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Veterans know how to lead. The lessons we learned in the military form the foundation for bigger successes in business, entrepreneurship and community.
Host John S Berry, CEO of Berry Law, served as an active-duty Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army, finishing his military career with two deployments and retiring as a Battalion Commander in the National Guard. Today, his veteran led team at Berry Law, helps their clients fight some of the most important battles of their lives. Leading successful teams in the courtroom, the boardroom, and beyond, veteran leadership drives the firm’s rapid growth and business excellence.
Whether building teams, synchronizing operations, or refining tactics, we share our experiences, good and bad, to help you survive, thrive and dominate.
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[00:00:01.05] - Matthew Marsden
Just looking at what it means to be a veteran, what is the core values that veterans have? What a person does it take to run towards a gunshot rather than running away?
[00:00:13.19] - John S. Berry
Welcome to Veteran Led. Today's guest is actor Matthew Marsden. You've seen him in Black Hawk Down, Rambo, and several other movies. Welcome to the show, Matthew.
[00:00:26.06] - Matthew Marsden
Oh, thank you for having me.
[00:00:27.12] - John S. Berry
You're not a veteran, but you play one in the movies.
[00:00:30.00] - Matthew Marsden
Yeah, I get to do all the cool stuff and without all the drama and the negative aspects of it. So I get to look good while I'm not having any of the danger.
[00:00:39.10] - John S. Berry
And you don't have an accent in the movies, but you do have an accent now. So where are you from?
[00:00:43.06] - Matthew Marsden
Well, no, I don't have an accent. You guys have an accent. So no, originally, I'm from the UK. So I grew up in the Midlands. And it's funny because where I grew up, actually, my best friend growing up went into the military. So it was very much the people in the area would And that was certainly an out for them. Very different, I think, to the approach in America. But because I feel like in America, in my experience, people feel like mission led to go into the military, whereas in the UK, it's like, oh, what am I going to do? I'm not doing anything else. So I'll go in the military and learn either a trade or I'll go into the infantry and get stuff done.
[00:01:28.12] - John S. Berry
So let's go back to what you do well and different than a lot of actors in Hollywood. A lot of actors pay lip service to supporting veterans, but you've made that part of your life.
[00:01:40.12] - Matthew Marsden
Well, I was very fortunate because the first movie I did in Hollywood was Black Hawk Down. We knew it was going to be a special movie, but I didn't know really how much it was going to impact my life. If you imagine or if you can remember back to the heady days of 2000, we weren't in the Iraq War. When it came to us depicting conflict, pretty much unless you're in SF, you're in the special operations community, you're looking back to Grenada and to Black Hawk Down. We went off and we did the old training thing. I remember we were outside the shoot house there in Fort Benning, Georgia. I asked one of the guys, Do my acting thing. I was like, Why are you a soldier? Why are you doing that? And he was like, I'm doing it for freedom. And I'd never heard anyone say that before, certainly as an Englishman. And I was like, Wow, that's amazing. Like I said, going back to what I was saying before, my friend actually went into the military because he hit an undercover policeman. He was running from some football violence. And so I was like, Oh, you'd die for me, weren't you?
[00:02:57.08] - Matthew Marsden
And he went, Yes, sir. And I'm like, This is amazing. I've never heard this before. And so I took the opportunity after then, after we trained with the Rangers and when we went through the training and through the filming of the movie, I stayed involved. And I'm like, How These are my people. These are the people that I relate to more than the actors that I'm on set with. And so that sparked a relationship. And I was like, you know what? I saw the impact of portraying a veteran and portraying a soldier accurately, what that meant to the community. And I was like, You know what? Not many people are doing this, so I'm going to make a career out of it. And that was my decision. So it was very fortunate to do it.
[00:03:40.13] - John S. Berry
And you've done other work, not only military movies, but also recently a movie about a veteran.
