I wrote a first draft of this right after filming, and recently revised it, now that the movie has been released in the U.S. and we’re released from the studio’s nondisclosure agreement. Hope you like it. I’ll remember that night for a long, long time.
On Monday, Aug. 29, 2011, my friend Mel met me at my office in downtown Cleveland, Ohio at 4pm. We planned to walk around downtown and see the filming sites for the Marvel Comics superhero movie The Avengers across the street from the Justice Center at the Old Courthouse, and at Public Square.
Mel noticed a sign in Fort Huntington Park, adjoining the Old Courthouse, that said “Extras check in here.” He suggested we apply to be extras. I said that I’d understood that all of the extras had already had screen tests and been signed up weeks before, but he thought it was worth a try, and I agreed. We walked up to a big tent in the park, one of a half-dozen there, and spoke to a woman at a table there. She turned out to be Maryellen, the extras casting coordinator (we later learned that she has more than 40 movies to her credit on IMDb.com, including Star Trek, Inception, Transformers, The Princess Diaries, etc.). She looked us over and said, “Maybe we can use you. You both look like you’re about average size.” High praise indeed! I gave her my business card and wrote my cellphone number on the back. She said she’d call in the next half hour. Mel and I thanked her and walked to Public Square, seeing the remnants of the set at the base of Terminal Tower (by that point, just some German street signs and the marquee of a fake Stuttgart theater, disassembled and on a flatbed trailer).
Half an hour passed and we hadn’t heard from Maryellen, so we walked back to Huntington Park. She said we were hired! We filled out some paperwork and were asked to wait. Other extras, mostly men in tuxedos and women in fancy gowns, were helping themselves to hot dogs and orange juice (!) on the caterer’s table, so we did too. That was our dinner.
After a few minutes, our forms now processed, one of Maryellen’s assistants asked us to report to the costume tent. Nigel, one of the chief costumers (also lots of movies under his belt, including Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump, Thor, Iron Man, etc.), a rather snippy Englishman, asked us our sizes and found us tuxes. Both of us needed some tailoring, which we waited for, but it didn’t take long. Nigel then cinched up my suspenders so tightly I thought I just might get a wedgie, but fortunately I didn’t. We were next directed to the makeup and hair tent. The hair gal looked at me and said I was OK, but gave Mel a little trim. The makeup gal looked at me and also said I was OK, but gave Mel a little facial powdering. Sheesh - what a diva.
We waited in the extras tent for awhile longer and then were asked to step out onto the long pathway leading to the black marble Peace Officers’ Memorial in the corner of the park, men on one side, women on the other. A casting assistant went down the line and quickly matched up every man with a woman. (There were more men than women, and the unmatched men were dubbed our “men of mystery” - gay or just stag, it didn’t really matter). Most of the women were in gowns or fancy dresses; most of the men were in tuxes of various designs, although some were in somewhat fancy punk or “artiste” garb.
Mel was paired with Sherry, an actress about ten years younger than him, vivacious and very friendly. I was paired with Michelle, a young married mother of two from Youngstown who works at an cellphone call center but hopes to become an actress and model. She had a pierced tongue, swore like a sailor and smoked at every opportunity, but we actually got along pretty well.
We took a few photos of ourselves but tried not to be obvious about it, since we were warned that the production crew might confiscate Mel’s camera. We were then several times over many hours marched in and then out of the Old Courthouse atrium, which had been set-decorated as a German museum with Babylonian artifacts on display (I looked at a display case of small cuneiform tablets and the like, and even the labels were in German! Pretty impressive attention to a detail that would never been seen on screen). Michelle and I were initially in the back of the atrium, champagne (actually ginger ale) glasses in hand, chatting either silently or aloud, as the sound crew called for. A string quartet was arrayed behind us, pretending to play their instruments (I assumed the music will be dubbed in later). Mel and Sherry were ushered towards the front, to our left.
At the center of the atrium was a carved stone-looking altar designed like a pair of bulls. We ran through a scene several times in which Loki, the Norse god/villain, knocked away a security guard and attacked a man who had been speaking at a microphone to the crowd. We had to draw back in fright, then scream, yell and run away. Everyone born in January through March ran to the right; everyone born April through December (that included Michelle and me) had to run to the left. We did this several times.
Many hours passed, and we went in and out of the building, herded like cattle. Around eleven, a huge spaghetti dinner was put out for everyone in the extras tent; I wasn’t very hungry at that hour and ate little. For the rest of the night, the long table was full of snacks of every possible type and flavor: nuts, chips, raisins, candy bars, crackers - even vitamin supplements!
For what turned out to be our last scene of the evening, or rather morning (since by now it was approaching dawn), Mel, Sherry, Michelle and I were finally in a shot together, greeting each other near a roped-off obelisk or stele. Then an assistant director asked Michelle and me to cross in front of the string quartet, which had a camera right behind it, for several takes. If that bit of film makes it into the movie we should be visible. Tom Hiddleston, the actor playing Loki, was thanked and excused from the set, and I was nearby as several of the crew said their farewells to him, but I didn’t talk to him myself. We saw the director, Joss Whedon, from across the atrium. There were no other big-name stars on set all night; I thought the man who was attacked at the microphone might be Colm Feore, whom I’ve seen in a few movies, but when I saw the actor more closely I realized it wasn’t.
By then Michelle was getting a little worried, as it was her son’s first day of kindergarten, and she was concerned that she wouldn’t have time to drive home and help him get ready. We agreed that if the shoot wasn’t completed within half an hour, we’d just leave. Fortunately, that was indeed the last scene. The director said, “It’s a wrap. Thank you, Cleveland!,” and everyone applauded. We went back to the extras tent and then the costume tent, getting out of our costumes and turning them in, and receiving a receipt/confirmation slip. I said goodbye to Mel and Michelle, but didn’t see Sherry again. I drove home and only had time to kiss wife and sons, and then shower and change, before driving back downtown for work.
Two brief naps that day, and a good long sleep overnight, and I felt pretty much back to normal the next day.
I went to see the movie tonight with Mel and his grown son Rick. Mel was pretty sure he saw himself, and Rick was pretty sure he saw us both, but despite looking VERY hard I couldn’t be sure of seeing either of us in the Stuttgart scene. The times when we might have been onscreen were very brief - probably no more than half a minute or so. I probably won’t know for sure until the movie comes out on DVD, and I can look frame-by-frame.
Great movie, though! Highly recommended. Be sure to stay all the way through the end of ALL the credits.
