From the woods to the town of Foy, the ground was covered with a blanket of artificial snow. Matthew Horner squatted in the man-made forest, lifting his helmet slightly to gaze at the besieged town of Foy across from him, where the battle raged on. The crackle of gunfire never ceased, and the occasional booming explosions sent plumes of smoke skyward.
More than a dozen camera crews wielding portable cameras hustled around, capturing their assigned targets.
Matthew's side had three two-person camera crews on standby, their task to capture the war scenes featuring the protagonist—Ronald Spiers.
On the battlefield, soldiers dressed in the uniforms of the 101st Airborne Division fell one after another to the sound of gunfire.
Ahead, Damian Lewis, portraying Captain Winters, was so agitated that he wanted to command the front lines personally but was stopped by the battalion commander.
The lack of effective command in Easy Company was deadly on the battlefield, leaving them vulnerable to slaughter by the German forces.
Matthew, adopting a standard tactical posture, crouched on the snowy ground until Damian Lewis shouted at him.
"Spiers, come here! Hurry!"
Hearing the call, Matthew grabbed his Chicago Typewriter and ran over. Damian Lewis looked ahead at the battlefield and roared at him, "You go there and replace the damn Dike, lead Easy Company to complete the attack mission!"
Matthew's face was stern, and without a word, he strode towards the smoke-filled battlefield, with the three camera teams moving with him—one capturing from the front, one from a side about ten meters away, and the other ready at any moment.
At this moment, Matthew enjoyed the treatment only a protagonist could expect.
The camera crews filmed without hindering Matthew's movements. He had already mastered the essence of the character Ronald Spiers—his face showed no panic or anxiety, just a calm determination as he ran forward as if an old soldier truly indifferent to life and death in World War II.
Boom—
Ahead, the ground erupted in a cloud of smoke under the control of the pyrotechnics team. Unconcerned, Matthew leapt through the smoke and landed behind a haystack. Without a second thought, he grabbed the actor playing Dike by the neck and shouted, "You're relieved, Easy Company is under my command now!"
"Sergeant Lipton!" he immediately inquired, "What's the situation?"
An officer crawled over and quickly reported, "The company's scattered, first platoon..."
Matthew listened, then pointed at a building and ordered, "Take them out with mortars!"
Slowly standing up, Matthew commanded, "Everyone else, direct attack, no more detours!"
After giving his orders, he burst from behind the haystack and shouted, "Follow me!"
Matthew didn't look back as he strode forward, seemingly trusting that the brothers of Easy Company would follow his charge. He continued along a pre-determined route until he reached the back of a building and stopped.
"Cut!" Director David Frankel used a megaphone to call a halt from his concealed observation platform atop the highest building, giving Matthew a thumbs up, "Well done!"
This marked the end of a major battle scene. David Frankel descended from the platform, instructed his assistants to adjust the set, then approached Matthew.
"Director," Matthew removed his steel helmet and greeted with a smile. David Frankel came over and patted him on the shoulder, "Good job!"
Matthew grinned broadly.
David Frankel nodded, impressed by the young man who was smart, humble, hardworking, dedicated, and respectful, though his acting was mediocre. He was the kind of actor people liked to work with.
He led Matthew over to a low wall at the end of the street, instructing him for the next shot, "Don't think about anything else, just run as fast as you can to that wall, climb over, and I'll be waiting on the other side."
The street was being set up with German tanks and soldiers. Matthew glanced at the low wall, which was no more than a hundred meters away.
"Okay!"
This scene depicted Ronald Spiers charging alone through a street heavily guarded by Germans to connect with I Company on the other side, coordinating a pincer attack. What made it even more remarkable was that after reaching I Company, Spiers ran back unscathed.
Both the original book and memoirs contained such descriptions; this wasn't a fanciful addition by the production team.
As the sergeant recalled, the Germans hadn't expected a single soldier to dare make such a charge, let alone return, and Easy Company's aggressive advance had also distracted the German soldiers.
