"This is Mr. Matthew Horner."
Inside the press room, after the crew's publicist introduced him, Matthew stood up and bowed slightly, a warm and brilliant smile on his face. The beard he had grown for the set of "Black Hawk Down" hadn't been shaved off yet, giving him a maturity beyond his years.
The reporters' reactions were lukewarm, so the publicist added, "Mr. Matthew Horner is the actor playing Ronald Speirs, the fourth commander of Easy Company."
At this, reporters immediately raised their hands; the character was clearly more appealing than the actor.
After the publicist called on someone, a staff member brought over a microphone.
"Hello, Mr. Ma… Matthew Horner, I'm a reporter from 'Empire' magazine." The reporter stood up and asked, "Can you tell us the truth about Ronald Speirs killing prisoners of war?"
There was a related plot in the second episode of the TV series, and subsequent edits also highlighted this aspect, which was why he asked the question.
Matthew was noncommittal, deliberately saying something thought-provoking: "Have you noticed that everyone says they heard these stories from someone who was there, but when you ask that person, they'll say they heard it from another person who was there?"
Although the TV series dealt with whether Speirs actually killed POWs in a somewhat fictionalized way, killing POWs was a fairly common phenomenon in Hollywood war films.
Matthew still remembered a scene during filming: Captain Winters, played by Damian Lewis, ordered his men to escort prisoners of war, and told the soldiers to remove all but one bullet from their guns. In his mind, this was to prevent soldiers from wantonly killing POWs, and it also showed that killing POWs might have been quite common at the time.
After all, killing prisoners was the simplest and most effective way to deal with them.
Two more reporters then asked questions, all procedural, and Matthew's media time ended. This was only because he played Ronald Speirs; actors like James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender didn't even get a chance to enter the press room.
There were over a dozen actors in the press room, and each had limited time for media interviews.
However, Matthew would also participate in two promotional events for the crew in Los Angeles, one of which was a fundraiser for elderly, sick, and neglected veterans.
The weekend after the Utah Beach premiere, "Band of Brothers" officially debuted on HBO, broadcasting to paying subscribers. HBO was not a public television station, with approximately over 15 million subscribers.
Even among paid TV stations in the US, it was one of the most expensive.
In other words, HBO catered to the top tier of television viewers.
Extensive publicity, exquisite production, high production costs, influential producers, and that special historical period allowed "Band of Brothers" to achieve impressive weekend premiere numbers.
In its initial broadcast on Sunday night and rerun the following morning, the first episode of "Band of Brothers" garnered over 10 million viewers. While this couldn't compare to public television dramas, two-thirds of HBO's subscribers watched the series.
In the following weeks, viewership declined slightly, but "Band of Brothers" consistently maintained over 8 million viewers per episode.
Even more explosive than the viewership numbers was the word-of-mouth for "Band of Brothers."
Critics gave the mini-series consistently high praise, with many believing it would become a classic among World War II cinematic works, even before its run concluded.
The public's reception of "Band of Brothers" was equally explosive; even by the ninth episode, when the number of rating users exceeded 100,000, its IMDB score remained steadily above 9.5.
"The brilliance of 'Band of Brothers' lies in its consistent portrayal of war with a compassionate spirit, mostly depicting the lives of ordinary soldiers, with hardly any high-ranking generals. Compared to the highly realistic war scenes, a group of vivid and unforgettable ordinary people moved the audience more."
There were too many similar reviews, so many that it was hard to keep up.
"From this day to the ending of the world, we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."
After a ten-week run, the premiere of "Band of Brothers" on HBO concluded.
Thanks to the series' high profile, Matthew, for playing the fourth commander of Easy Company, also received some attention. Unfortunately, media coverage of him was far less than imagined, and even the male lead, Damian Lewis, was no exception. It seemed that the audience and media's focus was entirely on the series' plot.
This could be said to be a mini-series where the plot far overshadowed the characters.
Fortunately, while the attention wasn't extensive, there was some.
In Cambridge, England, in an elegantly furnished apartment, Amanda was sitting in front of her computer, browsing the "Band of Brothers" section on the IMDB website. In the character introduction section, one character had held her attention for a long time.
"Ronald Speirs: Played by Matthew Horner. Speirs was originally a platoon leader in D Company. During the Battle of Bastogne, he was ordered to take over as commander of Easy Company after Dyck lost command capability, earning the trust of the entire company. He was a legendary figure in the 2nd Battalion, brave and decisive, sometimes even ruthless, a quintessential iron-blooded soldier. His other hobby was 'collecting' trophies."
