That may not sound like exciting news to those of you in New York, LA, or a similar place. But here in Springfield, IL, this is a chance that doesn’t come around very often.
Portions of Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde are being shot at the State Capitol building in Springfield. The reason being, apparently you can’t shoot movies inside the Capitol in Washington any more (Sept 11th and all that), and the interior of our Capitol building looks more like the interior of the Washington Capitol than that of all other 49 statehouses.
About 600 locals have been hired to fill roles as anonymous Senators, photographers, journalists, security personnel, etc. I’m one of the 600. I’m getting paid the SAG minimum daily rate for extras (somewhere around $100, IIRC) and I’m expected at the capitol in just under an hour and a half.
When you see the movie next summer, look for me. I’ll be in the Senate chamber scenes. I’m 32, white, 6’1", 270 lbs, wearing a black double-breasted suit, grey shirt, black tie.
FTR, I’m only doing this because I want to catch a glimpse of Reese Witherspoon in person. She’s yummy.
Also, I’m going straight from my movie duties to the theater to see TTT, so I’ll probably be the only one there in a business suit.
Have fun and make sure to bring something(book, cards, newspapers) to occupy your time, being an extra means you’re standing doing nothing most of the time. I think it’s great you get a chance to do this, I did it once, just for the experience, and I had a blast and met some nice folks.
I was an extra in A League of Their Own as a teenager, and it was by far the coolest experience I’d had up till that point. We got to go through period wardrobe, hair, and makup, Penny Marshall herself grabbed my arm and told us to do a crossover (it got cut later, but these things happen), and a later crossover made it into the movie.
Actually, we screwed up our mark on one take, so we’re in the same scene twice. No one would notice but our friends and family, since we’re part of a huge crowd, but there we are. In the scene where Harvey (Gary Marshall) and Lowenstein are talking about closing down the league after the war, Lowenstein bumps into two women and excuses himself. The one in blue he actually bumped into is my cousin Allison, and the one in brown with her is me.
diku and I will hopefully not be cut out of the wrestling crowd scene in Chris Rock’s new movie, Head of State . We’re up in the stands holding a “Gilliam 2004” sign. I made sure I wore my very bright orange t-shirt so I could more easily pick myself out in a crowd
My SO made a living out of doing extra work in LA for about a year. You will have a great time, but after the first time, it starts to become work…hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait…cold, rainy, re-shoot, etc.
TV sitcoms were better - good food and shorter days.
And by the way, I actually liked Legally Blonde - no, it was not Citizen Kane, but it was fun for what it was. I see that Sally Fields and Bob Newhart are in this new version, Red, White And Blonde. I’ll wait for video, like I did for Legally Blonde, but looking forward to seeing it.
CCL, that is the coolest extra anecdote I’ve heard. Terrific movie and a favorite of TheLadyLion’s and mine. We’ll look for you and your cosin next time we see it.
I thnk I hold the record for extra in the worst movie, Iron Eagle IV. A friend and I were riding mountain bikes by the airport the opening airshow scene was shot at. AFAIKT we were cut as I never saw a fat guy and a skinny guy on bikes in the movie.