Audio only
This week on Rosie, we’re back with a video episode, talking to actor Kara Killmer and writer Justin Strawhand about Jimmy (2026), the new film about Jimmy Stewart’s war as a B-24 pilot, out in cinemas today. What is it like to be a leading lady in a notoriously male genre and the audience’s way into Jimmy Stewart’s not-so-public persona? What is it like working on Jimmy when his daughter is the executive producer? We asked all. And had meaningful conversations about the war after the war. Call it flak happy, call it battle fatigue, but we were glad to see it addressed. Our review of the movie follows next week.
Disclaimer: This transcript has been lightly edited for readability. Timestamps are as recorded.
Sam (00:14)
Welcome back to Rosie the Reviewer. This week we have the pleasure of talking about the movie Jimmy, which is out in cinemas today, if you’re listening when this episode airs, November 6th, 2026. And we are chatting with actor Kara Killmer and writer Justin Strawhand. The movie, which is directed by Aaron Burns, is about Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart and his service as a bomber pilot in World War II. So we’re really excited to have a little chat today and give you a little more insight into the movie.
Maartje (00:45)
I’m also really excited. I watched It’s a Wonderful Life yesterday for the first time, so I feel very prepared. So let’s get into that.
Sam (00:56)
We’ll start with Kara. So you this super introductory, you play a character named Lady Julia, who Jimmy meets while in England. So can you tell us a bit about who she is and what her role is in the war effort?
Kara (01:08)
Yes, so Lady Julia is one of the only fictional characters in this movie. She’s actually kind of a composite character of all of the women who love Jimmy Stewart. He was the quintessential leading man, like everybody wanted to be his girl. So she sort of embodies that admiration, but there were plenty of lords and ladies in England who were playing host to service members. And so, Tibenham didn’t a actually have a lady at the time, but there were a lot of lords and ladies who were, you know, so they seem to be very much like a mayor, you know, like an official mayor of the area. So she sort of plays that role. She knows everybody. She, you know, is kind of running the show in the area there. But as far as I’ve learned there tw Norwich is about twenty minutes away from Tibenham and I heard a rumor that he maybe had a girlfriend or two in Norwich, so maybe she represents them.
Sam (02:15)
I love that. Justin, the movie opens on a pitch of It’s a Wonderful Life, obviously a Christmas classic. How did this movie begin for you? Like how did you get involved?
Justin (02:27)
How did it get started? So Aaron Burns, our director, and I work together quite a bit on different projects. And we live in two different states in the United States and often our mornings are spent pitching each other ideas and it’ll be like, Did you know that? And I’ll say yeah, or he’ll say, I’ll say, Do you know that? He’ll say, I don’t care. And every once in a while something happens. It’s like I didn’t know that. And when he told me that he had read this article about Jimmy’s serving, I said, Holy smoke. How come nobody has made a movie about that? And why aren’t we making this movie right now? So it was really love at first pitch, the moment that I learned this. Love Jimmy so much. Love It’s a Wonderful Life. Grew up watching his movies, respect him as an actor, but then to have this whole other life. That is really unknown and unsung was just such a remarkable opportunity to bring not only shed light on his life, but on the making of It’s a Wonderful Life as well.
Sam (03:32)
Yeah, he was definitely the It’s a Wonderful Life guy for me for like most of my childhood. Kara, it seems like this would be a little different from Chicago Fire. So how did you prepare for this role? Did you do any particular research?
Kara (03:49)
Yes, this was a lot of fun to do because she’s so different from Sylvie. But I did work with the same dialect coach that KJ worked with. Her name’s Eliza Simpson. We all made the joke about like we’re basically working with Eliza Doolittle. But she, you know, I’ve done I’ve played with a British accent before, but there’s a strong association for people with sort of How everyone sounded at that time. You know, even Brits, there’s sort of this like almost like a radio host kind of sound that everybody spoke with. You know, so it was just sort of working with her to make sure that I was nailing a proper British accent. She didn’t have like RP accent an RP accent, like received pronunciation, like the Queen per se. But still very posh and still very kind of you know, has kind of a cheeky edge to it. So that was a lot of fun. I had a lot of freedom with this character for sure.
Sam (04:55)
This is a question for both of you. I don’t know if Justin wants to go first. The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum was involved in this production and we read in an article that Justin even wrote some of the script, sat underneath an actual B-24, which is really cool. What sort of insider research did they give you access to?
Justin (05:14)
I could just talk a little bit about sitting under the B-24. We have outside of Dallas, the only, I think only flying B-24 in the world right now, the Diamond Lil. So as I got into writing this film, I said, I really need to understand what it feels like to be in one of these planes. I’m reading about it. I’m reading that it’s very you know, cramped that it’s claustrophobic, that people call it a flying coffin. But I really wanted to get in and touch and feel it. So they were nice enough to let me go in and climb around inside. And I will never forget one of the things one of the mechanics told me, which is that if that plane isn’t leaking oil, it’s not flying. Which I just thought was great. And then some other stuff, right? Like don’t go off the gang plank down the middle or else the plane will go sideways. Right. They’re actually balancing it with their bodies and putting ammo cases and everything else where they need to be to counterweight it so that it doesn’t send it off balance. These were very finicky machines, almost like flying lawnmowers, you know, not particularly high-tech. And then just you know, six foot, Jimmy was six three. I don’t know how he fit in this in the cockpit. I could barely fit. How he squeezed in there, climbing through a little tunnel. Getting up in there, wrapping yourself in, and then you’re in the flight suit. I don’t know how these guys did it. So I just had so much respect for them just being in that machine for, you know, for an hour. And then they were nice enough to let me sit underneath it at a table. And I did a lot of the treatment and particularly the B-24 scenes while I was sitting under the shadow of the Diamond Lil.
