kind of when right before we started recording, you kind of mentioned too one of the things that the emotional angle and kind of what you just spoke to, I'm sure covers some of that, but you said you were a little surprised about how that came across. Was that something that you felt like uh it really was a good empathetic journey for being able to understand what all those people were kind of going through, as well as somebody who's on that mission to save family? What was uh some of that emotional play that you kind of felt uh came across through being able to see it in its finalized form?

When Actors Are Reliving War

SPEAKER_00 7:48

When we were shooting it, we had there were a handful of actors and actresses that had fled Ukraine to move to Bulgaria and to, you know, they got displaced because of the war. And talking to them, I remember day-to-day here and a day there, like, you know, day players coming in, they had one scene. Uh, there were emotional conversations I had with people. Like, there was one woman, there was a scene where she had her family kind of curled into this little alleyway, and Andrew's character was trying to help him. And I'm like, we got to get out of here, we got to keep moving. We're running from drones right now, they're in the air everywhere. And this this actress, she had a big scar on her face from here to here. And we're having lunch that day, and I'm like, you know, talking to her, she was talking about Ukraine. I'm like, how like that right here, how that happened? She was like, these drones in Ukraine, like it took out our house, and we got displaced because of the drones. It's like some of these actors and actresses, they weren't acting, they were reliving. And I remember that day to day then, but seeing it all put together now and taking me back to like those conversations. Like there were people in the in the theater last night that were getting emotional and crying because it was that you're seeing just bodies of kids on the street and just fallout from war, missiles and bombs that just yeah, it was it was it was uh it's an action film, but there's a lot of heart and emotion to it. And I and Andrew Howard brought a lot of that with his character. He was the to me, the heart and humanity of the film, and he helped my character get his humanity back, and that was the arc that my character took on this journey.

George Blitch 9:28

Wow, man. I mean, that's that's some intense stuff for sure. And I'm I'm glad you you know you mentioned kind of your experience of working with people who went through that because I was I was kind of curious too, is like, how can you really tap into that unless you have people that have gone through it to really be able to experience it? We can always imagine, but when you like hear those stories, you can bring that into you know that method of you being able to understand exactly what's going on. So that authenticity, I think, is a very important part. You know, thinking about that kind of aspect too.

Tactical Detail With William Kaufman

George Blitch 9:58

This is directed William Kaufman. Um, like you said, you this is a person who has done such an incredible job putting this together. What was your experience working with him in uh for this movie? Just some of your thoughts on on working with him as a director.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Will working with Will, and I've come to learn that when we were shot Osiris together, uh, and his fan base, he has a rabid fan base of what he does. And I was telling someone else, like, when you're watching a guy Richie movie, you feel it's a guy Richie movie before you knew he directed it. Like, he has his fingerprint. Tarantino, same thing, they have their fingerprints. Will Kaufman has his fingerprint with tactical, um, these, these, these gunfights, these gun battles, and bringing an emotion to it. Whereas, you know, some action films you can get caught up in the big explosions, and we're doing action for the sake of action. And Will, the the story behind the action is at forefront, but the action is so good and it's so tactical. And there's like, you know, military people from all over, special forces guys, they reach out, like the gun work, you guys gun work, like who'd you guys have on set? Because it was real, like on point. And you see that in Will Will Kaufman movies, and he makes it a point to not skim on just yeah, running through with the gun and go do this. If your fingers in the wrong place, he'll do back to one reset. We got to get all this right because there's these are people's real lives that you know, the military people, the community, they're looking like, nope, I don't believe that. Nope, the safety wasn't on, nope, you know, that he ran out of bullets, there's no mag change. They're looking at all these little things, and Will is aware of that while he's filming, and he's editing in his head while he's filming as well. So it's like you know you're taken care of. If something falls short on you or you don't remember, Will has an eye for all that stuff, and it's just you trust him. That's what you ultimately want your director is to trust them to set you up to succeed.

George Blitch 12:03

Yeah, and that that attention to detail is paramount. You know, we talked about this before when it's like the terminalist and Jack Carr, and you have a lot of the people that were on set with that, or the Dark Wolf, and and you know, the that rendition. And so being able to have all the masters at play that know exactly what you're doing to make sure that you're doing this justice as far as accountability, truth. You know, uh that was 31 shots. He would have had to change his back, whatever it is that you know you're you're you're you're doing there. And we kind of talked about that a little bit too with with Lion S, um, as far as you know, you and having the team there to kind of make sure that everyone is being an authentic operator.

Lioness Season Three Goes Bigger

George Blitch 12:39

Um, you know, I'll just kind of switching gears to that, you know, you we also have Lion S season three about to drop in about a month. So it's kind of a big month and kind of I like how it's bookended, like you know, the end of season two, you get this call, this is coming out, and then now season three. So uh seems like it's uh it's always in motion uh with you and gotten, you know, I I just could would love to chat about you know season three. What can you tell us about it? Uh what was your experience like uh going ahead and filming that? I think you said that was also in in Fort Worth and and and more heat again, I'm sure. So uh you're getting used to that Texas heat, I guess, huh?

