Nathan Fillion has become one of the industry’s most successful television actors, as he has been consistently working on new shows for several decades. Although his breakout series Firefly was famously cancelled after one season, Fillion would spend nearly a decade making Castle with Stana Katic, and currently stars on The Rookie. Audiences may be used to seeing Fillion on the small screen, but he has appeared in several films, including one of the greatest World War II epics of all-time. Fillion has a brief, yet memorable scene in Saving Private Ryan, in which he is accidentally misidentified as the film’s titular character.
Who Does Nathan Fillion Play in ‘Saving Private Ryan?’
In Saving Private Ryan, Captain John Hiller (Tom Hanks) is tasked with leading a unit of soldiers to find Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who lost all three of his brothers amidst the war; in order to spare his family any additional tragedies, the United States military decides to bring Ryan home safely to his family. Although Hiller does have some reservations about the mission, locating Ryan proves to be a difficult task due to the chaotic organization of the Allied forces in the aftermath of the invasion of Normandy. Fillion plays a young soldier who also has the name James F. Ryan, and is initially misidentified as the man Hiller is seeking, even though his last name is actually “Frederick.” Although the confusion is eventually resolved when Hiller discovers the truth, it is only after Fillion’s character is told that all three of his brothers are dead, to which he has a severe emotional breakdown.
Fillion had a very important task to play in Saving Private Ryan, as when he is initially introduced, the audience is left to believe that he is the main character that Hiller has been searching for; Steven Spielberg had intended to cast unknowns for many of the main roles, and while Matt Damon had surprisingly broken out a year earlier with Good Will Hunting, Fillion was still someone that most audiences were not aware of. Although Hiller’s revelation of the error does initiate some dark humor, Fillion showed what it was like for a soldier to face their worst nightmare; while most of these young men had been forced to watch many of their fellow soldiers die during the brutality of the war, learning about the loss of a family member was even a more crushing role. Fillion showed the complex feelings that his character faced when his world is turned upside down twice within just a few moments; although he is relieved to learn that his family did not experience a tragedy, the thought of that as a possibility still leaves him shaken.
Related
Is ‘Saving Private Ryan’ Based on a True Story?
Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic frequently feels like a documentary, but did it really happen?
‘Saving Private Ryan’ Shows the Chaos of War
Saving Private Ryan has been hailed as one of the most authentic war films of all time, as it examined the chaos that emerged during one of history’s most brutal battles. Given that a significant portion of America’s young men had either been enlisted or drafted to serve, the idea that two men with the same name would be confused is not unbelievable. Fillion’s scene is integral to the film, as it shows that each of the soldiers has a story to tell, even if it never receives the focus of those in command. Spielberg pulled off a seemingly impossible task with Saving Private Ryan; while it’s incredibly respectful of the sacrifices made by the “Greatest Generation,” the movie is too emotionally brutal to be considered anything but an anti-war film.
Hanks may have been the only one to receive an Academy Award for his performance, but Saving Private Ryan has one of the most impressive ensemble casts of any Spielberg film. While Damon is given many of the key dramatic moments, the film also features memorable roles for lifelong character actors like Jeremy Davies, Adam Goldberg, and Giovanni Ribisi, as well as a rare serious turn from Vin Diesel. Fillion may have been an unknown at the time, but he would experience a breakthrough just a few years later when he got his first main television series role on the sitcom Two Guy, A Girl, and a Pizza Place.
