Legendary actor and director Clint Eastwood has made an interesting choice for the casting of his latest film. The movie – 15:17 to Paris – is based on the 2015 attempted terrorist attack on a high-speed train between France and Belgium. The attack was thwarted when three American soldiers on the train intervened, tackling and subduing the suspect. Eastwood has decided to forgo traditional actors for his project and have the heroes play themselves.

According to Variety, the film had already been cast but at the last minute Eastwood decided to go with Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone to portray themselves instead.

Following the news that this would be his follow-up to the box office hit “Sully,” Eastwood began a wide-ranging search for the actors who would portray the three Americans. The studio and Eastwood made their choices but at the 11th hour decided to have Sadler, Skarlatos and Stone portray themselves.

Sources told Variety that the film will spend a lot of time covering the childhood friendships of the three men.

Sources say that, while the three will have good-sized roles, the film is expected to begin during their childhood and show their friendship leading up to the moment that changed their lives. That means the roles will not be full-on leads.

Eastwood’s focus on real-life, heroic events have earned him some big box office hits as of late. Sully and American Sniper earned him some of biggest returns of his career. It will be interesting to see if this casting risk continues his streak.