Barry Keoghan on the impact of ‘Masters of the Air”s true story

The new Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air tells the story of the U.S. Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, the group of men who bombed Nazi Germany during World War II.

The group’s success came at a great price: 77 percent of them were killed, injured or captured. Barry Keoghan plays Lt. Curtis Biddick in the series and told ABC Audio the story really impacted him.

“They had a mission, they had to get on with it,” Keoghan said. “They’d see their friends come and go and probably not come back … they were dealing with death and there was no time to grieve, and all of these things I got a hint of. I’m not going to say I felt, because that’s unfair, but I got a hint of it.”

Keoghan said working on the show made him appreciate the mental health resources available to young adults nowadays.

“It’s crazy when you get a hint of how it was back then and these kids having to become men quite quick,” Keoghan said. “It really gives you a massive kind of gratitude to just all the things that we have these days, like support systems even or, you know, a place to go and speak to someone.”

Masters of the Air producer Gary Goetzman has brought about two other series about World War II – The Pacific and Band of Brothers. He said there’s a reason these stories need to keep being told.

“I’ve talked to kids at studios who don’t really know what world war Hitler’s from,” Goetzman said. “I think it’s time to have a little brush up, you know, on things. Stories get away from us, and they’re important. We’ve got to remember history. We’ve got to know where the bad left turns are, you know.”

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