One Degree of Separation

Where do we begin? I'm primarily a background actor; but I like acting, and I especially value the the opportunity to work with the best in the field. Some dismiss background actors as little more that self-propelled furniture and props; yet from my point of view, where else can you work with, interact with, and learn from, the best actors, directors and cinematographers in the world? Background acting can be very good for an actor. It has been for me...

My third film was "Taking Chance (2009)" so I got my "one degree of separation" early. In the film, Lt Col Mike Strobl (Kevin Bacon) returned the body of Chance Phelps to his hometown in Wyoming, and I was a cowboy congregant during the memorial service. Kevin was in uniform, while I wore my best cowboy hat, cowboy shirt and cowboy boots. As is now my practice, I came to set wearing the costume of my character. Wardrobe rarely reverses my choices. The scene was shot in Glen Ridge High School, Glen Ridge, New Jersey, doubling for Wyoming. It was even fitted with banners from neighboring, Wyoming high schools. As close a duplicate as you could imagine.

I place Dr. James Fallon third in this list. He is one of the brightest, most insightful, psychiatrists in the world. He's also a criminal profiler, profiling such rare cases as my former neighbor, Jeffrey Dahmer. When I make my own movies, stabbing loved ones and decapitating victims are among my recurrent themes. And he always has an encouraging comment. Who better than my friend, James Fallon, to understand my deeper psyche?

There have been three movies in my lifetime that have affected me viscerally: Pi (1998) (the music rewired my brain), Cloud Atlas (2012) (the sense of continuity across eons gripped an inner chord); and now, surprisingly, Too Old to Die Young (2019). Starring Cristina Rodlo as Yaritza, Cristina portrays a supremely strong and confident woman, a woman who reminds me so much of my own mother and grandmother, but with a diamond-studded pistol. We worked on No One Gets Out Alive (2021) together, and anyone who reads the movie press knows the film is "No One Gets Out Alive." My role was small, but close, but if I said anything more, she'd have to kill me. Now, after watching Too Old to Die Young (2019), I absolutely know she would. I wouldn't want to become her 39th kill. Damian (Babs Olusanmokun) was Yaritza's 24th; she stabbed or shot six in Volume 8 (they deserved to die for what they did to the two sex-trafficked victims); and she killed eight more in the cantina, in the final scene of Volume 10. Oh, so far as I know, my mother and grandmother never killed anyone.

While I have acted background in major feature films and television since 2006, it is Manodrome (2023) that will get me into SAG. I acted opposite Jesse Eisenberg, face to face less than two feet away, in a scene I cannot yet disclose because of my NDA. It is a scene important enough to the story of the film, however, that I doubt that it will get cut; and in times of covid, it was a rare opportunity that I relished.

I knew Adrien Brody for his role in Giallo (2009), one of my favorite giallo films, but I met him in Syracuse, NY for his role in Manodrome (2023). Alas, I saw him at a distance, and it was Jesse Eisenberg with whom I had a direct interaction.

If I were to tell you that I shared the same make-up chair as Mila Kunis, you might think I was nuts. But Mila and I both had the same MUA - Academy Award winner, Howard Berger. Mila was a star. I was the make-up model used to develop the "Tinker" character (You can see me in make-up and costume in "Make-Up Artist" Magazine, No. 101, Apr-May, 2013). I spent 33 days on the sound stage in Pontiac, Michigan making "Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)." It was a real milestone in my background acting career.

Damian (Babs Olusanmokun) was Yaritza (Cristina Rodlo)'s 24th kill in Too Old to Die Young (2019). Having been brutalized by Jesus (Augusto Aguilera), Yaritza gave him the death that he begged for. I worked with Babs Olusanmokun in Gotham (2014).

January, 2007: While shooting the massive escape scene under the Brooklyn Bridge for I Am Legend (2007), it got as cold as seven degrees Fahrenheit (-13.8 degrees Celsius) one very late night. To boost everyone's spirits on this coldest of many nights, Will Smith jumped on a platform and sang his hit song "Summertime." We all joined in. To me, this made Will Smith the greatest actor on earth. He shared the cold with us, and proved his love of, and dedication to, the hundreds of background actors trying to make a great movie under some very difficult conditions. This was my second film, the year after my work as a precision driver in Spider-Man 3 (2007).

Jada Pinkett Smith doesn't appear in the IMDb credits of I Am Legend (2007), but she was there as a news reporter in the crowd. She passed me with her portable recording gear as I approached the evacuation barriers. And I'm sure, too, that Jada was there to help her very young daughter, Willow Smith (See below)

Robert Neville (Will Smith)'s daughter, Marley Neville (Willow Smith), and wife Zoe (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) attempted their escape from Manhattan in a helicopter that had landed on the pier under the Brooklyn Bridge. The wind was whipping spray from the East River in our faces as we watched. The helicopter went up successfully, but then exploded (in the movie). Both perished. The film's director, Francis Lawrence, shouted out a signal for everyone to duck, point, or shield their eyes, at the spot in the film where the helicopter went up in flames.