Sam (07:05)
That’s amazing. Kara, we once interviewed one of the costume designers on SAS Rogue Heroes and it was so interesting for us to hear about costume choices and what they can tell us about the era and the character, the clothes, the hair, the makeup. It’s all kind of part of it. Can you talk to us a little bit about some of your looks in this movie?
Kara (07:24)
Yes. So Emma O’Laughlin was our costume designer and she was lovely. She pulled a lot of pieces, like a lot of authentic vintage pieces that I got to wear, which were a lot of fun and also like don’t spill any coffee on yourself. But so she pulled a lot of authentic pieces, but she also custom made a few pieces, the f you know, the dress that Julia wears whenever she takes him on their first drive and they kinda have their first conversation under the bridge. She custom made for me and it took everything in me not to just wanna stuff that into my suitcase. But it is it does help to inform the character, you know, w people say this all the time, but it’s true, you know, being in certain clothes and certain shoes, it changes your posture, it changes how you stand, how you walk. And so, you know, she felt very kind of statuesque to me, in all of her clothes and especially this gorgeous lace red dress that they put me in for sort of our Christmas party scene in the bunker was just a masterpiece. So I got a lot of fun costumes.
Sam (08:38)
Yeah, yeah, that one was fire for sure.
Justin (08:41)
I could if I could just follow up on the costumes. We also had Patrick O’Driscoll, who was our military advisor. And we had just had shipping containers of authentic costumes come. I couldn’t even believe it when they came in because we had so many extras on the film. And he was just down to the detail of getting everything right, making sure that the guys on the base were dressed correctly, making sure that our Colonel was dressed correctly, making sure that Jimmy was right, making sure that the flight suits were right. And so all of our actors just stepped into another world and costume was such an important piece of that. And Patrick just knocked it out of the park.
Sam (09:18)
Yeah, it’s like honestly, costumes are so important. So I love to hear when people actually like take it seriously, you know.
Maartje (09:26)
It makes it easier to act too, I imagine, if everybody’s dressed to the lines in period wear. It you it’s just like l like you’re there, right?
Kara (09:37)
Yes, exactly.
Justin (09:40)
Watching the extras go from, you know, local kid to putting on that uniform, they were all a couple inches taller as soon as they put it on. They just sort of naturally went into like formation and stuff. So just sort of the gravitas and the dignity of that uniform just immediately transformed them. Even if they weren’t really actors and they’re, you know, typically doing extra stuff. They just all of a sudden, you know, chest out, chin up and uniform, you know, really made the experience for them. Absolutely.
Sam (10:14)
Justin, there have been some major productions about the Eighth Air Force over the years. We’ve covered Masters of the Air, Twelve O’Clock High, Memphis Belle. Did any of those influence you at all?
Justin (10:25)
The answer is no. I didn’t watch any of them. I mean, I’d seen Memphis Belle, I think, when I was a kid. We took a very s a very particular idea early on in the film that this film was gonna be told through Jimmy’s point of view. And if he couldn’t see it, then it wasn’t happening. So what that means is that you are moving closer and closer to him as the film happens. And that kept Even our combat scenes and our plane scenes very intimate, right? So we had to come up with a language of intimacy within those planes. And as you all know, those planes are very small and very tight. So how do you get this giant camera with a giant lens up in somebody’s face as they’re moving around or you know, strapped into someplace that is really, you know, millimeters of play within it? So We really tried to come up with our own language for this film that was really about Jimmy’s experience, both from the highs of just being, you know, first enlisted and making it to some of the really drama and trauma that happens as the war goes on and as he goes through the grinds through these missions, because he flew 20 combat missions, which is pretty insane, and really took a toll on him. So we wanted that claustrophobic feeling. Throughout the film, but particularly in those combat scenes. So yeah, I’d say that we took we tried to come up with our own language for how we told that those portions of the story.
Sam (12:02)
Got it, okay. Kara, the war movie is an infamously male genre. There’s a joke cut of Saving Private Ryan out there with the only scenes that have women in them and it’s about two minutes long. How did you find the experience of playing a prominent female role in a war movie?
Kara (12:14)
Yeah. Well, I think I got it pretty good. As far as war movies go. I mean, you know, the truth is that Jimmy Stewart didn’t want to turn his time in the service into another Hollywood circus. So he didn’t really do a lot of press while he was there. Because he was trying he’s trying to be respectful of what they were doing. And so truly the greatest function that my character has is that she is the lens for the audience to see all of that tension the identity crisis that he’s going through in his time in the service. You know, there isn’t anybody else who’s really with him for a long period of time in the film, except for Frank, but he kind of Frank Capra, but he kind of misses this, you know, period while he’s in service. And so You know, Lady Julia is there to be a respite. She’s there to be a mirror to hold up to his face of like, Okay, what’s going on? You can come up for air. What are you thinking? How are you doing? You know, ’cause she’s been through this before, you know, she’s a widower. She’s lost her husband in a service through, you know, s odd circumstances, but still. And so I think, you know, she is there so that the audience is can be a witness. I love your cat. Please keep that in there. So, you know, so I truly sh the my character plays a very significant role in and giving the audience the front row seat to the thing that the, you know, to the crux of the story that we’re telling. So, you know, no pressure. But You know, but it was a lot of fun and a great challenge.
