Stephen Dillane did meet Michael Nicholson, the ITN correspondent his character in the film, Michael Henderson, is loosely based upon. But he chose to keep him at arm's length despite thinking what Nicholson did was extraordinary, because he wanted the story to be more focused on the wider picture. He thought it would have been an insult to the people so recently suffered unimaginable pain if they make the story focus too much on the personal ordeal of a brave English reporter rescuing a young girl from burning orphanage.
Stephen Dillane met with the real-life journalist he plays in the film, Michael Henderson, but chose not to establish too much of a relationship with him as he wanted to create his own particular portrait of the man.
Woody Harrelson has appeared in such politically themed movies as LBJ (2016), where he played the title nickname character of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, Game Change (2012), Barry Levinson's political satire Wag the Dog (1997), Battle in Seattle (2007), and Welcome to Sarajevo (1997). The following year after LBJ (2016), Harrelson played the title character in Wilson (2017), but this was not former President Woodrow Wilson, as with the earlier Wilson (1944).