[00:03:46.09] - Matthew Marsden
Yeah, that's right. It's kind of funny. After Black Hawk Down, I was in a very interesting predicament because I would have veterans come and talk to me, reach out to me, even though I wasn't a veteran, but I was in the club. So I felt like a lot of them felt comfortable talking to me about different things. And from 2001, which is when we released Black Hawk Down, progressing through the 2000s, there weren't that many pro-American, pro-veteran movies, actually, if you think about the majority of them that came out through that period. And so in my discussions with a lot of my veteran friends, they were like, Oh, we We don't like this and we don't like that. And all the time it was like lodging in my head. Same complaints, same issues. I'm like, It doesn't take a lot for Hollywood to get it right. It just means asking the guys, Would you do this? And would you do that? And look, they do that a lot. They have tech advisors, but a lot of time people just say, whatever, it doesn't matter. So I took a bunch of those stories and I thought, you know what?
[00:04:56.02] - Matthew Marsden
It'd be great to make a film that would be authentic for the veterans. And that's where I wrote, I am that man. And I sent the script around to a bunch of my friends. I was like, give me notes. Where am I going wrong? What should I do here? What is cliché? What do guys hate? And they gave me the feedback that I needed to make the movie that I did. And it's been a real success. So I'm very proud of that film.
[00:05:21.06] - John S. Berry
Yeah, great film. And it has that authenticity that Hollywood misses. Now, a lot of veterans, we watch the war movies and we see that the uniform is jacked up, the rank, the insignia. Some of them get it right, some of them don't. But I think it's getting that veteran persona down and getting away from the stereotypes, but getting to what's real. And you got there by talking to veterans, by getting involved in the community. And to this day, you're still very involved.
[00:05:49.01] - Matthew Marsden
Yeah. Well, I mean, I live under the freedom that they provide me. My kids can go to an ice cream shop or they can go to the 711 and not worry about getting hit by an IED because we have veterans that are going and they fought in foreign wars so they can be free. So that's something that is really, really important to me. And I think that increasingly, as we move further and further away from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's very easy, especially with the 24-hour news cycle, for people to memory all that. But it still lives with veterans every day. That doesn't go away. And so I think it's important to be active to keep these wars and actually the issues the veterans are still going through on a daily basis, to keep it in the public eye, because like I said, it's very easy to move on from that. But we owe a debt of gratitude to veterans. And one of the ways of doing that is doing movies. And there's so many stories, so many great stories of heroism, like the greatest example of what it means to be an I can, I believe, is the actions of heroism from veterans.
[00:07:05.16] - John S. Berry
Absolutely. I think it's not just that one action that we see in the movies. This is an entire lifetime. And sometimes the effects that maybe you see in Black Hawk Down, and you say, Well, wow, that happened. But you have veterans who experience that, who are still living today and living with some of the trauma and living with some of the physical injuries as well. When you're out there and you're acting and you're trying to capture this, how do you relate to it? I mean, you've talked to... These are your friends. These are people you talk to. But how do you step into a role and say, I'm going to embody all of this?
[00:07:40.21] - Matthew Marsden
It's tough, right? Because it's like anything. The veteran community has all different kinds of personalities in it. So, what I try and do is I look for the way that the military unites them. So, for example, my character in Black Hawk Down is very different to my character in Rambo. It was very different to the other characters I played playing a seal in I Am That Man. And also people at different stages of life, right? So, when I dealt with I Am That Man, that was someone coming home from the war and feeling like they didn't have that camaraderie that they had. And also when they walked onto a base, they were the rock stars on the base. And now they walked around, they're treated like anybody else. And it doesn't What they did doesn't matter anymore. Because I have a friend who has a TBI, and he said it's funny because he doesn't get treated the same way that someone who's lost a limb does. But he goes, But I was in Walter Reed for a year. With half of my head gone. And it's just I think that what you need to do is, with any role, it's different when you write it to when you're playing something that's already written.