Maartje (14:14)
I think I can follow up with a question while we have a little visitor on screen. Because there’s a scene
Sam (14:14)
Yeah.
Kara (14:20)
Yes.
Maartje (14:23)
On top of a castle, I think, which is both our favourite scenes. So can you talk to us a little bit about filming that scene? That seems like the crux of their whole relationship.
Kara (14:39)
Yeah, that one for me, certainly reading the s the script was the one that I was the most fixated on, like trying to get right. Because you’re also dealing with language from another period, you know, and you’re dealing with a generation that doesn’t speak with psychotherapy like we all do, you know, or you know, somebody from today would go back there and be like, Look, you are ha you are just speaking from your trauma. You know, like they somebody would jump right in and AI therapist Jimmy Stewart right there on the top of the castle. But you know but for the two of them in that moment, I think it’s the crux of it is really he can’t tell if he’s putting on an act or not. He doesn’t know if he’s being authentic. He it’s almost like ad having to admit, I don’t know myself. He does. It’s just that he is being surrounded by so much loss and s the stakes are so high. You get lost. And I think, you know, she’s kinda trying to say I see something in you like you, you know, if you do play heroes on screen, it’s because it’s coming from a place that’s real, not because you’re having to put it on all the time. It’s, you know, there’s something in you that is very worthy and it’s noble. And I see it and I’m here for it, but I can’t I can’t do this work for you. I can’t make you believe it yourself. Someday somebody will. Someday you’ll meet somebody who you go, okay. Now I see it. I c I can, you know, see myself through your eyes. He just couldn’t do it at that time. But it was a, you know, it was a very, very challenging scene. KJ does such a great job with it. And it was it was easy to empathize in the scene because you can, you know, you’re listening to somebody talking about like I’m responsible for these for these kids’ death. I’m the one, you know, I’m using my skills to ki basically convince them to go up there and give their lives and it’s on me. And, you know, it’s like that’s it’s heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking. He and he did such a great job with it. So yeah, it’s my f it was sort of my the scene that I was like, I love it and I hate it. You know, like here it comes. But It was a very well written scene.
Maartje (17:31)
I think KJ’s great, but so are so are you, so don’t cut yourself short in that.
Kara (17:35)
Thank you. Thank you.
Justin (17:40)
I just want to compliment Kara and KJ for that scene because it was one of the toughest scenes to write, is one of the toughest scenes to figure out. There are so many different emotional threads that are happening and coming to everything’s coming to a head, right? But there is this total openness, the way that you play it, Kara, and then also this resolve. That comes through that is generational, right? So you have to both have all the dignity of that, you know, semi-royal lineage and all of that dignity and everything else. And yet this absolute vulnerability and openness to this man that you’re in love with. And those are two competing, you know, forces that are tearing you apart as he’s being torn apart by the war. And so it’s such a complex emotional scene. And you guys just played it. To me absolutely masterfully. So w when I watch that moment on I say holy smoke. It’s just so, so good.
Kara (18:47)
That’s good. Thanks.
Maartje (18:49)
Can I ask you a very actory question, Kara? Does the accent having to be British in that does it get in the way of that emotion or is it not a thing?
Kara (18:52)
Sure. Hope I think if I had to do an accent from the Netherlands, probably it would. I’d be worried that I was not nailing it. I have been I was obsessed with Pirates of the Caribbean when I was fifteen. I have been doing that saying that movie over and over for years and playing with a British accent forever, so I’ve gotten comfortable in particular with that accent quite a bit.
Maartje (19:30)
Mm.
Kara (19:32)
And I worked with, you know, Eamonn Walker on Chicago Fire is British and y you know, so I’ve spent some ti doing a lot of listening. So thankfully I think in a lot of ways for that character the accent helped to direct some of how, you know, it kind of exactly what Justin is saying. There’s something about speaking in that dialect that kind of forces you to be a little more buttoned up. Like to have sort of a gallows humour and to be to not be very transparent with your emotions per se. And so, you know, to me it was all fun. But that’s just ’cause I’ve been obsessed with a British accent for over a decade.
Maartje (20:20)
Feel like we must be the same age because we’ve all seen Pirates of the Caribbean when we were sixteen. So yes.
Kara (20:26)
Of course, yes. It was a thing. It was yes.
Sam (20:30)
Yeah, big deal. Justin, Kelly Stewart Harcourt, Jimmy Stewart’s daughter, was the executive producer on the movie. Is there any pressure there? Like what was it like, you know, working with her and speaking with her?
Justin (20:46)
I’ll tell you two stories. I finally got to meet her in person on set. And we were actually filming a scene with Kara and KJ and when we were first introduced, she said Justin and I said Kelly and she looked like her father. And we both had tears in our eyes and just hugged. It was like the most amazing moment. It’s like I was meeting Jimmy. It was incredible. I’ll never forget it. And then she told somebody that the last time she had been on a film set, there was this movie called The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, I think, which was John Ford and John Wayne and her dad, right?