Robert Neville (Will Smith)'s wife, Zoe Richardson (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), perished when the helicopter carrying them away from the infected mob, went up in flames. While I watched Salli's acting, I didn't interact with her on the set of I Am Legend (2007)..

In the future, robot boxing has become a leading sport, like MMA today. Charie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), a struggling ex-boxer, feels he's found a champion in a mash-up of discarded robot parts - and the fights begin. Filmed in Michigan, I got into five boxing scenes: Crash Palace (filmed in the old Model T automobile plant in Highland Park near Detroit), Shaefer Zoo (filmed in the old Belle Isle Zoo) and the WRB (World Robot Boxing) fights at Motor City Spectrum, Starfire Arena and Bing Arena (all filmed in Cobo Hall). I asked for the zoo scene at the end of the shoot in Cobo. When I got the gig, I found a beauty shop in Royal Oak that gave me a Mohawk, and dyed my hair red. I met Hugh Jackman personally in Cobo Hall, when he chatted with a group of background actors at ringside between takes.

How many actors will take time to pose with you on set? Saffron Burrows did with me, and two friends, in Washington Square Park, NYC, during a break in the filming of Mozart in the Jungle (2014). Cautionary note, guys. Even approaching a lead actor on set is frowned upon heavily, and can be cause for warning, or even dismissal. But sometimes it just happens naturally. This was one of those times. It doesn't happen very often.

Corbin Bernsen wrote and directed 25 Hill (2011), in part to help save the Amerian Soap Box Derby, held annually in Akron, Ohio. My friend, T.J. Hellmuth, who had worked on my landscaping team in Richfield years earlier, was the cinematographer. When Corbin needed a race starter, T.J. offered my name. And that's how I got the credited role: "Horn Guy at Western Regional (as Logan Frye)." Sometimes luck and connections are all you need (And Corbin later autographed a copy of the script for me).

Casting needed gun show dealers for the film White Boy Rick (2018), headed up by Matthew McConaughey as Richard Wershe Sr. For my submission photos, I wore the same cowboy hat, shirt and boots that I wore for Taking Chance (2009). Casting liked it, and wardrobe didn't make a single change. Gun dealers were among the featured roles for the film, and when Matthew McConaughey approached my gun stall during a break in filming, I pulled a pair of brass knuckles from under the counter, and said: "I would recommend these highly." Holding up his own fist menacingly, McConaughey snarled back: "This is all I need." He was joking, of course, but I wouldn't want to be on his wrong side when he wasn't.

The Kings of Summer (2013) is a charming, little a coming of age comedy. Like many teenagers, Joe (Nick Robinson) becomes increasingly frustrated by his single father, Frank (Nick Offerman), so he sets out in the woods to build his own fort, his own little house. Going with him is his best friend, Patrick (Gabriel Basso), and Biaggio (Moises Arias), a somewhat peculiar friend. Out in the woods, Biaggio almost dies with a snake bite, and off to the hospital they go. I was just a regular background actor in this final sequence in the hospital. To add levity, the director decided to add a very sick old man in a wheel chair. That's when they spotted me. The crew put me in a hospital robe, sat me down in a wheelchair, and hooked up a drip on a drip stand. On "action," a nurse pulled me backwards into an elevator, and the doors closed after my bumpy entry. I thus became a very featured background actor in The Kings of Summer (2013). This, along with my scene with Cristina Rodlo, may make me a much-sought-after unkempt, sick old man, droopy, and without the strength to even sit up.

Mrs. Keenan (Megan Mullally) is Patrick's mom in The Kings of Summer (2013). She joins the families in the hospital, and we come together in the elevator scene. The nurse pulled me in as the elevator doors shut, clipping my legs as they closed. I landed right next to Megan, who was positioned next the elevator buttons. It was hilarious, Megan laughed heartily, and we all had a great time with this scene. It's one of the highlights of the film.

I worked with Nick Robinson on two projects, The Kings of Summer (2013) and Boardwalk Empire (2010). My direct contact with Nick is our work on The Kings of Summer (2013).

Gabriel Basso played Patrick, Joe's best friend, in The Kings of Summer (2013).

Biaggio (Moises Arias), Joe's (Nick Robinson) somewhat peculiar friend, is bitten by a snake while the boys are comping out in the woods. Hence the scene at the hospital elevator in The Kings of Summer (2013).

Life can get complicated for three boys in the woods when one of them gets a crush on a pretty girl. Joe (Nick Robinson) fantasizes about Kelly (Erin Moriarty). We were on the elevator together in the final scene of The Kings of Summer (2013).

I loved Willem Dafoe in New Rose Hotel (1998), based on a novel of William Gibson; but we worked together (as much as a background actor usually works with a lead actor), on two other films: Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Dog Eat Dog (2016). We worked two days (or was it three) at Diamond Gentlemen's Club in Cleveland for Dog Eat Dog (2016). He was "Mad Dog" and I was the "Ten Dollar Tipper" (ten times the customary stripper tip in Cleveland). Imagine working three days in a strip club, tipping gorgeous strippers with fake money, not your own. Now that was a nice gig!