[00:08:55.07] - Matthew Marsden
So I knew when I was doing Black Hawk Down, I was portraying a real person. And so that takes. That's a very heavy burden when you're doing that. I think I was probably the only actor to be invited to the anniversary by the guys from Black Hawk Down, which was a big compliment, I think. I've spoken to Dale on the phone. We still haven't met, but we've spoken multiple times, and I think that is a great compliment when someone says, I'm glad you portrayed me the right way. But just looking at what it means to be a veteran, what is the core values that veterans have? What a person does it take to run towards a gunshot rather than running away? All these things you have to mull around in your head and then fit your own personality into that to make it work within the context of the story as well. So it's a lot more difficult than people think. People think you just go out and you just pick up a gun and you run around and you act. But when you take these things seriously, especially when you're playing a real person, it's a lot more in-depth.
[00:10:05.20] - Matthew Marsden
It takes a lot more work than what most people would think. But I've found that the most criticism I get, it's kind of funny, actually. So in Rambo, I play a sniper. And the truth is, is when we were shooting that movie, we got to... Because you know you don't always shoot in chronological order. And one of the shots I do in that is I'm up on on a tower and I'm sniping people. And they said to me, Marsden, you got to go. You got to get on a plane. You got to leave now. And I had a closeup on my finger. And I was like, No, you got to go. Off, off, off. So I leave and my stunt double. There's the trigger pull. And man, I have to keep saying, It's not my finger. Look, that's not my... Because they're like, Slappity slap, slappity slap. And I'm like, I didn't I didn't slap the trigger. Okay, I didn't slap the trigger. But it's like little things like that, the way you move, the way you talk to people, gain your salute, correct, putting your beret on the right way.
[00:11:11.12] - John S. Berry
Hey, we still have trouble with that.
[00:11:14.13] - Matthew Marsden
Well, the funny thing is when I was working with the Army Rangers, they were like, firstly, because I learned, this is funny, I learned, so you imagine, from England, never picked up a gun in my life. And I come across and we started training with the M4 as well. It was like the M16s. They gave us the old, the M16s. And I totally flagged someone like that. And one of the Army Rangers came out, we just go, whack, hits me. You never do that. You never flag someone. Nice under like that. And I never did it again. I've never done it in my life ever again. So it's a steep learning curve. But they really, like they said to us, don't flag anyone, obviously. Conserve your ammo and don't do flappity flap with your chin strap. That drives us mad. Like the John Wayne thing where you just have the chin strap like that. No, we got to be dolled away. Actually, we really took that very, very seriously, especially the British actors. I think we took it actually more seriously than the Americans, to be honest, because when you're playing another country's soldiers, you got to be dialed in.
[00:12:24.10] - Matthew Marsden
But those things all come together, I think, to create the role. And I think I've been very fortunate. I think I've done a good job. I hope I've done a good job. You guys love to tell me.
[00:12:34.07] - John S. Berry
Yeah, great job. We love it. Now, you've also been in other movies like Anacondas and Atlas Shrugged. As you prepare for those other roles, is it the same level of intensity? I mean, obviously, look, you're a capitalist, you love America. I notice that most of your roles are in line with that. Yeah. But from going to being a veteran and the gratitude that you have, do you prepare differently or is it less intense or are you just like, Hey, no, it's the same level of intensity for everything or something's easier for you?
[00:13:12.22] - Matthew Marsden
Yeah, I mean, some things are easy. I say this to everyone who says, I want to get into acting. What does it take? Is it difficult? Do I have to get it to character? I'm like, look, when you're being screamed at by a director, then an F-16 is coming over and you've got to hit your line just as that F-16 is over. You're not getting into character. You're not going over into the corner and go, Let me think of my motivation. Just say the line and do it at the right time. But there are other... The role in Anacondas, for me was it's like a deliciously fun role because you get to play a villain. And normally, the best actors play the villain. If you look in history, the best actors play the villain. And so you tend to get the meaty lines. So you get to play a lot with those roles and have fun. And I think with that role in Anacondas, he is completely convinced that he's right. And if you get a role where the guy can actually make some kind of an argument, even if it's like a movie about giant snakes, which is ridiculous.
