Douglas Taurel has appeared in numerous television shows including Mr. Robot, The Americans, Blue Bloods, Person of Interest, The Following, Damages, NYC 22, Believe, and Nurse Jackie. His film credits include The Cobbler starring Adam Sandler and Dustin Hoffman and the upcoming The Kindergarten Teacher starring Maggie Gyllenhall.
Taurel has also appeared in many indie films including Into the Valley Delivery at the HBO Latin Films Festival, Help Wanted, La Vida Blanca (L.A Film Festival Winner), and Hagondes (CUNU Festival Winner).
He wrote The American Soldier, a solo show he has been touring across the country for the past seven years. The play is based on real events and actual letters written by veterans and their family members from the American Revolution through current-day Afghanistan. The American Soldier has been nominated for the Amnesty International Award for theatre excellence and received four stars internationally.
Douglas grew up in Houston, Texas, and is the son of Latin American parents. His mother is from Colombia and his father was from Argentina. He played football in high school, boxed in college, ran with the bulls in Spain on his honeymoon, and has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. He’s lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and is an Ole Miss alumnus.
His newest production, a veteran-themed TV series called Landing Home includes over 20 veterans in the cast and crew. It’s is currently streaming on Amazon, Apple TV, VUDU, Google Play. The seven-part series tells the compelling story of a veteran trying to adjust to civilian life after leaving the military. Inspired by the Off-Broadway play, The American Soldier, which Taurel has performed in 25 cities across 14 states, and 34 shows, including the Kennedy Center (2016 & 2019), Off-Broadway, and Library of Congress. Landing Home explores the sacrifices and challenges veterans and their families face as they return home from combat and deal with PTSD.
In this one-on-one interview, Taurel reveals his passion for The American Soldier and the challenges he faced in bringing the seven-part series, Landing Home to full production.
Why are you so passionate about this series?
Douglas Taurel: It comes out of my play, which came out of my experience when the World Trade tower was hit. I was caught up with the patriotism that followed that attack. When we got into the Middle East around 2007, 2008, and our warriors started coming back and dealing with financial issues and PTSD, the suicide rate was just being talked about. It dawned on me that we were in a war. As an actor and American, I wanted to make people aware of the sacrifices our warriors were making to be over there and what they had to deal with when they returned. So I started collecting letters from our vets and they were really powerful. And that prompted me to create a play called American Soldier. After I performed it, I got a standing ovation. A Gold Star Sister, who lost her brother in Afghanistan, hugged me and said I think what you’re doing is very important and America needs to know this story. Eventually, we expanded the show and starting touring the country with it. Gold Star Family members would come up to me and share their stories. At that point, I began to feel just how important the play was. People starting to give us money toward turning this into a TV series. So started writing Landing Home, which centers on a soldier returning home after fighting in Afghanistan. We had 17 vets in the cast and crew—four were combat vets. The woman who plays the nurse was a vet as well.
Can you go into the biggest challenge you faced in producing this series?
Taurel: Making sure my story was honest for vets to connect with. Military spouses have a thing called Black Heart, which means, they’re all alone and very depressed. They don’t feel a connection to the military because their husbands are being deployed multiple times. The series turned into a monster at one point, with budgeting and scheduling.
Describe for us a powerful scene in Landing Home that impacted you personally.
Taurel: When Luke breaks down and starts to cry when talking to the Gold Star Wife in the fourth episode. She tells him, “Don’t put your family through what I just went through.” He tells her, “They train you to go 220 miles an hour and then they ask you to drive ten.” That resonated with me because it dawned on me just how hard that downshifting would be. One day, you’re really important and in charge of expensive machinery and the next day, you can’t even find a job.
How have veterans received this series?
Taurel: Honesty, they all say, “Thank you.” There’s such a void in understanding between the military and non-military population. Anything that artistically bridges that gap is so appreciated by veterans. They just want to be heard. I have hundreds of letters.
How have returning female warriors reacted to this series?
Taurel: They reach out to me and suggest that I should consider telling their story. One female vet said she still has a hard time being around children because of what she saw in Iraq. She has panic attacks when she drops off her child at the park or school. She’s a soft-spoken woman who worked with interpreters and saw a lot of combat. She talked about always trying to feel like a woman in Iraq. She said that one day, she was shaving her legs when they came under mortar fire. She said, “I had two choices: finish shaving my legs or saddle up with my gear. I decided to finish shaving my legs because if I’m gonna die, I’m dying with shaved legs.” Another woman lost her eye when a mortar exploded while she was next to a fueling bladder. The blast threw her into the air and she landed on her face. She said, “I could never be a Medic because they have to stay with injured warriors and listen to them scream.” Both women went to very dark places with PTSD.
