These are the Hollywood actors who train our troops for combat

Mandatory Fun

Role players are an essential element for troops preparing to travel overseas and face-off with the enemy. They provide a cultural boost immersing troops in a violent world in which they're about to deploy.

Role players submerge themselves into training scenarios commonly setting up mock firefights, ambushes, and suicide bombings — all for the troop's benefit.

In this episode of the Mandatory Fun podcast, Blake discusses with Kelvin Garvanne about his life as an Arabic/Iraqi role player for U.S. ground troops heading into combat.

For the last nine years, Garvanne has provided Islamic culture and language training to military and civilian personnel deploying overseas.

"A role player is basically there to interact with the battalion's training," Garvanne explains. "There are different levels on how you can interact. We were all characterized as 'meat puppets' which were basically folks who were just there to do whatever was told of us to do. "

These mock up firefights consist of loud gunfire (blanks), firework explosions and a Hollywood makeup team to create realistic blood and guts.

Garvanne attended the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He is an Emmy award creative artist who is fascinated by the world and enjoys investigating the context of national and world events.

Garvanne continues to develop opportunities to advise and train military and civilians positioned in careers involving global service. He also develops creative projects to expose the human condition.