Band of Brothers Actor on Filming Iconic WWII Miniseries | James Madio

playing Frank perconti versus playing the superhero is is much different because you're playing a real life hero now I didn't know that going into this project as an actor you think it's going to be great doing a series band Brothers Tom Hanks Steven Spielberg you're like wow it's gonna be great it's gonna open doors I'm going to be able to audition for everything and maybe be a bigger movie star and more red carpets and more movie posters and maybe more money you know and then you recognize what it what it's done to you as a man and how you've grown and uh it's just it's a very very unique project and I'm I'm honored and I won't even be a part of that series you are about to Embark upon the great crusade to meet this mounting aggression and make no mistake about it good will prevail I knew nothing I knew absolutely nothing about the military I was from the Bronx New York Five Sisters I still have five sisters living on the streets smaller guys I was like you know Concrete Jungle fighting my own little war just trying to survive out there uh and started an acting career I I know some of my great uncles were in the war we just never talked about it and by time there was time to talk about it or an interest they they had passed on but no no family member has served incredibly playing Frank perconti versus playing a superhero is is much different because you're playing a real life hero so you want to make sure that you get this right and that was the key for all of us and all the actors and I tell you know I tell it all the time to people uh uh that Tom and Stephen you know wanted to make sure that Rihanna these men properly these Elite men that did you know remarkable heroic things so for me uh I mainly just started reading books about the 101st Airborne about World War II and tried to speak to as many uh men and Veterans from there that that were around uh HBO gave us this wonderful beautiful like book of information on Frank Picante and gave you an opportunity to call him too at the end it had his phone number and his address I didn't want to call him because I didn't know if I was going to open up you know Old Wounds and he might get pissed and be like no I don't want to talk about I didn't know what type of guy he was so I wrote him a letter and I didn't hear back from him for like a week then all of a sudden my phone rings we were in boot camp all hour excuse me our acting bootcamp forgive me uh and uh well right before we went to boot camp I my phone rang we wouldn't allowed to have phones and boot camp uh and it was Frank and it just talked with them and he was just full of excitement and he just wanted to give so much information so for that that meant a lot to me and I was able to sort of find out so many little things that he smoke did he drink did he curse how he was uniform who his best friends everything like that and then I would translate all the information to their producers and they would kind of incorporate that into the new scripts or or the edit you know the first scene that Frank had was him I think it was what Joe toy with Joe's talking about in Joe toy in episode one when they're putting together their their jump bags and he's talking about my brass knuckles my skivvies and this and then uh I was originally going to be smoking a cigarette in that and if Frank didn't call and we didn't talk and ask him his questions the first thing he would have saw his character on TV do is smoke a cigarette something that he's never touched in his life so little things like that you know you want to make sure that you do the best job possible for and for his family as well you want his family to kind of look up on that screen and look at grandpa or dad or Uncle Frank and you know just know that man that's that's my grandfather on the screen has there been has it been surprising to you to see the affection that people have for that series I wouldn't say like surprised I guess what I like to say is that Series has shaped me and molded me as a man there's no doubt about it uh who I am the relationships that I had with the other actors and the producers and the writers and everybody in the relationship that we still have today it's the job that keeps on giving I get to come do this 20 years later because I got the opportunity on it to portray Frank Picante so here here we are but the global reach of Band of Brothers is phenomenal no matter where you go you go to small little towns and you go to St Mary's or you go to Eindhoven and people know who you are not only people that are you know 40 50 60 years old kids because they're watching it again you got their relatives kind of going watch this greatest Generation see what they've done you think you've got it hard look what these 18 19 20 year old kids went and did they sacrificed so I I feel like there's still that a strong American Soldier spirited and and uh and anytime that I could be involved in celebrating the American Soldier oh man I jump on that because I just think it's it's an honor to be in their company there is no doubt that the veterans are the celebrities here and everybody knows it just feel now being around them it's that natural sort of uh uh vibe that they have you just want to be around them you want to hear these stories you want to just in inject anything and digest any information from them and you're in all of them of what they did so yeah I just I I enjoy now I didn't know that going into this project as an actor you think it's going to be great doing a series band Brothers Tom Hanks Steven Spielberg all these great producers and directors involved the best of the best in the world you're like wow it's gonna be great it's gonna open doors I'm going to be able to audition for everything and maybe be a bigger movie star and more red carpets and more movie posters and maybe more money you know and then you recognize what it what it's done to you as a man and how you've grown and uh and how you treat people moving forward and the affection and the patience that you have with everything and it's just it's a very very unique project and I'm I'm honored and I won't even be a part of that series so um Dale's boot camps have resonated several times I don't know if there's any particular moment or uh experience from that well boot camp and and not to offend anybody in the room or watching it's an actress bootcamp so you know taking consideration I'm I'm talking about it from an actor's standpoint if you don't mean any disrespect for any anybody who served or went through the actual boot camp but it was tough for us they didn't make it easy for us at all they they stripped us of everything give us a green bag threw us in a bus threw us skull get haircuts we're looking at each other in this bus like what is going on then put Uniforms on us and brought us to like an old British Commando Base outside of London and uh I remember getting off the bus and Freddie Joe Farnsworth just comes charging up to me and screams in my face all these curse words and I'm just like I'm moving out of the way like because I'm no I'm not used to anybody coming in my face and his spit was hitting me as he's screaming them and he just started