Kara (21:18)
I didn’t know that.
Justin (21:33)
One of the most famous, one of the greatest movies that Jimmy ever made, and John Ford and the rest of them. And then at another point on the same day, she said that KJ makes a damn fine dad. And just knew that we nailed it. And she has a wonderful little cameo. I don’t know if you guys caught it. She’s in when KJ is getting accosted by Hedda Hopper at the press conference, and he kind of blows past a general and a woman. He stops and turns around and says, ma’am, general, and that’s Kelly, right? So in the film, KJ Kelly meets her father, right? As a young man. And some people have said, it’s so meta this movie, but we tried to be nice meta, you know? And it is meta. There’s so many layers and there’s so many sort of winks at different things, but those moments I will never forget and never be prouder that she has embraced this movie wholeheartedly and says that we made a movie that she’s proud of and that her father would be
Sam (22:45)
That’s lovely. I’ll pass you back over to Maartje.
Maartje (22:51)
Yes, I’ll unmute myself. Justin, most people when they hear the name Jimmy Stewart, me included, I saw It’s a Wonderful Life yesterday for the first time. Which is you know, I’m not American, so I don’t get a lot of that from a young age, I s I suppose.
Sam (23:11)
When she told me she had seen it, I like, Girl, throw that on before this interview. You have to
Kara (23:17)
Wow, what did you think?
Maartje (23:19)
I loved it. It’s such a hopeful little movie and it’s about like people coming together and doing the right thing, which is so lovely. So that was a fun experience for me, especially after seeing your movie.
Kara (23:22)
Yes. Yes. Wow.
Justin (23:35)
What a what a cool way to experience It’s a Wonderful Life, actually.
Maartje (23:39)
Right, because there’s obviously a little wink at the end of your movie and I not
Kara (23:39)
Yeah.
Maartje (23:45)
Got onto that until I saw It’s a Wonderful Life. So I was like, what are these stars doing in the sky talking to each other? But yes, that’s why. But yes, most people do know Jimmy Stewart quite well and when they think of him, it’s this really big movie star. And
Kara (23:51)
Cool. Yeah.
Maartje (24:08)
Not many people know about his service as I guess neither did you. So can you tell me a little bit what about what you did to research this side of him?
Justin (24:25)
Absolutely. As you said, this portion of Jimmy’s life is really unknown to most people. And I do think a big reason for that is that Jimmy didn’t want to take undue credit and take credit away from the other men and women who were serving, right? He was already a celebrity and he didn’t want to take emphasis off of what they were doing. And he was also a very good soldier, and he served with integrity and distinction and really brilliantly at different times, probably saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives with decisions that he made, right? He just he was a real soldier and he was really good at it. So trying to reconstruct this era, which is kind of you know hidden, part of it was just getting to know Jimmy really well. And I always say it was kind of like When you’re writing a script, you’re you open up a bunch of rooms in your head and invite people to stay with you for a while, right? So you get roommates temporarily. So I had Jimmy living in my head for, you know, better part of a couple years. So that’s one thing. What would Jimmy do at this moment? And then the other was just trying to reconstruct. There’s biographies written about him, but I always try to go to the footnotes in the biographies, right? So let’s try to find the as much of the original as possible. Let’s find other guys that were writing flight logs of these time, you know, different missions and battles, etc. And let’s get into, you know, where were they really stationed, trying to find as much photography of that as possible, and watching tons and tons of not films about war, but documentary footage from World War II, right? Like William Wyler shot a bunch of great stuff, and I think that was all B17s. And watching as much of that as possible to get a real authentic sense of what the emotions that the guys were going through, because that’s what I was most interested in. We’ve seen, you know, playing movies before, we’ve seen war movies before, but I really wanted to get into their heads and as extensions of Jimmy as well, because he was such a good commander and his troops really loved him so much. So what were they going through? And I just want to mention one film. There’s a film that John Huston did after the war, which is a documentary about men who were suffering from they didn’t know what, right? Now it’s PTS. At the time they called it flak happy. They called it Shell Shock. They called it whatever. And I remember there’s one scene in that film of Maybe the guy’s 30, African American man, and the doctor asks him, So, you know, how you doing, bud? And he’s like, Sir, I just can’t stop crying. And I don’t know why. I was never like this before. And they didn’t know what to tell him, right? And I knew that’s how Jimmy felt, right, when he got back. And there was no language to describe. What they were going through. There was no medicine that had any sense of it. There was no theory of mind that could put a br a mind back together, right? And so Jimmy had to find his own way out. And he found his healing through this sort of self-sacrificial role of playing George Bailey, where he put all of that pain on the line in a way that no actor had ever done before. And having seen It’s a Wonderful Life a million times, in particular, you know, those moments that we focus on in the film, understanding that when he breaks down and calls out for help, that was an authentic moment for him that was rooted in all of that trauma that had come before. And that was how he found his way out of that. That’s that was his It found his way out and went on to lead a truly wonderful life, was able to truly heal, was able to marry, was able to raise wonderful children and continue to make movies and not wallow in that and not be destroyed by it. So long answer, but that was really what was most important to me.