[00:14:17.23] - Matthew Marsden
But you have to believe it. You have to really believe what you're doing and go and do it. But it's certainly different to doing a military role, because you've got to be physically prepared. You've certainly got to be physically prepared for it. You don't have to be physically prepared for the other roles. And again, there's different levels of what importance that you put on it, right? Because to me, it's very important to get everything right, like check the uniform and stuff like that. I'm very vigilant.
[00:14:48.12] - John S. Berry
Did your pre-combat inspections, pre-combat checks, did all that?
[00:14:52.02] - Matthew Marsden
Yeah, no, I'm very light. I'll be like, I actually have this. I won't say who it is, but I had someone come up to me. We read this script, and I was like, and this was back then, and they were like, Army Ranger. Female Army Ranger. I was like, There are no female Army Rangers. That was back then. And they were like, Well, this person. And I was like, That is a ranger tab. You don't understand. That is different to being in the 75th Ranger Regiment. And all these things matter. And to Hollywood, they might not matter because they want the tab and they want to look cool. But I'm like, at that point, there were no one had gone into regiment. I know there are people that have certainly passed, have got tabbed. But when you try and tell people that, I'm like, That is really important to me because I will always be associated with the 75th Ranger Regiment my whole life, and I'm very honored to that. But when I played Jim Taggart, that's something who is completely opposite to who I am, completely opposite to what I believe. And again, so you go, you get to explore it.
[00:15:59.02] - Matthew Marsden
You're like, Okay, let Let me see what it's like being this person. And I actually made that a mish, a mash of... I based it on John Edwards. Remember John Edwards? Like kind of preening, loves himself, very arrogant, completely clueless. And that's what I based that character on. So, it's different for different characters. Again, when I worked with Stallone, when we did Rambo, he gave me this big speech, and it was all about the weapon that I was using. So, I'm a sniper in that movie. And I went, I don't know a sniper that would say this to you, dude. They just wouldn't say this. And he said to me, You want to cut the lines? And I'm probably the only actor in history that said to Stallone, I want less lines in a movie opposite you. And I said, because I know these guys, and that's not the way they are. And so he said, At this rate, none of us... Because you know Rambo famously doesn't say much. And I said, well, you brought me in to take over the franchise. So you wrote that character, and actually that's not right for that character. It's interesting taking on each role.
[00:17:12.17] - Matthew Marsden
And it's a great job. I love doing it, to be honest.
[00:17:17.16] - John S. Berry
What about the more high tech films? You're in one of the Transformers movies. With all the animation and everything, does that make it easier? Is it more forgiving or is it just as intense?
[00:17:27.18] - Matthew Marsden
It's just the same, to be honest. Basically, as far as things with Transformers is they'll say, Oh, up there, there's Optimus Prime. You got to stick with two balls on it. And you're like, That's Optimus Prime. Okay. I got to act up to Optimus Prime like he's a giant robot. But again, For me, it was a lot of fun. I got to be with the military again because actually, we shot enough in that movie to make our own military movie without all the other guys in it. I mean, there's so much footage. But then you get to I do really cool stuff on that. But technically, it's more complicated in the sense that you'll do a set piece and there'll be six cameras, and you don't know where the cameras are. And that's high stakes because you don't want to be the guy that messes up. And that's a lot of pressure. But I don't know. I thrive under that. It doesn't bother me. The bigger the movie, the more calm I am because I know there's more eyes on everything. But again, that was a real fun movie. Got to a lot of fun stuff.
[00:18:35.04] - Matthew Marsden
And I got to jump with the Golden Nights after that. So, I'm very honored.
[00:18:40.02] - John S. Berry
Yeah, absolutely. So, tell me a little bit about... Now, At one point, you were a model, and then you got into acting. Now, there's probably some veterans that are listening. They're like, Hey, I'd like to be an actor. What do I have to do with that? So, what was the hardest thing about getting into acting and getting the roles? And what's the flash to bang from the time that you decide you're going to do and the work you have to do before you're asked to be in a major motion picture?
