Zac Efron & Peter Farrelly Break Down A War Scene From 'The Greatest Beer Run Ever'

This is my second movie with him, actually.

We did a movie called Dirty Grandpa years ago.

Oh. Is that with De Niro? [Zac claps]

Yeah, yeah.

How was it working with De Niro?

We should get back to this. Oh, man, that was...

It was great. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Let's get back to this. Okay.

Hi, I'm Pete Farrelly.

I'm Zac Efron.

And this is Notes on a Scene

for The Greatest Beer Run Ever.

Chickie?

[beer cans clanking]

What are you doing here?

I brung you beer.

W- W- Who are you with?

I'm with you.

Seriously, Chickie. What the hell are you doing here?

The Greatest Beer Run Ever, of course,

is about Chickie Donohue.

It's a true story, 1967, '68,

he went to Vietnam to bring beer

to his friends who were fighting the war in Vietnam.

It was a ludicrous, crazy mission, but he did it.

He got over there

and basically hitchhiked around the country,

dropping off beer.

But now he has gone up to LZ Jane.

This is north- Goes to the frontline.

Yeah.

And this is his second friend that he meets.

This is really where he realizes he's on over his head.

[cloth rustling]

Ta-da. [laughs]

Chickie?

[beer cans clanking]

What are you doing here?

I brung you beer.

W- W- Who are you with?

I'm with you.

We shot all over Thailand.

We wanted to shoot in Vietnam, but they don't allow it.

They have to approve what you photograph

after you photograph it.

So we could have shot the whole movie

and they say, Nah, we don't like that.

So we end up going to Thailand, but it was the same terrain,

exact same terrain as Vietnam.

Seriously, Chickie. What the hell are you doing here?

Really?

All the fellas were sitting around,

talking about what we could do to bring your spirits up,

and then, bang, it hit us,

[beer cans clanking] bring you a beer.

So I brought you a beer.

You dumb shit!

What?

You almost got me killed out there.

And this is what happened.

This is Rick Duggan, did push him over,

he knocked him in,

and Chickie tells us, he said he was stunned,

like, What are you talking about?

I brought you a beer.

He didn't realize...

And also just prior to this,

Chickie has actually called in

and had Ricky Duggan come from the front line

all the way through like the gnarliest section

of crossfire and gunfire and everything.

So he's just literally cheated death

and ran like, you know, half a mile

to get up to see this guy from the CIA,

and it ends up being just Chickie.

So he is hot.

I wasn't...

And this is when the movie turns, by the way.

Right up to here, it's been fun and games,

and then this happens.

You dumb shit!

What?

You almost got me killed out there.

Wait a minute, Duggan.

You mean to tell me this asshole's a civilian?

Okay, now that man is Carlos Arroyo,

the NBA basketball player, by the way,

who's also a rapper.

There was something about him that was very fun

and easy to look at,

and I had a feeling he could act,

so I called him up, I said, Would you consider acting?

He said, I've never acted.

I said, Let me audition you and see how it goes.

And sure enough, we auditioned him and he was sensational,

he nails it.

And I met him, like, just the day prior to this,

and I was like, Where do I know you from?

And he's like, Oh, I played pro basketball for 12 years.

Oh, my God. What are you doing?

We had never had this conversation.

I had no idea he was in the movie.

And by the way- He's awesome.

he's not that big a guy.

He's like my size and, you know, it's stud,

played 12 years in the NBA.

But anyway...

Is he nuts?

I don't know. Chickie, are you nuts?

What? No.

You're delivering beer in a battle zone?

Yeah, so? It said fine.

I just came from seeing Collins.

He didn't mind.

You found Collins?

Yeah.

It was easy.

He was right next to my ship in Saigon.

Look, look how good.

Look at this mustache.

Yeah.

It's just perfect.

It's 100% real. It's authentic mustache.

I've shaved it.

It's for auction right now,

if anybody wants to donate. [laughs]

That was a good mustache.

Very solid. All his, too, by the way.

I realized it was a pretty good

when Pete gave me a compliment every other day or so,

he's like, Just gets better and better every day.

[Zac laughs] It was a solid...

I mean, he had this huge caterpillar growing up there.

Yeah, that's pretty funny.

After this, I'm gonna go visit Reynolds and Pappas.

By the way, a lady tried to sell me a snake

on the way over here.

You think this is funny?

Huh?

What? It's not funny at all!

I don't think it's funny, okay?

I'm not doing this laughs, Ricky.

I'm doing it for you, for all you guys.

This is a goddamn war, Donohue.

You shouldn't be here.

Chickie, get back to your boat right now.

Forget about the other guys.

You can buy 'em a beer when they get home.

This is serious shit out here.

Yeah.

I know.

That's the moment Jake Picking turns into a movie star,

by the way.

Yeah. He's incredible.

Everybody who sees this comes out like,

Who the hell is that guy?

Yeah, he crushed it.

And I remember I was, just as an actor experiencing it,

sitting on this side,

I knew I was seeing some magic.

You keep on this stupid beer run,

there's a 99% chance you're going tits up.

Sarge, can we get a- eggbeater in tonight,

and, you know, scoot him outta here?

It's too dangerous.

Nothing's flying 'til morning.

Right, so what am I supposed to do with him?

Well, if I know, he's yours now. Take him with you.

What? I- I'm on ambush post, sir.

Your problem, Duggan.

[gunshots firing]

[bombs exploding]

You want a taste of Vietnam?

You're about to get it.

Grab your shit.

[Chickie sighs]

Grab your shit!

I am.

I love that because you could hear the child in you.

