Harry Styles was "overwhelmed" by Dunkirk beach.
Harry Styles
The 23-year-old singer-and-actor admits shooting 'Dunkirk' on the place where the real World War II evacuations took place, and where almost 70,000 lives were lost, really brought home the scale of the tragedy to the cast and crew and they all felt a lot of "respect" for the "energy" of the French coast.
He said: "I think everyone was very aware of where we were. There was a sense of knowing it happened there, which comes across on screen.
"The first thing for me was just real shock at the size of the beach. You try to imagine it filled with men and filled with bodies.
"The area has an energy which people respect because it's difficult to do anything else.
"It's quite overwhelming. And I think being there -- as opposed to just in a film studio -- left no room for complaints for the whole crew.
"Filming was very physical, but I think everyone was aware that in comparison to the real soldiers' experience, we weren't going through much at all."
The 'Sign of the Times' singer was desperate to land a role in the movie as soon as he heard about director Christopher Nolan's plans.
He told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: "When I first heard about the project, I think it was something that -- even before it started filming -- I was already excited to watch."
But he had to go through a tough audition process playing a series of parts along with a number of different actors, including his eventual co-star Fionn Whitehead.
He recalled: "Auditioning was a blind process. Fionn and I auditioned together.
"I was sitting in a cold, lonely room and he came in from a set of something he was working on. You had no idea what part you were auditioning for. We didn't know how many parts there were and they kind of round-robined us a little bit, so we auditioned everyone with everyone. I don't think there was any kind of favouritism."
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