Can you compare the reaction of older vets who fought in Viet Nam and younger vets like those who served in Afghanistan? The same? Different?
Taurel: The same reaction but more Viet Nam vets have reached out to me than Afghan vets. With Viet Nam vets, they’re getting older and their family and social structure are falling apart—so they’re often alone and their demons come out. Viet Nam vets connect with Afghan vets and they don’t want to see their younger brothers/sisters go through that. It’s a special bond.
Can you go into equine therapy and how it helps returning warriors adjust and deal with civilian life?
Taurel: I became really familiar with a lot of vet therapists. They’d see American Soldier and book the play. And they’d say, “Now I understand what my vets go through.” I learned that equine therapy was practiced by warring Indian tribes like the Comanche and Cherokee. Returning from battle, Indian warriors would be isolated from the village, away from wives and children, and join other warriors with their horses. They would bond with the animal and ‘decompress.’ Horses have a sixth sense. They experience the same traumas that humans do. And they understand when a human is in pain. You can feel when a horse senses your pain and trauma. The animal will push you with its nose. The VA will typically give returning warriors drugs and get them out there. Equine therapy allows vets to share their experience with a living being that listens and won’t judge.
Any advice for warriors coming back? Where can they go for help?
Taurel: What I learned from talking to so many veterans, specifically from veteran Brian Eisch, is to first, find a group—fishing group, hunting group—any group that you connect with and feel ‘safe’ with. It can’t be your family or anyone you feel will judge you. Finding an identity, finding a purpose, and doing something you love is critical for vets transitioning back home. Regaining your identity is important because you need to find yourself again. You have to give your body and brain a substitute for booze and drugs. For combat vets, those terrible memories become etched into their souls. One female warrior, when asked about her injury replied, “I was Medevac’d in 2004 and I can still taste the blood in my mouth.” The key to dealing with this kind of pain is to find a purpose and do something you’re passionate about.
REFLECTION
A Poem by Diana Vasquez, Sgt. US Army
I LOOK IN THE MIRROR
AND ALL I SEE
IS THE SHELL OF THE PERSON
I USED TO BE
I LOOK THE SAME
FROM THE OUTSIDE
BUT ALL THE WHILE
I AM BROKEN INSIDE
I WANT TO SCREAM
I WANT TO SHOUT
ALL I WANT
IS A WAY OUT
OUT OF THE HELL
I’VE CREATED MYSELF
I SEE MY REFLECTION
AND SEE SOMEONE ELSE
I AM NO LONGER THE PERSON
I WAS BEFORE
IN MY MIND
I AM STILL AT WAR
AT WAR WITH THE ENEMY
THAT LURKS FROM WITHIN
I KNOW THIS IS A BATTLE
I CANNOT WIN
I AM TORN INSIDE
I AM NO LONGER WHOLE
A PART OF ME DIED
IN THAT HELL HOLE
FROM A DISTANT PAST
THAT STILL ECHOES WITHIN ME
AND HAS ME TWISTED INSIDE
SO I CANNOT SEE
THE REFLECTION IN THE MIRROR
IS STILL REALLY ME
JUST NOT THE VERSION
I USED TO BE
I WISH THINGS WERE DIFFERENT
I WISH I COULD GO BACK
TO THE TIMES BEFORE
I WOULD TAKE IT ALL BACK
I GLADLY TRADE PLACES
WITH YOU IF I COULD
IF THINGS WERE DIFFERENT
I SURELY WOULD
THEN YOU’D STILL BE HERE
TO LIVE OUT YOUR LIFE
AND I WOULDN’T FEEL
LIKE I’VE BEEN CUT WITH KNIFE
THAT’S RIPPED OUT MY HEART
AS I WATCHED YOU DIE
AND ALL THE WHILE
I CAN’T EVEN CRY
IT’S NOT THAT I DON’T LOVE YOU
IT’S NOT THAT I DON’T CARE
I HAVE NOTHING LEFT INSIDE
THERE IS NOTHING THERE
THEN I SEE THE REFLECTION
LOOKING BACK AT ME
I AM JUST A SHELL OF THE PERSON
THAT I USED TO BE
