Ex-Green Beret, Seahawk Nate Boyer's next project? Directing movie aimed at helping vets, athletes

The movie is called "MVP," an apropos title on several levels.

It's the latest project for former Green Beret and Seattle Seahawks long snapper Nate Boyer, who certainly brings an MVP push to the endeavor as the film's director while also being one of its producers and co-writers.

Oh yeah: Boyer stars as one of two lead characters opposite Mo McRae ("The Flight Attendant," "The First Purge," "Big Little Lies").

The venture even derives from another of Boyer's efforts, an organization called – you guessed it – MVP (Merging Vets & Players) which he founded with Fox NFL insider Jay Glazer in 2015.

Harmonious as the converged branding might seem, that's hardly the primary aim for Boyer as he tackled the challenges of making "MVP," which focuses on the often parallel pitfalls military service members and professional athletes experience once their respective careers are over – quite typically before the age of 30 and quite often with serious obstacles.

"Everybody says, 'Thank you for your service,' for the most part. People are appreciative of the military and veterans. But I don't know if it's easy to understand how we actually feel," Boyer, 41, who served six tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, told USA TODAY Sports.

"I hope this movie helps people relate to that. And from the athletes' side – various professional sports, not just football – they're not all just millionaires. That's the story of 1% of those people. Usually it ends not on your terms. You're cut, and that's just it, and you're forgotten and ignored.

"If you don't know how to manage it, and you're just trying to stay afloat in a league, the time goes fast."

Boyer portrays a homeless former Marine named Zephyr in "MVP" who's also suffering from PTSD and suicidal thoughts while trying to forge a new life for himself. He strikes up a friendship with McRae's character, Will Phillips, a veteran NFL defensive back coping with his own problems as he embarks on life after football. Both protagonists are composites based on experiences of people Boyer knows personally.

"There's no comparing the battlefield to the ball field," says Boyer, who spent the 2015 NFL preseason with the Seahawks as a 34-year-old undrafted free agent out of Texas. That key caveat aside, the commonalities of post-military and post-athletic careers can be strikingly similar.

"Those careers are very short lived, you peak at a young age," adds Boyer. "I think there's just not an understanding or realization of how different the real world – civilian life – is for those men and women until they're in it. So it's about the challenges and transition."

Speaking of challenges and transition, Boyer experienced plenty of both while wearing his multiple hats for "MVP," which was shot around Los Angeles and greater Southern California during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. That created opportunities for Boyer and his crew as far as filming but also a slew of hurdles.

His decision to both direct and star wasn't an act of hubris but a pragmatic one based on both his "ultra low" operating budget and advice from executive producer Braden Aftergood that a military vet direct the film – and Boyer quickly found there was a very limited pool of qualified candidates whom he couldn't afford anyway. And while Boyer never compromised on issues that would detract from a quality production, every veteran character in "MVP" is played by an actual military veteran and every department head behind the camera, save the director of photography, was a former service member.

Retired sports stars appearing as themselves include football Hall of Famers Tony Gonzalez, Howie Long and Michael Strahan as well as former UFC champion Randy Couture, once a sergeant in the Army.

"I'm glad it ended up working out that the right people also happened to be vets and professional athletes as well," said Boyer.

But for him, that meant days of quickly toggling between emotionally draining scenes as Zephyr, to directing others, to worrying about logistics for the next day's shoot. And while Boyer says he was definitely bitten by the bug to direct again, he'd never attempt to take on so many roles in the future.

"It was extremely challenging to direct yourself," he admits. "People told me that and I didn't believe them.

"(But) do one or the other, they're very different jobs. ... It was an emotional rollercoaster for me."

And a good thing he had McRae, who also served as a co-executive producer and is dabbling more in directing himself, right next to him.

"Casting Mo McRae was the best thing I did for the movie on the casting side," says Boyer. "He genuinely cared. He was on set every day, coaching me from behind the camera and just trusted I could do this."

McRae, whose own friendships and relationships with former veterans drew him to "MVP," gives a sterling performance as Phillips. And while Boyer cites McRae's "collective genius" for holding the production together, the veteran actor was equally impressed with his director.

And understood what Boyer was going through.

"Directing your first feature is a huge undertaking," McRae told USA TODAY Sports.

"Credit to Nate, too, who's got a great quality exhibited by extremely successful people – and it's the ability to identify and know what you don't know and lean into what you do know. Nate did an incredible job of that.

"He had no ego."

And that meant a true on-screen authenticity, Boyer and his cast beautifully delivering humorous banter heard in barracks and locker rooms around the world. It also meant very poignant ones, like a vignette shared by Gonzalez, when a viewer might forget whether they're watching a movie or a documentary. Meanwhile, off screen, McRae said Boyer knew exactly when to defer on technical matters where he lacked sufficient experience, especially given the constraints on money and time.

"He was really driven by a sense of a purpose," McRae says of Boyer, "and that sense of purpose he felt to make this movie is the same that drives him with the MVP program to really deliver for these people. Nate really cares.

"As a director, he got a lot of really phenomenal performances out of everyone. That line between movie and documentary is blurred in a very beautiful way."

"MVP," which also stars Dan Lauria, Christina Ochoa, Dina Shihabi and Tom Arnold opens in theaters today in all 30 NFL markets and select other cities and will be more widely distributed Friday. Tickets are available through FilmRise as are screenings in other cities.

Though it will be available on streaming platforms later this year, Boyer and McRae want you to see it in a theater after seeing how it brought audiences together during early prior viewings to Super Bowl 56 in LA earlier this year.

Says McRae: "I think the messaging of this film – the journeys, the emotions, the need for love, the connectivity – are really universal.

"Everyone can get something from this movie."

Says Boyer: "It's kind of heavy. But it's all about, 'You're never alone. We've got your back.' "

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Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-Seahawk, Green Beret Nate Boyer directs MVP film depicting veterans