being extra

Back in the winter of 2015 I spent a Saturday in Connecticut on the set of the film, Being. It was kind of an accident that I heard about it. My father-in-law had died the summer before, and we were selling off whatever of his stuff we could. Someone offered us $25 for the kitchen table. When we were chatting, he explained that he was going to use it as a prop for a horror film he was working on. A little more conversation, and he had my contact information. Or I had his -- I don't really remember. The bottom line was that I would be added to the list of potential extras.

So I found myself in Connecticut early on a snowy Saturday to film a scene with Lance Henriksen. He was the big name they had gotten for the film. He has top billing, and he has both the first and last lines. But his is a relatively minor role. It was well-suited for a big name (and therefore big pricetag) star, so they could fly him in, have him for one day of filming, and fly him out. Anyway, the movie begins and ends with a scene of Henriksen, as a preacher, talking to a crowd of frightened townspeople. An excerpt from that scene appears in the trailer above. I'm not in that excerpt, but I do appear in the scene at the end of the movie. Those who know me IRL may be able to pick me out, Waldo-style from the screenshot below.

It was a long day in Connecticut, but I was cool with that. I had brought a book and a bunch of puzzles, so I was set. They did feed us, and one of the other extras showed me Trivia Crack (to which I stayed addicted for years).

This all may make one wonder why I'm posting about it now. That's simply because I didn't get to see the movie until today. After the shoot, I would occasionally check to see if the movie had ever been completed and released. I figured there was a risk of it never coming out. But it was clear that they were being very professional about the whole thing. And these guys weren't some deep pockets studio that can afford to drop the project. Anyway, this morning I noticed on Amazon that the movie is out on Blu-Ray, and I could watch it on Amazon Prime. I assume it had a theatrical release so I am eligible for an Academy Award for my performance. But I don't know for sure.

Until I saw the movie today, I didn't know how the scene I was in fit into the plot. And I didn;t know if, when, or for how long I would be visible onscreen.

I'm not listed in the credits, which sucks, but is understandable. The only reason I had any hope is that the guy who bought the table said that I would be. So, sadly, this isn't gonna get me on IMDB.* But it does get me a Bacon number of 3. Now, all I need is to co-author with someone who has a finite Erdos number, and I'll have a finite Erdos-Bacon number.

Oh, and I'm not 100% sure, but I think they used my father-in-law's table. There's a scene in the kitchen where two people are having sex, bent over a table. I think that's the table. My father-in-law would have liked that.

*To date, the only movie which lists me in the credits is Auditions (1999), in which I am listed as "Man in Bar." And that didn't get me into IMDB either.