Why Jimmy Fallon Had To Be Pushed Around In A Jeep For Band Of Brothers

In episode 5 of Band of Brothers, called "Crossroads" and directed by Hanks, Winters leads the soldiers to an important victory against the enemy Germans. Near the end of the episode, Fallon makes his grand entrance. Returning from the front, Fallon's character, Lieutenant George C. Rice, rolls up in an old Jeep with more ammo for Easy Company. He unloads the ammo and recounts the troubles faced at the front, warning Easy Company that they will be surrounded by enemy forces soon, before driving off.

Though you wouldn't guess it, Fallon was extremely nervous for his role. When interviewing Juliana Margulies on The Tonight Show in 2018 (via Parade), Fallon reminisced about working on Band of Brothers, revealing that he was so nervous that he had trouble driving the Jeep that his character rides in. The team behind the series tried to be as historically accurate as possible, so they used real WWII-standard transmission Jeeps. Even without the added pressure of acting in such a big show, stick-shift vehicles are notoriously difficult to maneuver, and according to Fallon, he wasn't a good driver to begin with.

All Fallon had to do was "drive a Jeep and say [his] line, 'Good luck, boys,'" and "look really heroic." When Fallon couldn't manage to make the Jeep move, Hanks had to resort to getting two men to push the Jeep from behind to move it. While he might not have looked too heroic getting pushed around on set, Fallon got the job done, successfully bringing to life the TV version of real-life war hero Lt. Rice in Band of Brothers.