[00:19:04.10] - Matthew Marsden
Okay. I was a model because I was very poor growing up. I had no way of putting myself through college. My mom was a single parent. So, I was like, I'm never going to go to college unless I figure out a way. I got scouted, actually. And I was like, This is easy. I'm like, I'll go and pose for a few pictures, make a few thousand dollars, and then I'll pay my way through college. But I was always kind of good at acting. It's what I've always wanted to do. I always wanted to do it. But I was like, in the UK, it's much more of a class thing than it is over here in the US. You can literally walk off the streets and become a mega star in the US. It's both the greatest thing and the worst thing about it, because when you're on set with those guys, they have no idea what they're doing. But technically, I can tell you this is why veterans make very, very good actors. They're really good to work with on set because you tell them where to go and they go there, and they do what the director tells them to do.
[00:20:08.21] - Matthew Marsden
That means if you say, go over there and hit your mark, every time they'll hit their mark, it's amazing to watch. British actors are very similar because we come from a theater background where it's drilled into us. You got to go there. You got to hit your mark, say your line. And it's not so much like, what's my motivation for this? Okay, you're doing a play, you're doing a movie. That's what you got to do, right? And veterans actually transition really well to that when I've worked with them. I've worked with them both on the tech side of things. I've seen them act as well. And if they can connect through to the other aspect, which is more the emotional aspect. And I think actually it's very cathartic because I think a lot of people that get into acting are, it's going to sound super broken people. They have stuff they want to work out. And a lot of time they want to do in front of millions of people, which is why you don't get the most well adjusted people as actors. But listen, certainly, I guess for me, growing up, not having a dad, living in a rough area, I wanted to express myself in a different way.
[00:21:14.09] - Matthew Marsden
I was always thinking differently to a lot of the people around me. So I don't know why acting sucked me that way, but it did. And what I've seen is a lot of veterans that come in, especially if they've had trauma, they do really well in acting. It works for them. I don't know why. Maybe it unlocks something. But I did modeling to paint my way through college. I was doing an acting degree, which is not worth the paper. It's written on, but I did learn a lot. I did a lot of studying. And then I left college because I was getting work as an actor. So then in the UK, it's like, Oh, you're going to go and be in a play? All right. You're going to go and be the third spear carrier on the right in Coriolanus over there in your local theater. So you never really think, I'm going to be in movies. It might be dream, but you don't think of it. So then you go, you do your plays. And then if you're good, you might get a bump up and get a little role on television, and then you might get a lead role on television.
[00:22:15.20] - Matthew Marsden
And then the progression for there is the skip to movies. And then the big jump is from England or British films to Hollywood. And so that's pretty much what I did. So I went and I got into theater, did some theater. Didn't really like theater that much because I wanted to create new roles. I didn't want to play Hamlet. I didn't have any desire because I'm like, Kenneth Branner has done that and it's brilliant. He's brilliant. So I wanted to create new roles. So I was very lucky. I got into the biggest show on British television, won an award for it, and then did a movie, Michael Caine. And that's when I came to Hollywood in the first movie, it was Black Hawk Down. I'm like, that was easy. No, No, but I mean, it's one of those things where it was actually a real great era of movies. It's the last great era, I think from 2000 to 2010. I think the majority of stuff that's come after then has been pretty bad, with some exceptions, like the stuff that Chris Nolan has done. But it's really changed. But what that does is that gives an opportunity for creativity for people to tell their stories, like veterans to get out there and make films and do stuff like this.
[00:23:31.21] - Matthew Marsden
I think it's because the thing about the veteran community and the military is that there's a lot of discipline and there's a lot of mission focus. So that is completely lacking in Hollywood. I can tell you that. So if you have an idea that you want to go out and do something, go make your own stuff. Go do it. Go get a camera, go make it. And it might be terrible. I would say, I was told the first screen player by the guy who wrote Black Hawk Down, he went, your first draft is going to be crap. So just go, it's going to be crap. Then rewrite it. And so that's the way I look at it. You've just got to go through the process. But it Like I said, it's a very good industry, I think, for veterans to get into because they're disciplined, they hit their marks, they're able to take great direction. There's no ego there that I've found. And if you look back again at the golden era, if you're looking at the 1950s, all those guys were veterans, like Jimmy Stewart, even Clint Eastwood is a veteran. I really encourage veterans to go into the movie industry and into creative endeavors.