Amanda looked at the picture in the character description: a steel helmet covered half his head, revealing a resolute face below.
"Matthew…" Amanda smiled, "is he really going to become a star?"
She clearly remembered this actor, who was slightly older than her. She had once said she would visit him on set, but she was always busy with her studies and never made it.
The reason she was in England, where subscriptions were somewhat inconvenient, and yet watched "Band of Brothers," was largely because of Matthew Horner.
What she hadn't expected was that the "small role" Helen had mentioned turned out to be quite brilliant.
Amanda looked at the stills for a while, then specifically applied for an IMDB account and left her first movie review on the "Band of Brothers" web page.
"The incredibly charismatic character in 'Band of Brothers' – Ronald Speirs!"
"After watching 'Band of Brothers,' the fourth commander of Easy Company, Ronald Speirs, left a deep impression on me…"
Amanda wrote one sentence, then found herself unable to continue. It was her first time writing something like this. After a long pause, she began typing again.
"Matthew Horner, who plays Ronald Speirs, portrayed one of the most distinctive characters in 'Band of Brothers,' at least in my opinion. His performance imbued Ronald Speirs with composure, fortitude, bravery, fearlessness, a hatred for evil, and unwavering determination… I like this character more than Winters."
On the other hand, while the media was more concerned with the plot, they did not entirely overlook the character of Ronald Speirs.
After the seventh episode of "Band of Brothers" aired, "Entertainment Weekly" once featured Ronald Speirs as a key figure in its coverage of that episode.
"…Ronald Speirs never denied killing POWs in the show because he wanted everyone to know that his ruthlessness was consistent with the rules of the battlefield. As viewers, we can like Winters' care for his soldiers, but what truly symbolizes a soldier's essence on the battlefield is Speirs."
"Compared to Sobel, this character played by Matthew Horner is equally ruthless, but his theories come from the war he faces. In the third episode, when he counsels the timid Blithe, he proposes that soldiers must be 'without pity, without sympathy, without remorse.'"
"Entertainment Weekly" focused more on the character of Ronald Speirs, only briefly mentioning Matthew, the actor playing the role.
During filming, Matthew had a considerable amount of screen time, but after watching the ten finished episodes, he realized that the character of Ronald Speirs was actually just a relatively prominent supporting role throughout the series.
Although somewhat regrettable, it was not unexpected, as the film's protagonist was Richard Winters, and the main characters revolved around those close to Richard Winters.
"Actually, you have quite a fan base."
In a suite at the Beverly Hilton, Britney, wearing only a man's shirt, sat on the sofa, scrolling through a laptop. Her face was still flushed, as if some things hadn't faded yet. She said to Matthew, who was wearing a bathrobe, "Come here and look, a lot of people are commenting on you on Yahoo."
Matthew poured two glasses of water, walked over, and sat next to Britney, leaning in to look at the screen.
Britney pointed at the hotel suite's built-in laptop and said, "Right here, someone specifically asked a question."
Matthew had already seen it; it was indeed content related to him.
"Who plays Lieutenant Ronald Speirs in 'Band of Brothers'?"
The person asking clearly didn't know Matthew, but then again, very few people knew Matthew at that time.
Someone below replied: "His name is Matthew Horner! A new actor."
The question didn't end there; someone else left a comment: "I really like this character! When I saw him being called to take over as Easy Company commander in that episode, he burst out of the bomb smoke like he had a cheat code, then ran back and forth across enemy territory, it was amazing! I've been paying attention to him ever since."
Britney scrolled down the page, and to Matthew's surprise, there were quite a few comments.
"I feel like the character this actor created is really good. Tall and strong, dark hair, rugged and handsome face, very strict. He has the look of a leader, and acts like a leader… a strong, aggressive, brave, and resourceful infantry platoon leader."
"Such a handsome actor, so many mysterious events creating enough buzz for him. Then, the utterly terrible Captain Dike predictably messed up when it was his turn, and at that moment, with a huge explosion from a shell, Matthew Horner made a dazzling entrance, and once he became company commander, his command in battle was almost supernatural…"
After watching for a while, Matthew felt quite pleased, but then he looked at Britney in front of him and came back down to earth.