Maartje (29:02)
You’ve actually answered one of my later questions already, which was about the trauma and what you wanted to put on the screen because most of the war movies we see end when the war does, but the war doesn’t end for these men. And in your movie we get to follow along a little bit. Is there anything you hope other people take away from this about PTSD?
Justin (29:31)
It’s look, I am no expert in that subject. I do know personally that both of my grandfathers served in World War II, and one was a bookie, a butcher, and a pretty happy guy. And the other one I don’t think ever got over it. Neither of them talked about it very much, but I had these two. Holes of experience, right? And I could see one who lived his life with hope and one who lived his life without hope and acted accordingly. So what I hope number one is that people recognize that we may not be in the middle of a world war right now, but the experience of war is probably the hardest thing that we could ask one of our fellow countrymen to go through, right? One of the hardest things that anybody can do, even if they’re just stationed away from family for months or years at a time, they’re constantly under threat. They’re constantly under psychological stress. They’re constantly being, you know, drilled. They’re constantly away from home. And we ask so much of people and then ask them to just reintegrate right away, right? I know that the military has done so much to you know try and change that and to help people reintegrate. And you know, for our own part, I hope that the film industry helps create bridges for people out of the military into the film industry because it’s almost it’s so similar, right? In non-consequential ways. You do deployments, you set up for a while, you solve a bunch of problems, you use a bunch of technology,
Kara (31:25)
Ha ha ha.
Justin (31:27)
You get up at five o’clock in the morning and walk around in the cold and freeze your butt off, but at least we have coffee and you know, snacks and craft services, right? So it’s such a relief. But you know, I do hope that as you know, we have a lot of soldiers were inviting to see the film through Vet Tix, they can get free tickets, right? I hope that other military brass who have responded very po you know, very positively to this film think about ways to help bridge military out maybe into careers in film that they hadn’t, you know, maybe thought about before and make those opportunities available as well.
Kara (31:56)
Yeah.
Maartje (32:10)
Definitely. So
Kara (32:12)
I recently went to Chicago and did a screening and I brought a lot of a lot of for firefighters that I work with on Chicago Fire and one of the things that our technical he’s a producer, but he’s the technical advisor for all the firefighters. He was a fire chief for thirty almost forty years. He said that when he watched the movie, the part at Martini’s bar, when his men show when he s kind of sees the spirit of his men show up around the camera and kinda give, you know, and give him the salute, he was like, That is real. That is true. I he you know, he was like, I have lost so many of my friends, you know, fighting fires and police officers. And he was like, for myself, I know that when I can, I try to go back to these places or I try and find closure in some way over that loss or over the loss of certain victims. And he goes, You don’t really know when it’s gonna happen, but sometimes, you know, something good will be happening in your life and I see them and I can see like what they’re I can feel what they would think about it or I can see them watching me and it gives me peace. So he wa he really connected with that moment in the film and I thought that’s what we want. That’s we want veterans and first responders to see to see s stuff like that and relate to it. And it made me feel like, good, I’m like we got that right, you know, and just made me really proud that resonated with him and with people who’ve experienced so much loss.
Maartje (34:07)
Definitely. I think it’s good that it’s shown as well because so many war movies just end like I said when the war does. Like we’re done, our job is over. This is the end of the movie. So I think it’s good that we get to see it and that we get reminded that it’s sometimes a life sentence for some of these men. And hopefully there can be less of that. As we see more of it, we realise that’s what we’re going through. And
Kara (34:15)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Maartje (34:36)
I have one more for you, Justin, and then I’m gonna come back to you, Kara, but just about the missions that we see in the film. Are they all real? Are they all Jimmy’s? That you have to like look up other missions?
Justin (34:51)
They’re all so the missions in the film are all based on real missions that Jimmy flew. There’s one that we put a little bit out of order from when he actually flew it, but we did know what missions he was on, you know, and got as much of those details right as possible. So in the first mission, I won’t give away too much, but the event that happens in that mission. Really happened. They really did take a wrong turn over Germany and end up over Paris. Like that’s a fact. And Jimmy really did make that decision to keep up with keep up with the guys that went the wrong way. And Jimmy really did bomb Berlin and the last mission that we show in the film, that was really happening. He you know, I again I don’t want to spoil it, but We stayed as true as possible to what we knew about those missions, which are, you know, well documented and knew that Jimmy was either commanding that whole squadron for some of those or was just, you know, co pilot in it on some of those missions. So yeah, they are they’re as close to historically accurate as we could get them.
Maartje (36:08)
It’s really cool. I just think it’s so neat when sometimes it looks so improbable but then to realise that those things actually happened. It’s just crazy.
Kara (36:22)
Yeah.
Justin (36:23)
100 the again going back to you know me eighty years later just climbing through a museum piece and feeling the claustrophobia and then understanding that all of these guys really did this over and over and over and over again, and then Jimmy did it 20 times himself, never pretending, you know, as somebody says in the movie, this isn’t a You know, there’s no second takes up there, right?
Maartje (36:55)
And it’s such a tin can, right? To be stuck in a like a flying piece of tin can.
Justin (37:01)
Yeah. Somebody was laughing the other day that they’re like, they just stick their head out the window to see what’s behind them. It’s like it’s not even a window, it’s just a hole at 30,000 feet with no, you know, pressurization of the cabin. What’s back there? I don’t know. I’ll tell you in a sec. Let me just take it let me take a look.
Maartje (37:09)
Run.
