Military life was nothing new for ‘Thank You’ star Miles Teller

Starring in “Thank You for Your Service” was an easy choice for Miles Teller to make. During a recent interview in Chicago, Teller said, “I would have made this film for charity — that’s how much it meant to me.”

The “Whiplash” and “Spectacular Now” actor grew up in a small Florida town “where going into the military was a fact of life for many of my friends,” he said, and remains pals with teen buddies “who have served in virtually every branch of the [military] services.”

Since “Thank You for Your Service” delves into Iraq War veteran Adam Schumann and his fellow soldiers’ battles with post traumatic stress disorder, Teller talked to a number of people who, like Schumann, have struggled with PTSD. “That includes a number of guys from Chicago and the Chicago area,” said Teller. “You have to realize there are a half-million soldiers — of the 2 million deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq — who have returned with PTSD or some other form of depression related to their service. This is affecting guys across the country.

“My only hope is that by telling Adam’s story, it will not only help them, but their families and people who know nothing about the military to better understand what these guys went through.”

The film’s director, Jason Hall (Oscar-nominated for his screenplay for “American Sniper”), said the biggest misconception about PTSD is that the average person “has not a clue how to help those men. They don’t understand what these guys went through over there. They come home and it’s very hard for them to re-acclimate. They learned a job in Iraq or Afghanistan, but those skills are not longer applicable back home.”

When Schumann saw the film for the first time, “I approached it, or tried to, as if I was just going to any movie. But of course, that was impossible. I got my popcorn and my drink and sat down to watch it.

“Yet, at the end of the movie, when the credits rolled, I looked down and realized I had never touched either my popcorn or my drink. That certainly had never happened to me in a movie — ever. It was tough to watch some of the film, I’ll be honest, because it touched a nerve with me. But in the end, it was very therapeutic and very healing for me to watch it.”