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

The Big Picture

Participating in an intense boot camp was the foundation for the actors in
Masters of the Air
.
Callum Turner and Austin Butler’s characters, Cleven and Egan, showcase how opposites attract as well as wartime camaraderie.
Filming the series’ difficult POW scenes later on added depth and emotion to the actors’ performances.

With Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air finally wrapped up, the bittersweet outcome of World War II was achieved, and we also learned about the 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 at the Stalag Luft III camp. While the finale finds Maj. Buck Cleven (Austin Butler) and Maj. Bucky Egan (Callum Turner) freed as POWs — or, in Cleven’s case, staging an earlier 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 from 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 — but not before he stumbles upon the harrowing sight of an abandoned Nazi death camp, which allows him to reaffirm his commitment to his military duty.

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 Butler and Turner. 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 unlikely friendship between their characters (and why opposites truly attract in the case of Cleven and Egan), and their favorite co-star to film with. Turner also discusses why filming chronologically meant saving the most intense scenes for last in terms of Egan’s journey through war.

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

‘Masters of the Air’s Boot Camp Was “The Foundation” for Austin Butler’s Performance
COLLIDER: All of you were subjected to a pretty intense boot camp. What aspect of that training did you take with you to inform your roles for this project?

AUSTIN BUTLER: I took everything from it. It was the foundation. It was where I got to meet so many of the people that I was working with, and so that’s where we really started to form those bonds and the feeling of brotherhood. Callum and I are majors — there’s the feeling of leadership and having to look out for everyone and make sure that if anybody’s falling behind, how do you support them and lift them up?

It felt like being a big brother to a large group of young guys. I felt a lot of that, but also the education of it. We were being led by Captain Dale Dye, who is just remarkable. He knows so much about the military and about that time period, so learning from him about the history of World War II and the world at that time, and what led us there, that was really amazing. Then the technical aspects, getting time in the B-17. We had Tye, our designated pilot who taught us how to do everything in a B-17, how to take off and land and the emergency scenarios. It was really incredible. All of that just really built the foundation that we could build the rest of it on.

I wanted to ask you both about the friendship between your characters because, personality-wise, they seem to be a bit of polar opposites. Cleven is sort of a quiet, internalized type, Egan is more extroverted. He’s a bit of a party animal.

CALLUM TURNER: Opposites attract, Carly. That’s the way it goes. He’s the yin to my yang. I love that about them. I love that they’re so different in their personalities because the further away they are, the more it makes sense that at the core of their friendship, there’s this bond that’s unbreakable because they’re both doing the same thing. They’re both there and respect each other because they joined up before Pearl Harbor, and they have something inherent in them that they want to protect, and they want to help the world. They really sacrificed themselves before it was mandatory, before people were asking them to do that. They were the best pilots, and they recognized inside of them this steely determination to look after everyone and to lead them in through it.

You’ve got that line, “We’ll lead our boys through it,” and that’s what they decide to do, and they meet each other. I love that their personalities are just like, “Whoo!” over there, because it means so much more when they’re here, and what that means to them as people and human beings. Bucky was Buck’s best man at his wedding. This relationship was the best friendship that everyone would dream of, you know? I loved creating that with Austin. He’s one of the best actors I’ve ever come across and one of the best guys, and it was a pleasure. It really was.

‘Masters of the Air’ Saved Its Most Difficult Scenes for Last, According to Callum Turner

At one point, we think something’s happened to Cleven, he’s gone MIA. It feels like Bucky’s light has dimmed a little. We get the ultimate reunion, but it doesn’t come without this very harrowing experience of Egan escaping capture. They’re reunited, but in probably some of the toughest circumstances they’ve faced throughout their career as POWs. What was the most challenging thing about filming that whole sequence?

TURNER: The POW stuff was so interesting because it was just a whole different layer of this story, and another world that they’ve found themselves in, and it really tests their friendship. They’ve got different ideas for the first time. The rule was, if you get captured, you’ve still got to try and destabilize the Nazis, and you’ve got to cause them problems because that’s what you can do, and they both have different ideas about how to do that. I’d say that was probably the first time that they have this thing in their friendship that could rip them apart. But that POW stuff we shot chronologically, so it was towards the end of the year, wasn’t it? It was, like, October, November, and the elements were against us — it was cold, it was raining, it was bitter. I found it pretty tough to shoot.

You just mentioned filming chronologically. Which scene was your last to film? Do you have a particularly stark memory from those moments?

TURNER: Mine was [after] everyone else had left. Gary had gone, Austin had gone, Colleen had gone. I was on third unit, fourth unit. I was dangling out of an airplane, jumping out. It’s like a skeleton crew.

BUTLER: I actually don’t remember what my last scene was. It was two years ago. [Laughs] I don’t remember.

TURNER: It was sad. Everything has to come to an end. It was a beautiful experience.

BUTLER: It was a beautiful experience.

TURNER: It was wonderful, man. It was the time of my life, creatively and emotionally. The honor that I feel for all of us and the honor I felt for doing it, it was just beautiful.

Image via Apple TV+

I can’t duck out of this conversation without asking about working with Meatball. Is it safe to say he was the favorite co-star on the show?

BUTLER: It’s really hard to top Meatball. I got to dance with Meatball. That was very special.

TURNER: That was a romantic moment.

BUTLER: Yeah. Meatball’s heavier than you would imagine. He was not easy to dance with.

TURNER: Don’t tell Meatball that! [Laughs]

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

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