[Zac chuckles] I am. Stop yelling at me.

We're in a war.

Come on, get it together.

And that scene, by the way, is right out of the book, right?

Yes, yeah.

This scene's right outta the book.

This is one of the ones that Chickie talked about

pretty frequently in all the, sort of, interviews

and he's very vocal about this moment,

and it was one of the ones that I really wanted to nail

and get right for him.

And it really depicts his sincerity

with which he's...

And his innocence in this moment.

He really is, thinks he's doing a great thing.

He has no real concept of the danger

he just put his best friend through.

Yeah, and we got to hang with Chickie quite a bit

before the movie went down to Florida where he still lives.

He's in his 80s,

and he literally acted that out for me.

And I, when you were doing your thing,

I was thinking this is exactly what Chickie was doing,

like, Who you with?

I'm with you.

He goes, Why?

You know, Brought you, brung you a beer.

Yeah.

Hey.

Thanks.

What's this for?

To shoot the bad guys, dodo.

It looks like you're gonna be taken for prisoner.

Shoot yourself or they'll torture you for info.

For info? Hold on, I don't have any info.

They don't know that, asshole.

Okay, geez. Little edgy.

I just think

Carlos Arroyo is so good. He's so good at that.

He was so great. Yeah, and he kept...

And I didn't give him any notes

'cause he just came in and nailed it,

and he kept saying, Am I doing okay?

I said, Yeah, you're killing it.

He did, he kept nailing it

and then he would kind...

I realized at one point he was looking at me like,

Was that good?

And I kept going like, Dude, I haven't been telling you

but you're freaking awesome, man.

You're unbelievable.

Every take, he's real.

This is the first thing he's ever acted.

Yeah. It's just incredible.

Uh, no, no, no. Bad idea, sarge.

He's got a better chance of shooting one of us

than one of them.

What are you talking about?

I know guns. I was in the military.

Where'd you serve?

Massachusetts.

Yeah, gimme that.

Yeah, this is it.

This is where Chickie is woken up.

You just realize you're in over your head

and sometimes you have a moment

where you just can't believe

you've gotten yourself into this scenario.

And that's sort of what's about to happen to Chickie.

At this point, he still doesn't really know

what's about to happen.

You're describing marriage, you know that, right?

[Zac laughs] Yeah.

Yeah, he's doesn't know what he's in for, exactly.

And, so it's fun to play.

I love Chickie's innocence in this moment,

the fact that he really doesn't know where he's headed.

He still doesn't know what they're doing,

and he's been handed a gun and a helmet,

he's kinda like, What- What's going on?

What are we doing?

And he starts to see, you know,

what Vietnam was really about,

because up to then he's been,

like most of America at that time, 1967,

we were watching with blinders on,

we thought it was World War II,

and the people who were protesting at that point

were in the minority.

It wasn't until a couple years later

that the tide turned and most Americans were against war.

At this point, everyone's for it,

and all of a sudden he's in it,

and he starts seeing there's some shit happening here

that's not quite right.

And also another thing in this moment

is he's very, very confused.

He's never seen his friend this serious about anything.

These are all best friends. His friend's clearly concerned.

The soldiers themselves, you know, the soldiers were...

They were the same guys

as the guys who were in World War II,

they were exactly the same.

There were young gut kids, there were patriots,

they thought they were doing their duty.

But as we find out, as the war goes on,

we had bad leadership and it wasn't on them,

it wasn't their fault,

it was, you know, the people running the war,

and that's what he starts to see.

Are you ready?

I guess.

What are we doing?

We're gonna run for our lives.

[upbeat music]

[gunshots firing]

Right there at that moment,

there was a lot of what they call squibs.

It's machine gun fire that sort of mimics machine gun fire,

and they're planted everywhere,

and the explosives expert on set

had planted them along this pathway with tiny little flags.

So we were running through a trench

we had never run through before,

it was about 200 yards, maybe 150 yards.

And it was downhill, muddy, rocky,

really hard to terrain to run through,

and he said, Just follow the green flags.

And I'm like, So where are the squibs?

And he's like, Uh, all over.

And I'm like, Well, what happens if we step on 'em?

He goes, Don't do that.

And I'm like, Well, how do I know

if I'm gonna step on one?

And it's like, Action.

What the...

And we just ran out

and literally just proceeded to go, absolutely,

through one of the most terrifying runs of my life.

And by the way, it was about 100 degrees

and 100% humidity. Yep.

We had three people pass out on the set, just out cold.

Yeah, this was a day in the elements.

Yeah. Yeah.

It was wild. Yeah.

We felt like we were there.

This was the first day where it got real,

this is a war movie.

[upbeat music] [gunshots firing]

[Chickie panting]

♪ I feel so lonely night and day ♪

All right.

We're halfway home.

Halfway?

That was crazy day.

I can't believe we got all that done, man.

The first thing I said when I was doing this movie

is I called Chickie and we got to know each other,

and I told Chickie,

The person I want to please more than anybody is you.

I wanna tell your story truthfully.

And if the world loves this movie but you don't,

it's a disaster for me.

I have to please you.

So I kept him really close to us.

I gave him all the drafts of the script

as we were going along.

He gave me notes.

This would've been here, we did this,

we had the elephants in the wrong place.

But it's, I would say, 85 to 90% true.

Amazingly, Chickie's friends who made it out

are all still alive.

They've all seen the movie.

They are very happy with it.

It's pretty cool to look at the people

that you experienced the filming with

and sit with the real guys

and see there how happy they are with it.

So, I mean, there's no bigger compliment than that.