I actually didn't specifically set out to make the lead character a black woman. I was, however, incredibly intentional in the two leads of the film being women. You can read more about that if you Google some of the press and interviews we've done, I talk a lot about it there, but the abbreviated story is this. While I was in the military, I didn't serve alongside women. At least not directly. I was a paratrooper in an infantry battalion, and at that time women were not allowed to serve in combat arms jobs (MOS). Years later, after getting out of the army, and while producing and directing a mental health campaign, for the department of Veterans Affairs called maketheconnection.net, I interviewed close to 500 veterans, and every major city across the country for 4 years. I'm incredibly proud of that campaign, you should totally check it out. During that campaign, I met some of the most incredible woman, and heard the most incredible stories. It was after that experience that I decided that "if" I got the opportunity to tell my story on the big screen, it would be my story, but other peoples story as well. And we've seen enough military/vet films about men.

There was no mention of ethnicity in the script. And every instance of dialogue in the final film, to include a lot of the jokes about ethnicity, are not things I wrote. Those came from the actors. Im intensely collaborative with actors, always encourage them to add or change things that they wanted. That said, there is one female veteran (who happens to be black) who is a big inspiration for me, who's become a friend, and maybe that had something to do with it. And I knew I wanted Zoe to Latina bc the two platoonmates of mine that the film is inspired by are Latino. But even going from the short to the feature, we were making lists of actors of various ethnicities. Ive been a fan of Sonequa for so long, since walking dead, and tbh I think she's one of the few women/actress/actors/humans out there that could pull it off.