Brad Pitt wants to make sure every detail is right in his upcoming WWII drama, Fury, due to open Oct. 17.
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In order to do that, he went to the guys who know best — those who were fighting on the frontlines during WWII and who, it turns out, had never heard of Brad Pitt before being asked to consult on the set of Fury.
George Smilanich, a decorated WWII vet, was one of the four that Pitt hired. As NBC News reports, Minnesota resident Smilanich doesn’t watch a lot of movies — he’s more of a football guy.
“I says, ‘Who the hell is Brad Pitt?'” Smilanich says as his wife giggles in the background.
NBC reports that Smilanich and the three other vets took a trip to Hollywood last year to help out with the film, in which Pitt stars as Wardaddy, a sergeant leading a five-man crew that includes soldiers played by Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf and Scott Eastwood, into war-torn Germany.
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That’s exactly what Smilanich did during the war, NBC reports — he served in Africa and Normandy Beach and helped liberate Holland as a tank driver for three years.
“It’s tough to… I can’t tell you how it was,” Smilanich tells NBC’s reporter, but during his time with the cast of Fury, he was asked to tell all.
“They asked what life was like on the tank, what we did for excitement, what we were eating,” Smilanich says.
Smilanich, a Bronze Star recipient, once pulled his trapped commander from a burning tank. He also nearly had his feet amputated because of frostbite.
“I wouldn’t give my experiences that I had for a million dollars,” Smilanich says, “but I wouldn’t take five cents to go through it again.”
But now, with the war behind him, Smilanich and his wife are preparing to walk the red carped with Brad Pitt, whom they now know — personally.
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“Brad Pitt says it’s going to be a blockbuster!” he says, laughing. “And you can believe it!”
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