Justin (37:20)
I mean these guys were so brave. It’s like the most monumentally brave thing in the world and just doing it over and over and over again. Ugh.
Maartje (37:31)
Yeah, you really can’t think about it too much because then if you realise what the odds are of not coming back and then going up again and again just out of a sense of duty and wanting to like honour your fellow men, yeah.
Kara (37:36)
Mm-hmm.
Justin (37:44)
It was more dangerous. Yeah, it was more dangerous in the air than it was to be on the ground. They had higher, you know, percentage casualty rates in the air than they did on the ground.
Maartje (37:54)
That and you can’t really fight back. Like you’re just in a plane. Like it’s not like you get to do hand to hand combat and have your own like any sort of
Justin (38:02)
No, it was funny. I just, you know, a as I was writing those scenes, I was like, dang it, why wasn’t Jimmy a fighter pilot? Because it would have made these scenes different, right? Like it would like all kinds of Red Baron stuff. But actually his relationship with his men is so important and it and just makes the makes his story that much richer and that he lived, you know, lived it. Yeah. Cause you are just on a trajectory and then you go And you go back, hopefully, right? And between here and there, you just try not to get shot out of the sky to drop bombs and then you go home and then do it again three days later. Unbelievable.
Sam (38:42)
I genuinely think he may have been too tall to be a fighter pilot. Like I think the cockpits were so small there was like an upper height restriction.
Justin (38:49)
So maybe that’s why he got bounced out of that one. I didn’t that was not a fact.
Maartje (38:57)
Back at you. It’s been a while. Your character, we said this before already, you play a fictional character. Did they give you a sense of freedom or would you have liked to have played someone who actually existed?
Kara (39:14)
I definitely appreciated the sense of freedom that I that I had. You know, it’s I’ve joked I’ve joked that Aaron Burns has gotta be my favorite director because I worked with him over a decade ago on a movie called Beyond the Mask where I also had a British accent and you know, it was set in the seventeen you know, seventeen seventy five and I had these gr this great dress and I was like, Man, every time I work with Aaron I get a British accent, I get great dresses. So, you know, he keeps me in he keeps me in finery. But yeah, I mean I you know, I think KJ and I joked a little bit about he was like, hey, you know, there’s always Americans are always complaining about how British actors always play Americans and you’re you know, you’re setting it back another direction, you know, giving it a tick mark for the for the old team. And I was like, yeah, but a Kiwi is playing an American icon. Which he did very well. But yes, I think, you know, I had a lot of freedom playing her and she’s so well written. It you know, there were sh she had so many cheeky things to say, which is you kind of need that in the middle of, you know, you need you need somebody to have a little bit of comic relief. While you’re going back and forth between all of these combat scenes and all of this loss. You know, and the and the Brits are so famous for their for their dry, sort of gallows humour. So, you know, she was right where she needed to be. So that was a lot of fun.
Maartje (40:49)
Was there anything in particular you wanted to put into that role? Like anything specific either to the period or just something you’ve wanted her to represent or
Kara (41:02)
Well I think I think kind of like what Justin said, there’s you know, she’s kind of got this holistic, sort of well rounded complexity to her of having her own loss and having the responsibility of being this hostess, you know, so she c sort of can’t she just like him can’t give in to hopelessness or to the sorrow or to the loss that’s around because everybody has got to press on. I mean, she gave them the medal from her beautiful car. You know, she is she is invested in this war and she’s invested in the people who are serving. She’s got a job to do, you know, representing the people of Tibenham. But she’s also a widower and she, you know, she sees herself in Jimmy Stewart, she sees herself in his responsibilities and kind of, you know, I think there’s a little bit of a kindred spirit thing going on there. Rather than just a you know, just a bright eyed kind of Hollywood starlet who’s like, Jimmy Stewart, you know, he’s so cute. You know, it’s her connection with him is deeper than that. And so I think that’s kind of That’s what sets her apart, I think, from the relationships you see him have with women up until that point. And then even though, you know, I always compliment Jen Lilley on her performance as Gloria, because she’s not on screen for a very long time, but I feel like she captured something that was very much very much Gloria because I always I always think of the two of them sort of like Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan, like He’s very charming, he’s very witty, he’s a visionary, he’s you know, he’s very good at the job of hope. And Nancy Reagan and Gloria Stewart seem to be like, I have a great sense of humor, but I don’t suffer fools and this is the stuff that we gotta get done. You know, so she just had this great balance of maturity and humor and You know, she just did such a good job with that. So you sort of get like the full spectrum of like the different kind of women that he maybe encountered through his life and so when you when you finally arrive at Gloria, it feels right. But you know, so trying to fit all of that into our time in the war, was a good challenge.
Justin (43:48)
Can I add one thing that I want to give Kara some credit here? I had in the script and in my mind and I saw it from my own life because one of the reasons I fell in love with my wife is that she’s a great driver and I was really impressed with the way that she would drive. And so I said I really want Lady Julia to just be a hellcat behind the wheel. So anytime that she’s driving it’s like you know she’s cornering. It’s just like Jimmy’s like holding onto his head and she’s just like
Kara (44:09)
Yeah.
Justin (44:14)
Like Mr. Toad, you know, like just boom. And she got behind the wheel of that car and comes in as hot as possible to the scene where they’re pulling up after she rescues him. And you despite horror stories about other actresses behind the wheels of antique sports cars, you got right in and drove the heck out of that thing. So I just wanted to compliment that.
