Editor’s note: The below interview contains mild spoilers for Masters of the Air.

The Big Picture

The cast of
Masters of the Air
underwent intense boot camp to build trust and unity.
The series’ B-17 replicas and their immersion factor helped the actors authentically portray battle sequences.
The main voiceover role for
Masters of the Air
was an honor for Anthony Boyle, who narrated the series as an “everyman” the audience could relate to.

With the finale of Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air this week, we finally reached not only the bittersweet outcome of the war but also learned about the various fates of the men belonging to the “Bloody Hundredth” Bomb Group, their fellow Black pilots from Tuskegee, and all of those who had been fighting to survive behind enemy lines as POWs at the Stalag Luft III camp. While the ninth episode sees those like Buck Cleven (Austin Butler) and Bucky Egan (Callum Turner) ultimately freed — or, in Cleven’s case, orchestrating an escape from their German captors in order to make their way back home — others, like Lt. Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle), continue to plan operations from base camp while anxiously waiting for any planes to return in the aftermath of dangerous missions. Meanwhile, although Maj. “Rosie” Rosenthal’s (Nate Mann) plane is shot down in Berlin, he fortunately makes contact with Soviet allies who escort him to England — though not before he witnesses the horrifying aftermath of the Holocaust when he unexpectedly stumbles upon an abandoned Nazi death camp.

Ahead of the series finale on Apple TV+, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several members of Masters of the Air’s cast, including Boyle and Mann. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the two actors discuss the experience of being put through boot camp together, the immersion factor of the B-17 replicas built for the show, and the real-life friendship that existed between their characters. Boyle also discusses his feelings about providing the defining voiceover narrative for the series, and Mann explains why Rosie continues to reenlist even though he has more than one opportunity to hang up his bomber jacket and go home.

Masters of the Air During WWII, five miles above the ground and behind enemy lines, ten men inside a bomber known as a “Flying Fortress” battle unrelenting flocks of German fighters.Release Date January 26, 2024 Creator John Orloff Main Genre Drama Seasons 1

What Anthony Boyle Learned From ‘Masters of the Air’ Boot Camp
Image via Apple TV+

COLLIDER: I heard all the actors were subjected to a pretty intense boot camp. What aspect of that training did you take with you to inform your roles in this project?

ANTHONY BOYLE: It was crazy. Most rehearsal processes, you’re having a coffee and having a chat, and this rehearsal process, there was a man in his seventies calling you a maggot for four hours a day. But it was interesting — we had to march a lot in the boot camp and I remember going, “We’re not marching in the show. Why are we doing this? Is this wasting time?” And we were all over the place. We were marching, but it wasn’t in unison. Then, on about day three, we just started to have this real unified way of marching, and it made me think about this crew glue, this sort of thing of having to stick together, of having a shared thought. When you’re up on that plane, you need to be relying on every single man doing their job to the nth degree. You have to have such trust, and you have to be in this… shared brains, shared thoughts sort of space. So doing the marching really helped me get into that way of thinking.

Speaking of being up in the planes, the B-17 replicas that were constructed for the show are pretty incredible. How did that immersion factor really help you get into the mindset of what those battle sequences needed to feel like?

NATE MANN: There were several replica cockpits and different pieces of the plane. There’s the cockpit and then below that would be where the navigator and the bombardier are. There were cameras attached to these rigs at all times, and then they were mounted on these hydraulic rigs where we could mimic the movement of the plane and the maneuvers, and even some of the impacts, right down to the switches in the cockpit and the gauges so that we know where we’re looking. Everything’s working together to make it as authentic as possible. That level of immersion for us, it’s fantastic because it really helps bring it to life for us.

They built a full replica set of Thorpe Abbotts, the base that the 100th were stationed at. We were climbing into actual World War II Jeeps. It makes it feel so continuous when you can look out and see genuinely hundreds of actors in uniform rushing onto these planes. It just makes it all feel that much more real.

Related ‘Masters of the Air’ Cast and Character Guide: Who Stars in Apple TV+’s World War II Series? There’s a reason this division was nicknamed the “Bloody Hundredth.”

Anthony, I wanted to ask you about being the narrator, because Crosby documents so many important things, and it feels like there are many scenes where he’s carrying us through. Was there an added bit of pressure behind being the voice of the show?

BOYLE: I don’t know if I felt pressure. I felt like it was a great honor, and I felt like Crosby was the right person to navigate us through because he’s the everyman. So many of the characters in this feel [like] action-packed, ready-made heroes who are just ready to do the right thing, whereas Crosby had no confidence in himself. He felt like he wasn’t the right man for the job, but somehow, against all odds, he made it through and he battled that sickness. He battled the Nazis. He ended up becoming one of the most decorated soldiers. He’s just an incredible human being, and he’s the right person to get us through because I feel like he’s who we would be, who the audience would be thrown into that situation. “What? I gotta navigate the whole plane? Oh god, no. Jesus Christ” You know? So many of us would feel like him in that situation.

Why Crosby and Rosie’s Fireside Chat in ‘Masters of the Air’ Is So Important

Austin and Callum’s characters really get a lot of focus, but the relationship between Rosie and Crosby builds and strengthens over the course of the show. I’m thinking specifically of that little fireside chat towards the end. Do you feel like it’s their shared commitment to duty that binds them? Is it something else?

MANN: They were friends in real life, these two men. That fireside scene is one of my favorites in the series because it’s a moment where they really get personal with one another and intimate with one another in a way that feels maybe separate from a lot of what we see happening on the base. And there was a trust in one another. A lot of the men of the 100th, our characters had spent so much time at that base and seen men go up and go down, and still chose to remain there and to do our part, and so they saw in each other a commitment, and also just a sense of care for the work at hand, and a lot of respect for one another.

Nate, Rosie’s endured more than the odds would probably predict. There’s that one particular mission midway through the show that they’re the sole survivors of, and yet he reenlists even after being sent home. What do you think compels him to stay on the front lines?

MANN: There is a personal element of this war for Rosie that made him take it seriously in a different way. He cared so much about that war effort, and the idea of going home would mean that he wouldn’t be able to contribute to fighting what he saw as a vast and unprecedented injustice. His level of commitment to that — you’re right, I was astonished by [that] when I first came across it. When it came time for me to try and put that in context of what it would mean, what that kind of courage would mean for me, I tried to understand that level of sacrifice and care for completing what was important to him.

Masters of the Air is available to stream on Apple TV+.

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