screaming at me and that's what I knew it was real to our our end and I was doing more push-ups and I ever thought I could possibly do uh I did okay with the boot camp physically like I was okay I mean we did start at 5am and go all the way to the end and and you would do you know Maneuvers and tank Maneuvers and you have to strip your weapon you'd go marching there was a lot uh you did a lot of that before he even had breakfast but then you'd have breakfast and you go do it all again sometimes you have night Duty and you would be out there at night so they made it difficult for us but I think it was very very smart of them and wise for them to do that boot camp because we bonded we recognized that uh because they stripped us about names we didn't know anybody's name we knew character names I didn't know Rick Gomez you know I know Rick Gomez I knew George loves you know I knew Garnier not Frank John Hughes all of them and uh what I struggled with but what that did was that bonded us and we knew that we needed each other to get through this this boot camp you know and I think when we came out the camaraderie with this was strong and uh and Tom Hanks saw that and and Steven saw that as well and they came to the boot camp and and said uh they gave us a wonderful speech what I struggled with in boot camp was a chain of command I didn't understand you know I was 23 years old 24 years old I I didn't understand the ranking in the chain of commands I would call People by the wrong ranking and I and you want a captain die story is if you ever saw a smoke come out of a man's ears like they do in the cartoons that was Captain die when he first got introduced to me you know he's twice my size and I called him uh I did two things in one sentence Donnie Wahlberg set me up I played call with Lipton and I said to Donnie I said uh we had a field strip a weapon and a certain amount of time and I'm that was fairly good at that too but something something was happening and with with my weapon I looked over to Donnie Wahlberg I said Donnie Donnie did this this the gun this is not happen this ain't working and he goes you're gone huh I was like yeah I said I'm gonna go talk to the general and tell them that this gun's not working and he was yeah picani you go March into general dye's office and tell him that your gun is not working that's exactly what I did and I swear I thought smoke came out of this man's ears because I said hey John will die this gun's not working and he was like what you used to loot me about you say sir and I am I'm a you know but Captain I'm not a general and that is a weapon not a gun and just screaming and boom don't push up they have to push-ups they have to push-ups and I will tell this he gave me a very very hard time doing boot camp but we are great friends today and he's always told me at our reunions every company needs a guy like you and he did go on record if I remember I someone told me I didn't see the interview but Captain Dime One on record as saying James mattio would have been someone who would have been a good real Soldier and I was fastest in the obstacle course by a lap like 30 seconds I I remember the uh Freddie Joe Farnsworth going God pakani would have beat most infantry man with that time and I was like yes yes so boot camp was a was an adventure for me it's pretty unique for any um creative piece for you guys to still get together 20 years later and uh it's it's special can you just speak a little bit about why you think that's just kept up I think it has to do what just started with the boot camp and then the success of the show and then has just masked into our affection admiration for the veterans and how much time we've spent with them and going back to Normandy with the veterans going back to Saint Miracles the veterans going back to best stone you know the Bojack was going back to eindhome with them and watching these men who fell from disguise and gave grandpa and grandma back to bakeries and the shops and just yeah bawling and crying for these guys uh it's we just really really Ward On Our Sleeve to make sure that we represented these men and didn't you know this up as Dale would say and uh and Rihanna that and we held it very closely I mean we we still do it took a long time I know this sounds silly to some people and it may but didn't have the time for us we wore our dog tags for quite some time after I did I I was thinking thinking about getting certain military tattoos I mean we would he was just drilled in US who these men were and how special they were uh and that trickled down to us and our friendship and and we've watched each other's kids grow up we've babysat kids we've christened kids I've got married on friends property I've lived what Ron Livingston who played uh Nixon for four or five years you know he allowed me to live in his guest house it's that type of friendship you know we really really look after each other and times are hard and times are bad and we've been there for each other and that's the truth and that's I think what makes it special you might not gotten fully along with someone maybe during the boot camp but as the years went on that even got stronger maybe some of the guys should have specific scenes with during the show because you're in a different platoon or or a different battle you know so it's uh because they would you know make sure that all of that was correct so if you weren't in breakout Mana then you know you run and break all matter they didn't just stick you in there obviously there's a book that you have to you know honor so what advice would you have to other actors or actresses who are have the opportunity to bring to life particularly these military like historic figures there is no better reward than playing a historic figure at the capacity of Frankfort County or airborne or any military Soldier uh my advice would be to give it you all as much as you possibly could make sure that you're in contact in some way with the family and get as much information as you possibly could I mean read as much as you can but when you're playing somebody like like these guys from this generation a lot of a lot of what you've trained for kind of goes out the door because they want they casted you for this natural ability this guy that doesn't have any false moments that can be real that accompaniment can get behind that an audience can get behind not a world can get behind the cast of you for that specific role so I would you know just honor the work on a the person that you're portraying um yeah that's kind of that's that's what I did more than anything with this this role I just stood true to the American soldiers as much as possible anytime that I can lend fraction to help celebrate the American Soldier you call upon me I'll be there I think it's important to keep these stories alive and it's in quantity younger generation to listen and to understand what these men and women have done

Channel: American Veterans Center

Views: 1,260,225

Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, veteran, veterans, history, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, military, navy seal

Id: 4Zq2WMxOhz0

Length: 15min 28sec (928 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 07 2023