Taylor John Smith gets honest about his intense training in 'Warfare'

Taylor John Smith recently got candid about the intense preparation for his latest role in the film Warfare.

On Friday, June 13, the 30-year-old American actor, who was once in a deleted scene in The Hunger Games, went on stage at the 2025 Taormina Film Festival to introduce the movie Warfare, directed by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza.

At the event, Smith conversed with Variety to discuss the movie, in which he played the role of Frank, and his work so far.

When the interviewer asked, “You have The Hunger Games as one of your first credits,” he replied, “I was not even a glorified extra on The Hunger Games. I was in the bonus scenes.”

The Depravity star explained, “Deleted scenes, exactly. It was my first time on a film set and Gary Ross was directing. It was a cool experience, but when you end up on the DVD, like bonus scenes here… I was just happy to be there, scared beyond anything. I’m so grateful that this has been my job, since I was 18.”

Moving forward, Smith was asked what he meant when he stated Warfare is not a pro- or anti-war film.

He responded, “It’s about the consequences and the reality of war. We wanted to show what it means when somebody signs on a dotted line and sends young people off to fight.”

The Outpost actor added, “Hopefully, they realize it’s not a decision to take lightly. It’s hell and what we’re asking our young men and women to do is insane. When they’re overseas, they’re not thinking about the politics that got them there, they’re just trying to get home.”

Smith went on to talk about his training for Warfare by revealing, “We did live fire weapons training, radio etiquette, small unit tactics and drills. They gave us tasks we were doomed to fail to see how we could deal with stress.”

“Ray Mendoza set it up like a mini-boot camp. Through that, we really got to know each other. From that moment on, we never left each other’s side. I don’t remember one person being in the trailer once,” he noted.

Before concluding, It is pertinent to mention that Warfare was released on April 11, 2025.