When I think of Hollywood, I think of Los Angeles. It’s all bright lights, beautiful people, and disgusting amounts of money. The last thing I think of is a high school football field in Skowhegan, Maine; especially not the way it looks in mid-October. When we arrived, the soggy field was torn up from too much rain and too many cleats. It was depressing to say the least, but this is how it was supposed to be because the scenes being filmed in the Skowhegan/Waterville area are about a town called Empire Falls where over half the population loses their jobs when the last of the Empire Mills closes. Depressing, yet good when you consider the fact that the author, Richard Russo, won a Pulitzer Prize for this novel.

So where do I come in? I was, in Hollywood terms, an “extra.” For a struggling actor, This word holds a negative connotation, but for me, an average kid looking for a day off from school, being an extra was more than I could have asked for. The scene being filmed was a football game between the team from Empire Falls (the Waterville football team and cheerleaders) and Fairhaven (the Skowhegan football team). The stunning Helen Hunt arrived around 9 a.m. in her SUV as we waited in the bleachers. She’s skinnier in person. Much skinnier. I couldn’t tell if there was a hint of “diva” in her, or if she was just extremely focused. It’s a fine line. All I know is that I certainly wouldn’t need anyone putting my coat on for me in between takes. In one scene, she walked up into the bleachers to find a seat. The huge camera crane inched closer to her face and the sound man hoisted his microphone a few feet from her. We were told to “fake cheer” so that the microphone would pick up just her dialogue. It’s hard to clap without clapping. Ed Harris arrived later and he shot his scene on the opposing team’s bleachers. In between takes, he joked around with the football players. The whole time I thought, “NOW there’s a man who likes his job.”

The real excitement didn’t start until the second day of filming. One of the technical people, and there are so many technical people, asked me and my friend to be extras in a scene where Helen Hunt walks from the bleachers to the concession stands. We readily agreed. Most of the time was spent with these “technical people”. They are the ones who cast the movie, operate the cameras, direct the extras, create costumes for the actors, do their makeup and hair, find props, find the locations, etc. etc. It was truly amazing how many technical people there were. We were told to stand in a small group and “talk without talking” so the microphone could pick up the actor’s dialogue. Again, this is harder than it sounds. We stood in our small group for two hours. Two hours of standing for less than ten seconds of film. It was rough. The smallest mistake and it must be redone. But once they film the scene with you in it, you can’t back out. It’s something called “continuity.” You have to have the same hair, same pose, same props, same clothes, same everything to make the scene look like it happened all at the same time.

My happiest moment came when Helen Hunt walked by and I brushed shoulders with her as I walked out of the clip. I am still not sure whether or not it was worth standing in one place for two hours. Who knows whether or not it will even make it into the movie. If it does, I’ll make everyone I know watch that one clip until they can’t stand it anymore, and if it doesn’t, I still brushed shoulders with Helen Hunt. I’ll just have to wait and see.