“Flags Of Our Fathers” star Jesse Bradford finds peace in the release of his latest movie. The Clint Eastwood-directed war epic is set around the Navy battles of Iwo-Jima and the raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi.

“I did a lot of research, read a lot of books on Iwo-Jima and watched a lot of documentaries over and over and over again,” Bradford said.

Acting since he was eight months old and having steady work since the age of 8, Bradford said he always enjoys the chance to do something completely new. And with the opportunity to work on arguably one of the most favored movies to win it all at next February’s Academy Awards ceremony, many would say it was a chance worth taking.

A stickler for research, Bradford prepared for the film by spending time in libraries and talking on the phone to the son of Rene Gagnon, the U.S. soldier who helped raise the flag at Iwo-Jima – the character Bradford plays in the movie.

Many historians paint Gagnon in an unfavorable light. Many feel he manipulated troops into accepting lies, ignoring the real troubles of war and focusing on selling war bonds for the government.

“My biggest challenge throughout filming was making sure people didn’t leave the theater thinking that he’s the guy we aren’t meant to like. History has been a little unkind to him – more than the other men involved – and I felt a lot of responsibility to try and show a man who could make mistakes,” Bradford said.

Even if you won’t leave the film desperate to befriend Gagnon, Bradford said you will at the very least understand him. In delving into Gagnon’s train of thought, Bradford said he understands how Gagnon began to romanticize what happened.

“He was naive, a little idealistic, but he was caught in the notoriety and the super stardom that had suddenly swept him up,” Bradford said.

But most importantly, he said, the true empathy for the character comes only when the audience takes a long, hard look in the mirror and admits they would probably do the same in that situation.

“Yes, it’s noble and admirable to say ‘I’m not going to leave my buddies,’ but while that is certainly more brave, I don’t think it’s hard to find a part of ourselves that identifies with the guy who wants to just take his ticket out of there. After all, he was just a kid,” Bradford said.

When working with Eastwood, who is hot off the heels of 2004 Oscar winner “Million Dollar Baby,” Bradford said he had a different approach to taking on a war movie. To show how most U.S. soldiers were only of high school graduate age, Eastwood made sure no actor playing a soldier could be over the age of 26.

And also unlike many other war movies where the actors spend a month at boot camp before filming to get into the mindset, Eastwood wanted to replicate the confusion the soldiers felt in the war.

“He didn’t want us to do that,” Bradford said. “He wanted us to seem very surprised, very unprepared, rather than overly confident and ready for war. These kids were not ready and so neither should we.”

Although Bradford aspires to one day work with the Coen Brothers and Wes Anderson, he thinks very fondly of the time he spent working under Clint Eastwood’s tutelage.

“He’s a pretty go-with-the-flow kind of guy. One time on set, someone was trying to get some extra information from him, ideas about what his directing concept was, where the camera angles were, things like that. Saying, help me plan, I need to plan, help me plan,” Bradford said. “And Clint just turned to him and said ‘We’ve made it this far, let’s not ruin it by thinking.’ Kind of his little catch phrase.”

The time Bradford spent with Eastwood helped him come to understand the director is a fan of simply letting things unfold and not overthinking situations.

And once Bradford got over the initial shock, he said it wasn’t hard to embrace the idea and that Eastwood had an infectious, calm energy about him that let him just relax and do his job.

Coupled with working under Eastwood, some of Bradford’s fondest memories are of the shoot itself and working every day with his co-stars Ryan Phillippe and Adam Beach.

“We were the three amigos – almost every scene was with them. We built a trust and a bond,” Bradford said. “They had such a wonderful grasp on their characters; it was energizing to work with.”

Now keeping himself busy with movies to be released next year, Bradford said he’s been very lucky to avoid the usual pitfalls of young actors. In what he said was the “family business” in coming from a line of actors, he said he fell into it and kept going.

With his work portraying the misunderstood Gagnon, he hopes to honor the heroes of World War II.

“I wanted you to understand that he’s thankful he’s not risking his life while still helping America’s cause, just on a grand scale. I wanted to respect the men who were there,” Bradford said.