Jonah Hill‘s “War Dogs” film acted as a dog whistle to a couple of “real-life gun runners,” the actor told TheWrap.
The film follows two arms dealers, Efraim Diveroli (Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Teller) who receive a U.S. Army contract to supply munitions to the Afghan National Army worth an estimated $300 million.
“I live in New York and I was in a restaurant and two guys came up to me and said, ‘hey we’re South African arms dealers and we’re really excited to see the movie,” Hill recalled during a recent interview with TheWrap’s Stuart Brazell. “It looks like a good representation of our lives.’ I was like, ‘OK, great!” Hill explained about the time he met “real-life gun-runners.”
But, he admitted, the chance encounter put him on guard.
“That was a scenario… where I was being sensitive to them and also kind of nervous at the same time. It puts you in an interesting position.”
Hill also admitted he felt out of his element while he was making the film, but that it was actually good for his performance because he played someone who had no prior experience in dealing arms overseas. “That’s what these kids were doing. They were like, ‘Where are we? What’s going on?’ It kind of puts you in the moment a little more than you if you were shooting on a sound stage in L.A.”
The actor was nominated for a Golden Globe this year for his role in “War Dogs,” but lost out to Ryan Gosling, who won for “La La Land.”
Hill went on to praise his co-star Miles Teller and revealed why he had a personal stake in making the movie.
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