[00:24:49.23] - Matthew Marsden
I think it's important.
[00:24:52.16] - John S. Berry
Now, you've already told us it takes a long time, takes a lot of work. But if there's one thing that you have done that has helped you the most as an actor, what do you think it would be?
[00:25:02.00] - Matthew Marsden
That's a great question. I'm very stubborn. I won't quit. And I think that's probably why I see kindred spirits, I think, with guys in the military, girls in the military, because they don't quit. They won't give in. And you have to be prepared to just continually get knocked down, get knocked down, because a lot of people will see the successes, but they don't see the thousand rejections you get up until that point. And I think for me, I was like, I will always outwork the other guy. I might not be as talented. I might not be as good-looking. I might not be as whatever it might be, but they will never outwork me. And that, I think, it was the key to me being a success.
[00:25:53.21] - John S. Berry
So now we're going to move to the after-action review where we talk about leadership. And if you could give us an example of great leadership and poor leadership. I know you've learned a lot about military leadership, but in the world of acting, the leadership you've seen. Obviously, you probably have to have seen some directors get some prima donas to do the thing they didn't want to do, and you've probably seen some directors do some horrible things. But what have you seen that has been the outstanding leadership? And the other thing that you say, I never want to be that leader.
[00:26:25.08] - Matthew Marsden
Okay. I think the first thing that comes to mind to me is actually not what a what a director did, but what an actor did. And by the way, he's a veteran, oddly enough. When I was doing a movie with Michael Caine, I went up to him towards the end of it. And I said, Michael, do you have any tips for me? And he said, you're doing just fine. That was it. That's all he said. And I was like, Huh? Okay. And years later, I'm watching a TV show and he's been interviewed. And the interviewer says, do you have any tips for actors? And he said, I never give tips. He said, because when I was younger, I asked an actor for tips. And he said, Yeah, here's a tip, quit. And he said, So I never do that. I never give him tips. And I thought, you know, it's amazing that he did that because what he's basically saying is, you're acting opposite me, dude. You're there. You've done it. This is it. Stop not believing in yourself. Stop doubting. You're enough. And I thought that was really great leadership because he could have been like, you need to move.
[00:27:44.06] - Matthew Marsden
You need to change this. You need to change that. That's not right. Actually, in the moment, what would it have done? Absolutely nothing. It wouldn't have been better for me. But what it did was it affirmed me moving forward. I'm like, one of the greatest actors in history just said, you're doing fine. I was like, that's kind of amazing. And he had to go through that because he nearly quit. He got the job on Zulu at the very last minute. He was going to quit the industry. So, he's talking from experience. So, I think that that was really, really great leadership. Poor leadership. I've seen some directors yell at people, and it just never gets you. I work with one person. I'll tell you this story. I work with one person, and they were really, really wound up with the director, and they were yelling at the director. And there's all this conflict before. I arrived on set, and this was going on. There was this fight between the director and the actor, and I'm like, Oh, no. This person came up and said to me, I won't say who it is, but they were like, do you want to work again?
[00:28:56.11] - Matthew Marsden
Do you want to work again? Because you're not going to work again because that guy is terrible. He's a terrible director. And the director is like, There, his wife's there. The studio's there. And I'm like, oh, no. I walked up to this person. I was like, okay, listen. Because sometimes you have to know where to guide these people to a place where they need to be. So, I said, hey, listen, that might be right. Because I wasn't going to go in there at that point and go, hey, stop being so rude. Because then it would have been, You're the enemy. You're going to get both back. No. So, what I said was, I said, hey, listen, there's not going to be a subtitle underneath this scene saying that we were bad because you were pissed off at the director. We're on screen. Not them. And they went, Oh, okay. I guess you're right. I was like, yeah. So, let's make this the best scene we can. All right? So, I totally turned it around. But I think that was a case of... Because you're in a really peculiar situation as an actor. If you're number one on the call sheet or number two on the call sheet, it's one of these weird situations where you have just as much power, if a lot more power, than the producer and the director.
