Leckie was the “character” we most identified with in THE PACIFIC miniseries.

HBO is running a marathon of all 10 episodes today.

Can you talk about the kind of research you did to play Robert Leckie? Did you speak with his family?

James Badge Dale: He wrote memoir Helmet For My Pillow and he wrote another book called Strong Men Armed. There was another book he wrote that was relevant, about his childhood, short stories and anecdotes about his childhood. He was the youngest of eight, he grew up in a household of five older sisters with a very quiet, bookish father. In a lot of ways, he was fighting for his manhood from day one.

Band of Brothers centered on an entire infantry company while The Pacific focused on three main characters. Do you think that is a more effective approach for a story like this?

James Badge Dale: Well, it’s hard to do both (Laughs). It’s especially hard to weave three stories together and, originally, I think it was five and they dropped it down to three. I think what they were trying to show was, even though these men were in different companies and in different places, the root of their experience was basically the same. They were all still dealing with the same internal conflicts and they handled it differently. The idea was that this conflict tested them in ways other than just the loss of life and limb.

The full interview is over on Movie Web.