Spoiler alert! We’re discussing an important scene in the historical drama “Nuremberg” (in theaters now), so beware if you want to go in cold.
“Nuremberg” star Leo Woodall felt the stakes were high portraying a real person for the first time. And when he actually met relatives of Army translator Howard Triest, he felt even more responsibility.
Woodall was approached by the World War II veteran’s granddaughter Katie Triest in August in Telluride, Colorado, at a film festival, and the British actor invited Triest and her brother Jonathon to the “Nuremberg” premiere at Toronto Film Festival in September. “It suddenly all felt even more real to me,” Woodall, 29, says. “Having them in the audience was powerful and moving to me.”
He met with them after the screening, and “thankfully, they didn’t nitpick it,” Woodall adds with a laugh.
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Douglas (Rami Malek, left) shares an emotional moment with translator Howie (Leo Woodall) in the historical drama “Nuremberg.”
In director James Vanderbilt’s “Nuremberg,” Howie Triest works with psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) to assess the mental well-being of Nazi prisoners set to be tried for their war crimes, including German “Reichsmarschall” Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe), who had been Hitler’s No. 2.
For much of the large ensemble drama, not a lot is known about Howie, other than that he wears a Detroit Tigers ballcap and is helpful to Kelley. But when the psychiatrist is booted from his assignment by the Army, after a newspaper article where Kelley casts doubt that prosecutor Robert Jackson (Michael Shannon) can convict the Nazis, Howie steps up. At the train station when Kelley is about to depart, Howie explains his backstory to keep Kelley from leaving.
The young soldier was born in Munich as part of a Jewish family, and as the Nazis came to power and invaded parts of Europe, they could only afford to send Howie to the United States. He wound up in Michigan, where he picked up English watching baseball, and returned to Europe as an American soldier on D-Day. Though his sister Margot ended up in Switzerland (and later came to America), their parents died at Auschwitz concentration camp.
It’s the film’s most moving scene, and a tear falls artfully down Woodall’s face as the character speaks his truth.
“It was all about just being on that bench with Rami and telling the story and not trying to put too much onto it, to not over-egg it, to not disrespect the story by choosing the bits that were emotional or harder-hitting,” Woodall says. “Because at the end of the day, the story is heartbreaking, so you just need to tell it.”
Woodall did his due diligence researching the real Triest, the subject of the 2006 documentary “Journey to Justice,” and reading about the soldier’s interactions with Nazi prisoner Julius Streicher. (He thought Triest was from an Aryan family and once told him, “I can smell a Jew from a mile away.”)
“I don’t often come at acting from a particularly academic point of view,” Woodall says. “But it was important to learn as much as I [could and] pick and choose what I felt in my gut would be useful.
“One thing that was kind of interesting to learn from Katie Triest was that he probably would’ve hated being called Howie,” he adds with a laugh.
Leo Woodall (right) plays a piano tuner also good at cracking safes opposite Dustin Hoffman in “Tuner.”
Howie is a “singular role” for Woodall as his star has ascended quickly in the past three years, with a breakhrough role in “The White Lotus” Season 2 and lead parts in the limited series “One Day” and rom-com “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.” Next is the upcoming crime caper “Tuner” (expected in 2026), about a young piano tuner who also has a gift for cracking safes, that teams Woodall with Dustin Hoffman.
“He’s a magical performer and a really funny and gentle guy as well,” he says of Hoffman. “Getting to work with him was just one of those lifetime achievement things that I’ll always remember.”
Starring alongside Oscar winners like Hoffman, Malek and Crowe has been “surreal,” Woodall allows. “I choose my moments to rip my clothes off and go, ‘Wow, this is crazy!’ and I choose my moments to go, ‘This is also just kind of silly, have a sense of humor, and you’ve got a job to do.’ I try and do the best that I can with the luck and opportunity that I’m given.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Leo Woodall on ‘Nuremberg’ and telling a true story with respect
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