Injured star forgoes anesthesia during surgery and saves project by forging his identity

Band of Brothers – We were like brothers was the most expensive series of its time in 2001 and 22 years later, Tom Hanks’ war series is still an absolute masterpiece. It’s no wonder that this year’s $300 million series successor, Masters of the Air, is trying so hard to compete at this level. But back then, not everything went smoothly during production – especially when there were cast members whose injuries jeopardized the HBO project.

Injured actor from the war series Band of Brothers endured his treatment without anesthesia

Band of Brothers follows a unit of American soldiers, the “Easy Company”, into World War II in 1942. There the paratrooper regiment experienced important war events. But before filming of the series could begin, all the actors involved had to come go through a tough training camp. In this “boot camp” everyone addressed each other only by their character names and was drilled to the point of exhaustion.

In addition to main actor Damian Lewis, the cast of Band on Brothers also included his co-star Neal McDonough, who played Easy Company’s first lieutenant: Lynn D. “Buck” Compton in 8 of the 10 episodes. While the training A weapon hit him and injured his face.

In order to treat the infected wound, the costumed actor had to rush to the hospital at 10 p.m. But while he was being patched up, he refrained from taking an anesthetic, because the soldiers of the 1940s didn’t receive one either. He wanted to experience the pain that his real-life role model would have endured 60 years ago if he had been injured in war. At 3 a.m. he was back on the mat for the next drill, as he revealed in a radio interview.

Why Neal McDonough gave a fake name at the hospital for the war series

However, when Neal McDonough went to the hospital, He didn’t give his real name, but rather his character name, Buck Compton. This was intended to keep the press out while keeping the war series out of trouble, which Band of Brothers co-star Ron Livingston explains in his video diary:

Many of those involved were injured at this point. Knee injuries and the like. The insurance people started to worry. They were told by the production office: ‘If anyone else gets hurt, we’ll shut it all down.’ But we didn’t want that, because today we learned to throw grenades and tomorrow how to clear a house.

This was the moment Neal McDonough sustained his “war injury” at Band of Brothers boot camp:

Neal McDonough, who plays Buck Compton, is a real GI Joe. Someone caught him in the lip with the muzzle of an M1 rifle. And at that point they were afraid that this would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. So they drove him 90 miles out of town and took him to a small hospital under the name Buck Compton.

So in the end, with a little trickery, everything went well. HBO went through with the production and Band of Brothers became an acclaimed war series. And Neal McDonough, in addition to his fame as a hardened performer, also took home a scar as a souvenir.

You can currently stream all 10 episodes of Band of Brothers on WOW * or buy them as a Blu-ray box *.

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