Clint Eastwood Casts Real American Heroes in Film About Their Story

In an unprecedented move, Clint Eastwood has cast two American soldiers and their civilian friend who thwarted a terror attack on a train headed to Paris to play themselves in a movie based on the events.

“The 15:17 to Paris” will focus on the actions of the California men as well as their childhood friendship and how they became the heroes they showed themselves to be on that day, according to Variety. The Warner Brothers film will be produced and directed by Eastwood and follows his recent interest in real-life American heroes, as shown by recent movie choices “Sully” and “American Sniper.”

Air Force Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone, Oregon National Guard Spc. Alek Skarlatos, and civilian Anthony Sadler were childhood friends — riding the train together on vacation from Sacramento where they lived — when they took down Ayoub El-Khazzani in 2015 after El-Khazzani opened fire on board the train en route from Brussels to Paris.

After auditioning various actors for the parts of the three friends, Variety reported, Eastwood made a last-minute decision to have them play themselves even though none of the three has any formal acting experience.

While giving cameo roles to a film’s subjects is common, giving roles requiring more than a few lines to people without acting experience has never been done before, Variety said. The men will have lead roles in the film, but will not be full leads since much of the film focuses on their younger selves and their childhood friendship, Variety reported.

The movie also will star Jenna Fischer, Judy Greer, and Ray Corasani. Production on the movie, which is based on the book written by the three men about the events, will begin this month, Variety reported.

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