Kara (44:40)
Well. Yeah, learning how to drive a stick on Irish roads is a special kind of challenge. So I did I had only driven automatic before working on this movie and I did drive an ambulance for ten years, but that didn’t prepare me for being in this in this car that is, you know, this beautiful vintage car and the owner and his wife are always there and you know, it’s just like please do not let me do anything to injure or scratch this vehicle. But yes, that was a special that was a special kind of training that I wasn’t expecting. And then doing it in a car where it’s on the right side instead of the left side and then we’re driving on the right side, it was you know, it was special. Thankfully the s the stunt driver did some of that. We needed a stunt driver. We needed a stunt driver. Mine were definitely like can you drive this twenty five feet and hit the brakes? I was like that I think I can do. Somebody stand though in front of me with a pillow, just let’s just make sure though. So that’s
Justin (45:49)
To be fair, your mark, if you would have missed it, the car would have gone into the river. So the or hit the bridge. So it was a near thing. So you did have to hit a mark pretty hard,
Maartje (45:56)
Oops.
Justin (46:00)
Or else it would have been a cat. It would have been a funny scene in the movie and we’d have to rewrite some things. And you know, our insurance policy would have been gone. But yeah, that
Kara (46:03)
Sure. Yeah.
Maartje (46:10)
It would have been a nice like n I feel like that would have been a nice not to It’s a Wonderful Life where he hits the tree.
Justin (46:20)
But we d we didn’t want to go that far, but I love the reference. That’s great.
Kara (46:20)
Exactly.
Maartje (46:28)
So unlike Julia, Justin this one is for you, there are also women in this movie who existed in real life, who you’ve put in here. Like one of them obviously is Hedda Hopper. And can you talk to us a little bit about the women who were based on real people and your choice to put them in?
Justin (46:53)
Sure. Yeah, so Hedda Hopper is probably the biggest personality, you know, outside of the leads in the film. And she was a real person, aspiring actress who never quite made it to Hollywood on screen. So she decided that she was going to be the star maker behind the scenes. She had known Jimmy forever. I think they started in New York. I think she always at least had a crush on him, probably was in love with him her whole life. And she was either a terror or a great friend, or both, depending on the day, right? So Jimmy had this on-off relationship with her forever because you had to. She was TMZ and every gossip column and every paparazzi. All wrapped up into one person who also wore really fabulous hats and got them written off of her IRS statements because she said this is part of my part of who I am, right? This is how I make money. So yes, she figured out branding before people figured out branding, right? She was just she was an entrepreneur and a holy terror
Kara (47:50)
Her brand. Yeah.
Justin (48:02)
To everyone in Hollywood. So you know, I knew about their relationship. We you know added some additional stuff in the movie, but it was just so fun to have this person who’s always hunting him, right? Like every time she appears, there’s a flash, you know. And so we joked sometimes and she is she a witch? Is there fairy dust that sparkles around her? Because she shows up in some odd places, right? And Sarah did such a fun job bringing her to life. And then Gloria, of course, as Kara said, she only has a couple scenes, right? But she had to introduce herself, make herself unstoppable, prove herself as a force of nature, show why Jimmy loved her and why she loved Jimmy, and also why she fulfills the promise that Lady Julia makes to Jimmy, you know, and she just did it in very little screen time. But I’m just super impressed with what she did. And Jimmy’s mom makes a brief appearance, but he did have a mom and she did love him very much. And I don’t think I’m missing any other the real characters. Ginger, of course. Yes. Which
Kara (49:17)
Ginger Rogers.
Justin (49:24)
Is they did date and she did marry that other guy. So that is true. She’s a little bit of a conflated her with some other starlets so she’s a bit of a composite the relationship but again she’s just so funny you know one minute you know marriage is ridiculous and the next minute she’s got the biggest ring on her finger that you ever saw and still you know very much loves Jimmy so we had all these very interesting strong women in his life and the handkerchief is real by the way. That’s a real story. He did have this from his going away party. All the kisses from all the starlets in Hollywood came out to see him ship off.
Sam (50:11)
The incredible cachet that would give you with all the boys.
Justin (50:16)
And we obviously play it in the film, but I am sure that’s a scene that I made up. But I’m sure that it happened once or twice, you know, as we try to get these, you know, Jimmy was a lot older than the other soldiers, right? By good decade. So he had to figure out how to both relate to them, but also not get too close because he was their commanding officer. My I like to think that. Yeah, the handkerchief scene really happened though.
Maartje (50:47)
It’s such a nice anchor almost to his life before the war and then you see him go through it and get more serious and get like traumatized real slowly and it kinda disappears and I think that’s a really smart thing to put in there.
Justin (51:05)
Thank you.
Kara (51:05)
Yeah, I am I so appreciate it. This is in Chicago was the fourth time that I’ve watched the movie and it was the first time that I really appreciated the pairing of the book of Psalms and the handkerchief full of kisses that it kinda just is a perfect it’s the perfect symbolism of this war in his pocket, like literally which thing is the presiding aspect over his heart, you know, and it I just thought it was poignant. This last time I w I was really like, he’s really gotta figure out, you know, where which one of those he really wants to carry around in his pocket.