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yeah, I just thought about when you when you told me, uh, like yeah, season two, we finished that and I got the call for that. I immediately went there when season two was about to to to premiere. I missed the premiere with all the other actors, like the night out and we could all celebrate because I was in Bulgaria shooting man of war, and I remember it was morning there, and I'm like, you know, all beat up. It was a big fight scene we just had, and I'm on the phone. It was nighttime here, and I'm talking I'm seeing all the actors all dressed up. My wife was there with everybody, like it was a big family. Everyone was there except me, and I'm like, who's back there? Like, yeah, bring them over here. What are you guys wearing? Like, I missed it, I missed the premiere. But now, cut to season three. Season three is gonna be just as big, if not bigger than season two. Taylor has a way of uh, what did we do last year? All right, we got to go bigger, it's gotta be a bigger scale, and the scale of this season feels is foreign soil, you know, again as well, and it just seems massive. Uh, I was we we saw the first episode, the premiere in Fort Worth before we wrapped the season. They brought us to a theater so they could show the whole casting crew, you know, what we did. We had like a month left, so it gives you the energy like, wow, that was amazing. Let's finish this strong, like that, you know, that that last push. And it was one of the biggest episodes of television I've ever seen. Like the scale of it was massive. And for me, for Lion S, that was hard to do after the season two finale. That was huge, just tank, you know, and this hundreds of people everywhere, and helicopters and explosions, like it was a lot. And we seem to out out to have outdone that and this premiere coming up that you're gonna see on August 2nd.

George Blitch 15:05

Man, I can't wait. It's gonna be an eight-episode arc, and and it'll be coming out each week basically up until the finale on I think it was uh September 20th. So that's gonna be an action-packed. It's hard to not be able to binge some of these shows, though, man, because I swear my wife and I, we lost so much sleep every single time we're we're we're watching even the end of the night. If it's starting at midnight, we don't care. We're putting that on. And if we've missed an episode as we're traveling, we're like, yes, another one, you know. It so yeah, we it would be basically non-stop uh watching if we had that opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, that's what we're doing right now. There's a show called The Agency with Michael Fastbender, another Paramount Plus show, and it just started back. But I'm like, let's wait two or three to get them together so we could because I hate waiting so long, but but it when it's that good, you just that's what you do. At some point, you're gonna have to wait.

George Blitch 15:51

That's true. And I've and and a lot of Taylor's actual shows are are like that for us, where we will kind of binge them. And and I'm sure that uh, you know, there's a lot of other folks there, like, yeah, us too. I mean, Lioness, I cannot wait, man. Um, is there any any new people coming in that uh you know you can reveal? Is there any uh is it just I know it's you know, obviously you got a great team there that you're already working with, some just top-tier uh actors like yourself. So I was just curious if there's anybody new that's coming in that you can mention at this

New Cast And Next Projects

George Blitch 16:20

moment.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

There's gonna be some familiar faces. Uh Ian Bowman's coming over from Yellowstone this season, and he plays a pivotal part, pivotal, pivotal. He has uh, well, without giving it character away, he has a very emotional start to the season, and he just comes in and crushes it. Like uh watching him work, you'll see what I'm talking about when the scene happens in the bunker, but watching him work is like, yeah, it's good to have and me and Ian have been buddies for years. Finally being able to work with him is uh it's it's a treat. Yeah, so that's one name, and there's other people like I don't want to ruin the you know, the yeah, it's gonna be one of those, but Ian, they've announced Ian, and he's uh we have some fun working together.

George Blitch 17:02

Nice, and he'll be playing Grady. That'll be fun, man. I'm glad you guys are getting to share some screen time there. You know, is there any other projects that are coming up? I mean, I'm sure that you're gonna be getting a lot of calls. I need to see some more leading roles here, you know. I mean, you've been involved in so many amazing different projects, man, and uh it's just so awesome to continue to see uh your your advancement with this. And I'm I'm very excited. So I was kind of curious, is there is there anything else on the horizon that uh you've got working on or some goals that you personally would love to uh see bring to fruition?