This charge also led the soldiers of Easy Company to finally accept Ronald Spiers, especially after the confusing Lieutenant Dike was killed by a shell, making Spiers the natural successor as the fourth company commander.
After the scene was set, filming resumed.
After exchanging a couple of lines
with the actor playing Sergeant Lipton, Matthew dashed out from behind the building. His long legs moved like those of a swift leopard, charging past German fortifications on the street side and threading between a tank and a self-propelled gun.
Three cameras captured him from different angles.
All Matthew heard was the wind whooshing past his ears as he ran past a Tiger tank to the low wall. He didn't slow down, propelling himself over the wall with a powerful leap.
Unexpectedly, due to his forceful charge and the wall's temporary construction, which couldn't withstand such impact, the wall collapsed from the top third down, bringing Matthew crashing to the other side.
Matthew hadn't even hit the ground when he realized something was wrong. As soon as he touched down, he rolled, narrowly avoiding the falling bricks, but his arm seared with pain.
"Cut!"
Director David Frankel, who was right behind the wall, urgently called out, "Doctor! Get the doctor here quick!"
Medical staff were essential for shooting war scenes, and a doctor with a medical kit rushed over immediately.
Matthew, in pain, struggled to get up, but an experienced assistant director stopped him.
"Don't move!" he shouted, "Let the doctor check you first."
"I'm fine!" Matthew insisted, shaking his head.
He had worked on construction sites before, where minor injuries were common. He felt it was just a superficial injury to his arm, nothing serious.
No production team wants an actor injured, as it often means a lot of trouble.
Not only did the doctor arrive quickly, but producers Gary Goetzman and Eric Bork also came over.
"Where does it hurt?" the doctor asked as he knelt beside Matthew, who pointed to his left arm, "Here."
The doctor unbuttoned his sleeve and asked, "Anywhere else?"
Matthew shook his head, "Doesn't seem like it hurts anywhere else."
As the doctor rolled up his sleeve, revealing a bruised area on his upper arm, he felt around and then breathed a sigh of relief, "The bone seems fine, just a superficial injury."
Matthew also relaxed, grateful it wasn't more serious.
He then followed the doctor's instructions to move his limbs, confirming it was only a minor injury to his arm.
"Let's go to the hospital to get it looked after," David Frankel suggested.
Though he said this, his furrowed brow showed his concern was more about the shooting schedule. The scene setup was not easy, and they had already shot most of it. Rain, which could occur at any time in London's unpredictable weather, would complicate things further.
David Frankel, Gary Goetzman, and Eric Bork were all worried. A filming delay meant increased costs—something producers dread, but they couldn't neglect an injured actor.
"If you have a strong agent behind you, it gets even more complicated," Matthew thought, knowing well that David Frankel's concern was likely the filming progress rather than his well-being.
"This little injury..." Matthew tested his left arm, which still ached but seemed otherwise fine, and raised his voice, "I don't need to go to the hospital."
David Frankel immediately looked over, and Matthew continued, "It's just a superficial injury, work comes first!"
Since Matthew insisted, the others didn't object. After the doctor treated his arm and his makeup was touched up, he was back in front of the cameras.
The wall wasn't repaired but was reinforced, and David Frankel decided to use the footage they had just shot. After restarting the filming, Matthew leaped over the wall and ran back to the building, sprinting through a scene set with German tanks and actors.
Gary Goetzman and Eric Bork watched from a distance.
"He's a very dedicated young man," Gary Goetzman remarked, appreciating Matthew's work ethic, "He's saved the production a lot of unnecessary trouble."
He asked Eric Bork, "What's this young man's name?"
Eric Bork knew Matthew well, "Matthew Horner, personally selected by Hanks during the auditions."
Gary Goetzman nodded, "Hanks has a good eye. Visit him tonight and give him some encouragement."
"Sure, I understand," Eric Bork recalled a conversation with Helen Herman about something else that was more problematic than expected, with the final decision not up to him but Gary Goetzman. After a pause, he suggested, "How about this, we have a press event tonight, why not let Matthew Horner attend?"
"That's possible," Gary Goetzman considered briefly.
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