Justin (51:53)
And this movie really is about Jimmy synthesizing these different personas into one person, right? Figuring out as Lady Julia promises him and also, you know, kind of confronts him. I know that this man lives inside you. I know he’s there. You just don’t know that he’s there. And so it’s about bringing all of these people together into one whole person. And he’s kind of fractured, you know. As the film starts, and more fractured by the war. And then how does he reassemble himself? Not as one of those things, but as something brand new, something that takes all of that life experience and pulls it together into one new person. And in a lot of ways, this is about his rebirth as a new man, as a new person that’s able to then go and live the rest of his life with. Integrity and love and everything else that he was striving for before that, but is finally able to find when he’s able to humble himself and open himself up, and then embrace that and go and live the rest of his life.
Maartje (53:07)
I feel like you’ve sort of brought us to a sort of natural conclusion of this chat, to be honest, because it’s such a summary of where we end up with Jimmy. So I have one final question for both of you and it might be difficult to answer because you haven’t gotten this question from us beforehand. But is there any book to do with World War Two? Or any movie that you would like to recommend to anyone, if you’ve ever thought about this before?
Justin (53:41)
So Jimmy opens on November sixth.
Maartje (53:48)
Or that
Kara (53:48)
Yes.
Justin (53:52)
I could definitely recommend that one.
Sam (53:52)
Amazing.
Maartje (53:55)
That is today. This episode will air on the day that the movie opens, so people can go see it after they listen to this episode.
Kara (54:02)
Cool. Yes, and go see it go see it in the movie theaters. You could always watch it on your phone or your TV, but
Justin (54:06)
Awesome.
Maartje (54:11)
No.
Kara (54:11)
But there is something about seeing it, the full scope of especially these combat scenes and getting an appreciation for like the grandeur of the area that he was in and, you know, like you said, like really being able to experience what it would look like if you’re like literally looking at a hole between your feet or out the window, you know thousands of feet up in the air, it’s just a completely different experience in the movie theater than it than it is anywhere else.
Sam (54:39)
Yeah, and they have popcorn there, so it’s a win win.
Justin (54:42)
Yes.
Kara (54:42)
Yes.
Maartje (54:45)
Well, thank you both so much for being on with us. It’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you.
Sam (54:51)
Yeah, that was actually.
Kara (54:52)
Thank you, you too.
Justin (54:53)
You as well. This was so fun. Thank you guys for your questions. It was really wonderful.
Maartje (55:00)
Thank you for listening to yet another episode of Rosie, or watching in this case. You can find us wherever you get your podcast from rate us five stars. You can send this episode to a friend who will like the movie Jimmy. Or you can follow us on Instagram at rosiethereviewerpodcast or visit our website, rosiethereviewer.com.
Sam (55:20)
And we should mention that if you’re interested in the movie, we will be having a full review of the film coming out next week.
Maartje (55:28)
Smart. This is why Sam is my co-host. We’ll see you next week.
Sam (55:33)
Bye.
The history behind it
James Stewart, From Private to Colonel
James Stewart (1908 to 1997) was already a film star when he enlisted as a private in the US Army in March 1941. He trained as a pilot and in late 1943 went to England with the 445th Bomb Group, flying B-24 Liberators from Tibenham in Norfolk, where he commanded the 703rd Bomb Squadron. In March 1944 he moved to the 453rd Bomb Group at Old Buckenham. He flew 20 official combat missions over Germany, received the Distinguished Flying Cross and ended the war a colonel.
Read more: Norfolk’s American Connections: James “Jimmy” Stewart →
The B-24 Liberator and Diamond Lil
More than 18,400 B-24 Liberators were built during the war, the heavy bomber Stewart flew from Norfolk. Diamond Lil, built in 1941, belongs to the Commemorative Air Force in Dallas, Texas, and is one of the oldest bombers of its kind still flying. Justin Strawhand climbed through her while writing Jimmy, and wrote much of the film’s B-24 scenes at a table in her shadow.
Read more: Commemorative Air Force: The Oldest Liberator →
Let There Be Light
Let There Be Light (1946) is a documentary made by John Huston for the US Army about soldiers treated for psychiatric illness after combat, what we would now call PTSD. The Army had commissioned it, then kept it from the public. It was not shown publicly until 1980. Justin describes one of its scenes on air, a soldier who cannot stop crying and does not know why, and says it shaped how he wrote Stewart coming home.
Read more: Senses of Cinema: Let There Be Light →
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper (1885 to 1966) was born Elda Furry in Pennsylvania and spent years in small stage and screen roles before she found her real calling. In 1938 she started a Hollywood gossip column, later syndicated as Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood, and her elaborate hats became her trademark. In Jimmy she is played by Sarah Drew.
Read more: JMU Libraries: Hedda Hopper →
It’s a Wonderful Life
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), directed by Frank Capra, was the first film Stewart made after coming home from the war. He came back changed: biographers describe nightmares, shakes and a short temper, signs we would now recognise as PTSD, at a time when it had no name. Jimmy builds towards that film, and towards the scene where George Bailey breaks down and asks for help.
Read more: East Idaho News: How World War II Shaped It’s a Wonderful Life →
Trailer: Jimmy
Part of our guides
Our guests
Kara Killmer
Actor, plays Lady Julia
Justin Strawhand
Screenwriter