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah, we I just finished a project in Utah. It's another Western 1870s uh uh convicts being transported to get death penalty kind of thing. The train gets robbed, and we're all stuck together at the ankles, and we have to escape. Now we got Pinkerton agents chasing us, we have the government, Ulysses S. Grant, like militaries chasing us, uh the natives, you got to deal with the terrain, like everything's trying to kill you. It's one of those. Uh the cast is really good. Um, Sam Worthington, uh Jai Courtney, um uh Jack, Jack Quaid, Jaden Martell, like the cast, and we were like every day stuck at the ankles together. We all got along so great. But if it was one person that was a bad seed or whatever, that would have been the worst job, the worst nightmare job. But everybody, we had fun being together, and that'll be out sometime next year. Raymond directed that who he did warfare last year, and that was amazing. This is his first project after Warfare. And funny enough, Raymond was there at the at the premiere last night. So of course, as soon as I come out, I see Ray looking at me smiling, and I went over to him like tactical gun work. Like, how is my gun? Because he Ray helped me in terminal list, that's how we first met back in 2021. He was there to you know, kind of assist me and make sure I look legit. He worked online S season one with us for a little bit. Uh uh the prequel, I was with Ray in Budapest right before he went over to do warfare, and now working with him again on this. So last night it was fun to have him like just give me the you killed it, like, yeah, tactical and gunplay, and not you know, all of it was was was great. But that movie, uh, the movie with Ray, it's called Blood on the Promontory. That'll be out at

Why Bulgaria Shoots So Big

SPEAKER_00 19:28

some point. And in August, I go back to Bulgaria with Will Kaufman and the same producing team. It's gonna be another film, like uh sci-fi future dystopian kind of film. Uh, and I'm I'm a sci-fi nut, and that's gonna be it's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be sort of like um Book of Eli meets Terminator kind of thing. And uh the script is amazing, like it's gonna be the same crew that we had for Man of Wars. So I'm looking forward to get back out there with all those guys, same stunt team, coordinators, choreographers. Like it's it's gonna be a good I'm feel like building a family out in Bulgaria now, like with the with the film crews. Can't wait to get back.

George Blitch 20:08

Dude, that's great. When and just curious, like it what is it about that being the spot in Bulgaria? Are is that like where the main team is? Is this an area where there's uh a studio or it's kind of shooting in the kind of vein of the areas that you guys are working on? What what what brings it there of all places?

SPEAKER_00 20:26

You can make Sophia look like so many different places in the world, for one. It's the tax credits they give you, they want to bring all these films out there, and they're giving you like the movie Man of War, it was in Indy. It wasn't in it, didn't we didn't have a lot of money and resources to do it. And everyone was coming up to me afterwards, like, what was the budget on that? Like 20 million, 20 million, like not even close. We shot it in Bulgaria, and that's why it looked that way. Uh, New Guyana Studios is a huge dude. They they film expendables there, uh, they did extraction. They like they all these the big action sequences in in Europe are filmed in that studio, and then you go to different places for the story and all the other stuff. But they just have and the film crews over there are next level. The crew, the uh, the the the stunt choreographers, uh Stani, uh Ratza, these guys have like Hobbs and Shaw, like all these movies you've seen in the past where the action is next level, they've had something to do with it, and it's made their way through that studio at one point or another. So we're going right back to where we know exactly what we're gonna get, you know, for the outcome.

Where To Watch And Follow

George Blitch 21:36

Man, that's awesome. I can't wait to see all these. So, for those who are wanting to keep uh track and find out what's happening next, why don't you go ahead and give your socials and uh you know maybe where you can go ahead and plug and watch the uh the upcoming movie Man of War as well.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yeah, my socials, uh Instagram, Lamonica Garrett. That's my only account. Uh there's seems like every day there's a new pop-up uh and someone trying to whatever. That's my only account on Instagram. Uh uh, what not Twitter, I still call it Twitter. But yeah, I'm uh Lamonica Garrett as well. Um, and Facebook Lamonica Garrett. And this film, Man of War, it premieres uh July 3rd. It'll be on Prime, Prime TV, Prime Video, and Apple TV as well. Uh so yeah, it's it's and and it's 4th of July weekend as well. So it's let's bring it in with a bang for real. Like there's the the the body count that my character has is next level. Uh that's what I really it was a lot, it was a lot of ammo and a lot of bullets were used on you know blanks, but it was a real real good gunplay in this uh in this film, like tactical stuff. It if you like tactical, you're gonna love this movie.

George Blitch 22:50

Well, it it drops July 3rd. This will be airing on July 3rd. So today it is out. So tonight you guys got plans. And for tomorrow, July 4th, what are you gonna be doing this July 4th?

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Watching Man of War. Uh, get some hot dogs and some beers and get the family around and watch this movie. That's what y'all need to be doing this weekend.

George Blitch 23:08

That's right. You've heard it here first. Lamonica, thank you so much for joining me. Everyone, make sure you check out the notes below. Obviously, we've got July 3rd, Man of War, August 2nd, we got Lion S season three, and I can't wait to talk to you again with the next project you got coming along. It's always an honor to have you on the show and to connect with you, man. Uh uh, really proud of all the great work you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Man, thank you for having me back, and thank you for reaching out and uh giving me a platform to you know say the stuff I got going on and yeah, building the brand and doing all that stuff. I appreciate it.

George Blitch 23:40

Cheers, man. Well, we'll do it again soon. Happy fourth, and everyone go see Man of War. It's coming down July 3rd. Go get it.