That's pretty amazing that you only had a week for that, because everything looked very realistic, the way the whole unit worked. It helped shape the reality of that, and then fit the dialogue around that.
We had a real Navy Seal named Jeffrey Reeves with us and Tom Minter was our military advisor, a former Marine, so that was good.
The guys went through - we only had a week for them - but we gave them a hell week, a week of boot camp and military training and guns and how to fire the weapons, how to march and how a squad works. That's the way we approached it, and hopefully, to that extent, it works because we wanted it to be real and true. So, unless we get that, the other thing doesn't work either, so we've got to get that.
Again, it's that thematic thing, I think it's closer in number one than in number two, but it was that aspect of the movie that I talked about so much, because if you don't care about the men and humanize them and their plight and what they're doing, then I don't care how much money you've got for explosions and stuff, it's just boring, it's stupid. Here was this single man who stood up to that. When I talked to them, I said the thing I loved about the first Behind Enemy Lines movie that John Moore did, was the film was about, certainly it was about the military and all that, but it was about justice in a world where people didn't seem to care, or were overrun by people who didn't care about justice. I think that all sort worked into my favor. If you're going to do a military movie, you've got to do it right. I'm not a gung-ho kind of guy, but I do honor our military. The kicker too, the bonus for them was I was a former Marine, so I knew the military. Kennedy - this is his first real acting thing too. They liked that I was an actor and working with Mr. They liked the way I shot, the way I approach the work. There were a couple of things that were sort of in my favor. You should meet him.' He gave me the script and I looked at it and went in and talked to them about it.
I had such a good experience with that show and working with the guys down in Flordia that when Jeff was offered to produce this movie, he said, 'Well, I've got the guy you could use. I had worked on Burn Notice, the USA series, with Jeff Freilich, who's an old friend of mine and a producer. So when did you first learn of Tobias' (Iaconis) script and the possibility of you directing it? I had the chance to speak with Matheson over the phone, and here's what he had to say.
With over 150 film and TV credits to his name, including his beloved Otter character in Animal House and Vice President John Hoynes on The West Wing, Matheson has been directing for the small screen and now finds himself at the helm of Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia (which he also performs in front of the camera in as well), which just hit the DVD shelves on January 6. Tim Matheson has certainly had a fine career in front of the camera, but in recent years he's been establishing himself behind the camera as well. The actor-turned-director talks about his first action film, his cast and future projects The actor-turned-director talks about his first action film, his cast and future projects.