Interview with Gregg Sulkin
He may have starred as a superhero in Marvel’s Runaways, but in the WWII series World on Fire, British actor Gregg Sulkin played a real hero in his RAF fighter pilot character, David. In a conversation with MASTERPIECE before World on Fire‘s Season 2 premiere, Sulkin shared just what made his experience so powerful, the lesson he learned about getting in the cockpit, how his World on Fire work helped prepare him for the upcoming Tyler Perry film Six Triple Eight, and much more.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
David is an RAF pilot whose charisma makes him extremely cocky but lovable. What do you love the most about David?
At the start of the season, David is that human being who lives for the moment, who cherishes every moment and tries to enjoy himself. And I think what I really love about David is what you find out over the season—the arc that he goes on, from a young boy into a young man, in the sense that he understands his responsibilities as a fighter pilot, and of course a Jewish fighter pilot. And so throughout the season, you see him step into manhood, and he’s very proud. What I love about him is you view his spiritual journey as well, which I think is really nice.
At the start of the season, in his eyes, potentially, he has nothing to lose. And then [later in] the season, falling in love definitely helps, and I think he realizes that he actually does have a lot to lose.
Being Jewish, what was important for you to get right in portraying David, and how did it feel for you to portray his experience?
At first, the most important thing that I wanted to do was to establish a Jewish character on television and represent my community. I really appreciate the BBC and everybody involved in the production, and Peter [Bowker], the writer, to write such a character, because I think it’s important that all communities and types of people are displayed on television. And so to tell the story during the war from a Jewish person’s perspective, or get a little insight into that, was very important and valuable. And I feel very honored, to be honest, to be personally Jewish and then also represent the Jewish community on television.
And then for me, on a personal level, understanding the traumas of the past and what happened to the Jewish community…I think it was a moment to make my grandparents proud. I remember my grandfather, not too, too, well, but there is something that I hold close to my heart, which is that, if you look up my grandfather, Bobby Sulkin, on the Internet, there’s a newspaper clipping, and it talks about how he ended up fighting the Nazis, and there’s a little paragraph that basically says that he hit a Nazi so hard that he flew six feet in the air.
Much of World on Fire was filmed in Belfast. Did you get up to any fun with castmates during the filming?
Yeah, I really loved the cast, I think they were a great bunch of people. And when you’re shooting on location, especially somewhere like Belfast, you get the opportunity to spend time with each other off set. In Belfast there’s a lot of pubs, so on our days off, all the cast would get together and go to a few pubs, which was really nice. But overall, the cast were amazing. This group is a very, very, very talented, humble, and hardworking group of people. And I wouldn’t have joined the show if I hadn’t liked the first season. In fact, the first season of World on Fire is one of my favorite TV seasons ever. I think it’s so well done, so I just wanted to be part of it.
Was there anything that surprised you the most as you researched in preparation for this role?
One thing that surprised me was more the on-set experience. They built a plane and a lot of it was green screen, so I had to go up in the sound stage to get in the plane. You get a ladder up to the plane, because it was on hydraulic, so it would move left, it would move right. There were real explosions going off, which really helped with performance. But what hadn’t factored in, I didn’t realize, is when I first got to set, I hadn’t gone to the bathroom. So I went up the ladder and then into the cockpit, and then they pulled the ladder away and I was like, “Oh no.” I was like, “Lesson learned for tomorrow is go to the bathroom before I get into this cockpit.” Otherwise, it delays production so much, because then they have to stop the hydraulics, stop the explosions, bring up the ladder, get out of the cockpit, go down.
When it comes to researching the role, thankfully with the Internet you have a lot of opportunities to go and find stories or diaries of people in the war, some of those being pilots. Unfortunately, it’s so dangerous up there that not all of them came back. So I tried to read as many diaries and personal experiences from pilots, but also from those just in the war in general, how it was affecting people in their day-to-day life.
Because in any conflict, people naturally think of the casualties and the bloodshed, how horrendous it is on the front lines. [Soldiers] are risking their lives, but it’s affecting their loved ones back home massively, too, because they don’t know if their son is going to come back safely. And so wars don’t just happen on the front lines, they affect everybody involved.
Did playing David in World on Fire prepare you in any way for being in the upcoming Tyler Perry World War II film, Six Triple Eight?
Yeah, it definitely helped, just because I had done a lot of research already, so there was a lot of research sort of implemented in my brain. I think the movie’s fantastic. To work with [director] Tyler Perry, and to work at his studios, and to see how he works was incredible. And then on top of that, the story itself is so powerful—when we did the table read, the entire room was crying because it’s such a powerful story. And also, from a personal point of view, to be in the same movie as Oprah is a pretty crazy thing to say. I didn’t think growing up that I would ever be doing a movie with Oprah. Kerry Washington’s the lead and she’s so good in the movie. Such an elite professional. So humble, but also so equipped and so prepared on set, so to work with her and watch her was incredible. And Susan Sarandon’s in the movie as well, she’s an all-time great. So I’m very excited for the movie to come out. This is definitely one of those stories that should be told, needs to be told.
And it shares that quality as well with World on Fire, for sure.
Yeah, absolutely… We do World on Fire to tell a story, an important story, to highlight a very memorable part in history. And hopefully we can bring some entertainment to households. I just want to thank all the viewers for watching the show.