[00:30:18.23] - Matthew Marsden
But the producer and the director are the ones that hired you. So, it's a weird dynamic. You can't really tell me what to do because if I walk off set, you're screwed. And so the directors have to be careful. I mean, of course, if you're working with a bigger director, that's not the case. Get off, fired, right? But it's a weird thing. So, I think as an actor, if you want two or three on the call sheet, you have to exhibit leadership and the way you carry yourself, because if you don't behave well, everyone else thinks that that's permission for them to behave that way. And so anyway, I think that it was bad leadership on the part of that actor at the time. A lot of the times it comes from insecurity because they don't think they really should be there in that role, or they're lashing out, or they can't deal with the pressure. I'm actually one of those people where the more pressure I get, the more chilled out I get. I don't know why. My wife says this. She's like, if you bombard me with... If you give me one thing to do, like I'm a nightmare, if you give me 15 things to do, I'm uber-focused.
[00:31:29.03] - Matthew Marsden
I think that's a case of a bad leadership. I will give you one other example. I was on a movie where one of the actors were playing up and the director was like, imagine walking into this, man. This was crazy. He was like, Everybody, get off set. Get off set. And I'm there like, okay. And I'm one of the leads in the movie. And I'm like, oh, man. And the one actor is there, and the director is going up. You can see him getting into And I was like, because again, it's forever. Once you go into that scene after then, it's captured forever. So, it doesn't matter what your motivation was going into it. It's there. And I walked up to the director afterwards and I said, I just want to say that I'm really sorry that you have to go through that. And he went, nobody's going to care at the premiere. I went, he goes, Trust me, nobody's going to care at the premiere. And I remember being at the premiere, that actor, hugging that director. And it was like, and it just stuck in my head. So that was a lesson that I learned, I think, from that.
[00:32:41.00] - Matthew Marsden
Yeah, good leadership there.
[00:32:42.05] - John S. Berry
Leaders get results. Yeah. It's about the result, the end product.
[00:32:46.05] - Matthew Marsden
Get the result. If he got into it with the actor, really, it was going to disrupt the whole thing. The budget was going to go up. People are going to get mad. He just kept his eye on getting where he needed to get in in that instance, it was the right thing to do.
[00:33:03.01] - John S. Berry
So, Matthew Marsden, how can veterans and others listening learn more about you? Where can they find you and follow you?
[00:33:10.20] - Matthew Marsden
Okay, well, they can find me on Matthew D. Marsden. They can follow me on Twitter, Matthew D. Marsden. I apologize in advance. I've got colorful language, I'm just saying. And Matthew D. Marsden, both on Instagram and on YouTube.
[00:33:25.04] - John S. Berry
And I want to end it with this. What role do you want play in the future?
[00:33:32.14] - Matthew Marsden
That is a great question. I'm a little bit too old for that role. The role that I really would love to play, I can't play it anymore, but it would be James Bond. I think every guy that grew up in the UK, it would be James Bond. But I think apart from that, what I would like to do rather than play a role is to mentor people coming into the industry and to do a medal of honor series where we can do a movie about Roy Benavides and tell these stories of these great men that were really exceptional examples of masculinity, what it means to be an American, and what it means to be a hero. So really, what role would it like to be is to be the guy that makes the things happen for the others now, because you do get to that point where getting old, dude, I know. It happens to us all, right? We're just like, Oh, I got a bad neck. I got a bad arm. Well, now is the time for people like me to start imparting our knowledge and our skills to people that are coming through.
[00:34:49.11] - Matthew Marsden
And that's really what I'd like to do.
[00:34:57.08] - John S. Berry
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