Esai Morales Felt He Was Serving His Country in Netflix Action Movie War Machine | Interview
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with War Machine star Esai Morales about his new sci-fi action movie. Morales discussed his role as an Army officer, working with Alan Ritchson, and more. The film begins streaming on Netflix on March 6, 2026.
“During the final stage of US Army Ranger selection, an elite team’s training exercise turns into a fight for survival against an unimaginable threat,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Esai, congrats on War Machine. It’s such a fun watch. What’s interesting about the film is that it shifts about midway from a pretty grounded military drama to this fantastic sci-fi movie. You’re primarily in the more grounded half. What appealed to you about being in this film and being a big part of making that tonal shift effective with your role?
Esai Morales: Well, thank you, number one, and great question. What I like is the reality of it. I’ve had family members in the military. I personally have reserved my right to kill or be killed. I’ve reserved it, but I respect so much the spirit of a soldier and what it takes to put your life on the line to achieve whatever the mission or goal of your country is. I just liked that it didn’t feel like your average sci-fi piece. So the realism, that’s what appealed to me.
So I wanted to be as true to the nature of the characters. I know he’s hardcore, he’s a bit of a badass, and I played it up hard because you want to have that kind of bulldog spirit. If you can’t deal with it as a prospective trainee or candidate, then maybe this isn’t right for you. So war is a lot harsher than anything I could do as a first sergeant. I love grounding it in realism so that then the fantasy or fantastical aspects, it’s like, “Whoa, what world are we in?” That’s the feeling. It’s like the more realistic we can be, the greater the shift, and when the shit hits the fan, you’re engaged.
It’s fun watching you bark orders at all the trainees. We’ve seen you as a man in uniform a lot of times in your career as a police officer. You play an Army officer in this. What was the biggest shift in playing an Army officer rather than your standard police role?
Well, standard police role is a lot less barky, even though you can have those kind of characters. I just like digging in. I like going hardcore military, having that cadence, that twang that is specific to the military. It’s kind of Southern-esque, and you don’t have to know where he’s from; he’s just all Army. He’s all Ranger. These guys, they take a lot of pride in their work. So yeah, I’m honored to portray them. Hopefully, they’ll like my portrayal. I wondered, am I going over the top or not? But I just dug in. It’s our great director Patrick Hughes‘ job to tell me, bring it down, bring it up, so I just went all in.
Tyler Treese: I did want to ask you about Patrick Hughes. He has such an energy to him. He’s just a fun guy to be around. So what stood out about him as a director? Because I assume this was a fun shoot.
Esai Morales: Oh, it was very fun. The reality is what I love about him is that he’s like a big kid. He’s huge — I mean, he could have been one of the soldiers himself. He’s a guy’s guy, and the energy he had is, “Let’s play.” It felt like we’re all back in the sandbox, but a very, very intricate sandbox, a well-funded sandbox. He’s just got such an infectious quality about him. I think he’s the perfect leader for this kind of thing because you just want to do right by him. You want to perform, you want to deliver, you want to hear him go, “Oh, we’ve got a banger.” He’s Aussie, he’s like, “Oh, we got a banging film.” I love it. He’s just so much fun, and he delivers. I mean, this thing, you can’t stop watching. You’re like, “OMG, what’s going to happen next?”
We see all these actors and extras doing these really intense military drills. How is it just watching all those guys go through that? It’s definitely better to be on your side and barking the orders rather than doing some of that.
I mean, I did lose my voice a bit. I just recently came off a head and chest cold. But days of screaming out orders and barking out take after take after take at the top, it was a lot. It wore on me. But again, I felt like I was serving my country. I felt like we all have a part to play if we so choose. For me, being an actor is how I serve my community, telling stories, because I know great soldiers that can’t act. You can say, okay, put a camera on this guy, and they freeze up. It’s just a different theaters, literally and figuratively.
So each one of us has a specific talent, and if you know what your talent is and if you can apply it, then it’s all in the service of telling stories, of entertaining the mental state. That’s entertainment. We get into your mind, and we help you travel, whether you’re sitting in a theater, at home, or wherever you watch this. We help you travel. We help your mind go places where otherwise it wouldn’t. So, yeah, for me, watching these guys train, I was a bit envious because they all got ripped. They all got shredded in the process. But man, I have a lot of respect for this cast. Very, very good people, very much like in the show.
I thought this film used Alan Ritchson in an interesting way because he’s very charismatic, but in this film, he’s not very emotive at first. He feels machine-like. What stood out about him as a scene partner?
Well, the thing is, he is a war machine. It’s not just the machine, but the war machine applies in more ways than one. His character isn’t there to over-emote. He’s on a mission, and he’s very focused. It’s about crossing that finish line for the reasons you’ll know when you watch, and he’s very single-minded in his approach. So I like that.
The great leads of many films, they don’t overdo it. They leave room for you to fill in the blanks emotionally. They make you wonder what’s going on there. Because if you’re the type of actor that displays everything, there’s nothing for the audience to figure out. It’s like, “Okay, yeah, oh, look at him. Oh, we’re sad now, no, we’re angry.” It’s one-dimensional. So a great lead withholds just enough to keep you wondering. Not too much where he’s just there, but it’s a balance, and a good director like Patrick will tell the story around him so the actor doesn’t have to do too much. You know what’s going on, you’re paying attention. You can only imagine what he’s going through.
There’s a great quote that I read on a mirror in hair and makeup when I was shooting Caprica many years ago, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica. I think it was attributed to Robert De Niro. Eric Stoltz, I think, had put it on there, and I just will never forget it. It says, “Most actors revel in displaying their emotions when in real life the majority of people do everything they can to hide their true feelings.” So it’s all a dance. It’s all about how much do you show without showing too much? How much do you conceal without shutting off the light?
Thanks to Esai Morales for taking the time to talk about War Machine.
Source: Comingsoon.net