Top aerobatic pilot David Ellison portrays Eddie Beagle, a cocky guy who joins a squadron of American volunteers just to escape from his past in Flyboys, directed by Tony Bill and starring James Franco and Martin Henderson. Ellison and director Bill had the same flight coach and that's how the fledgling actor came to be cast in Flyboys, based on the true story of the legendary Lafayette Escadrille.

Flyboys is the first film in decades to bring the story of the famous World War I squadron to the big screen. The film examines the lives of the young American men who volunteered to join French soldiers in battling Germany prior to America's official involvement in WWI.

Mixing His Love of Flying with Acting: Ellison says that working on Flyboys was literally one of the best experiences of his life. ?Just the combination,? said Ellison, ?it really was like a dream come true ? this whole project. Growing up flying and then making a feature debut with Tony [Bill] directing and Dean [Devlin] producing? I grew up watching their movies. It?s like a fairly tale. It?s unbelievable.

The guys were great. One of the things that was really fun was everybody was the same age in the cast. We all became good friends and we?re still good friends today. It was a really good time.?

Rating James Franco?s Flying Ability: Unlike Ellison, Franco didn't take up flying until after being cast in Flyboys. "The day he got the movie, or that he knew about, he started taking flying lessons,? explained Ellison.

?He got his pilot?s license and soloed before we actually started shooting. He?s a licensed pilot. [He and I] would go up flying a few times and he?s really good.?

Taking to the Skies: ?We didn?t get to go up in the aerobatic biplane. That wasn?t a Newport 17, but it?s what we shot all the close-ups in, it was just a few years after that. We got to go up and spend a few days in that airplane, which was a lot of fun.?

Ellison says the whole experience was like taking a step back in time. ?You go up in an airplane nowadays, they respond as fast as you can think ? they?re faster actually. You breathe, it does it. But to actually step back into that airplane?just how rustic it was; aviation had only been around ten years. It was just an unbelievable experience and with how little airplanes were left, it was just a privilege to get to go back in something like that.?

Ellison added, ?It?s very noisy. You put on the costume and you actually step into the airplane, it?s really like that whole, ?I wonder what this would be like,? thing goes away because you?re actually doing it.?

David Ellison on Preparing for Flyboys: ?I read a couple books about the Lafayette Escadrille. Actually, Tony [Bill] knows more about World War I than anybody I ever met and I asked him about a couple books that I should look for to read and read those. But the one that I found the most interesting was a book that I found that actually had kind of like a four or five page biography of every single member of the Lafayette Escadrille. I could go through and read that. It was so cool after reading the script to actually see where the pieces actually came from and where it happened, and that was the one that I thought was really inspiring.

It was really rewarding to me to see how close to history everything was. I think it depends on whatever genre it is but, being a pilot, you look at some flying movies and you?re just like, ?Oh man, you can?t do that. That?s not real. That?s fake.? And to actually go back [and learn the truth]? I remember when I first read the script. There?s a lion in the movie and I was like, ?What?? I didn?t know what to think. Then I went back and you look at the photographs and the Lafayette Escadrille had two lions, Whisky and Soda, that were their mascots. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Learning all that history and how it coordinates in the movie was really unbelievable.?

Bonding with the Cast of Flyboys: Although the only actor Ellison met before filming began on Flyboys was James Franco, it didn?t take long before all the actors became friends. ?The first day I worked was actually my introductory scene in the movie. Tyler [Labine] and me and Philip Winchester were shooting that scene and from the day we met each other, the three of us couldn?t shut up. We were just talking and joking around non-stop. Everybody just hit it off ? friends right off the bat. When we weren?t shooting, we were hanging out on the weekends, going out, exploring London. We all got close really quick and we?ve all remained friends throughout.?