Fred Williamson is almost a legend, and may be best known for his role as Frost in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), but he has 130 other credits on IMDb. I worked with Fred on Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption (2011). He was Moses while I had a dual role as a zombie, then a raider. That was quite a film, and I remember well taking a hard hit from Tokkyo Faison during an extreme action shot. Quick side note: my friend Howard Berger was a trucker vampire and makeup effects supervisor in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), and my MUA in Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). We are all connected.

I was a guest services volunteer in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). As is usual, I worked the show in the costume I brought with me, with the exception of a docent vest provided by wardrobe. Now in a film, you shoot and take a break, then shoot again. After one break, I returned to my "first position," and a scruffy looking extra in faded jeans and shirt was standing in my spot. But rule number 2 on set is: "Be courteous. Don't cause problems." I stepped away. Then the director called out: Mr. Evans, are you ready? The "scruffy looking extra in faded jeans and shirt" was Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans). Wherever you work, its just good to be nice.

I graduated from Case Western Reserve Law School in Cleveland, Ohio in 1970, so I'm headed to my 50th Class Reunion soon. I jumped the gun a bit, though, when I attended my 50th Yale Law School Class Reunion in Hell of a Ride (2018). Paul Giamatti plays U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades, who goes after hedge fund king Bobby "Axe" Axelrod (Damian Lewis) in Billions (2016), "a complex drama about power politics in the world of New York high finance." At the reunion, I enjoyed speech given by Chuck Rhoades for the event. Chuck Rhoades and I have another connection: we were both attorneys in the United States Department of Justice (but I did it for real). How did I get the role as a Yale Law grad in a scene filmed in the Upper West Side of NYC? There's a motto among background actors: "Have Tux, Will Travel." I had my tux.

I shared an episode in Billions (2016) with Damian Lewis, playing hedge fund king Bobby "Axe" Axelrod. During the scene, I was more focused on Paul Giamatti.

Malin Akerman and I share two credits. Malin is Lara Axelrod in Billions (2016) and Jill in The Giant Mechanical Man (2012). Our connections, however, weren't close in either.

Who can forget David Strathairn's depiction of Whistler in Sneakers (1992)? Headed up by Robert Redford, it's one of my favorite films, and has a message even more relevant today. I'm thus thrilled to share a credit with David Strathairn in Billions (2016). Strathairn plays the recurring character Black Jack Foley in 8 episodes, including our shared episode, Hell of a Ride (2018).

Speaking of Sneakers (1992), I'm also "one degree of separation" with Robert Redford, who plays Bishop in Sneakers (1992). We both appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). He was Alexander Pierce, while I was a Guest Services Volunteer. Not a big role, but someone needs to do the job. That's exactly the function background actors serve in film, to depict reality, even if the reality itself is a fantasy.

I worked with Kevin Costner in Draft Day (2014) during the Draft Day Party in Cleveland, Ohio. You can clearly see my signature silver grey mane, cheering as part of the exuberant crowd gathered around the presentation stage. Earlier, I got to exchange a few words. Kevin, a great guy to work with.

It was quite a thrill to work with Steve Buscemi in Boardwalk Empire (2010). I had the good fortune to work in both Bone for Tuna (2012) and Spaghetti and Coffee (2012). In Bone for Tuna (2012), we shot both the award ceremony for the Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory, and the reception afterwards. Spaghetti and Coffee (2012) was even more fun. We were enjoying the jazz musicians in a well-appointed speakeasy. It was shot in the Player's Club adjacent to Gramercy Park, NYC. See more below.

Margaret Thompson (Kelly Macdonald) is the devoted wife of Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi). In Bone for Tuna (2012), she sits dutifully next to Nucky as he receives the Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory, and is his steady companion at the reception afterward. The food and drink was real, btw, and I seem to remember enjoying it. I have a photo of the ceremony in my IMDb "photos."

In the speakeasy scene, Spaghetti and Coffee (2012), Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) is courting his love interest at the time, actress and mistress, Lillian "Billie" Kent (Meg Steedle). I sat at the table next to Nucky, although the camera shot in the other direction. Not a problem. Background actors are there to fill the scene, even if they're not always seen on camera. More importantly, being a background actor opens up the world for you. I mean, wow!

I've worked on two projects with Gretchen Mol. The first was Mozart in the Jungle (2014), and the second Boardwalk Empire (2010). I worked two episodes for Boardwalk Empire (2010). We shot Bone for Tuna (2012) in a stately Catholic church in Brooklyn. Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi) receives the Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory. See more above.

Coronavirus 2019? I worked with Gwyneth Paltrow in Contagion (2011). I was in the Senate Hearing, presided over by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. The scene was cut, and so was the Senator; but looking backward from the perspective of 2020, it should have remained. Gwyneth was in about every other scene of the film. it was a terrible prescient movie, and much watched by audiences today.

I was in the Senate Hearing, presided over by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, in Contagion (2011). The film was shot In Chicago, and the room had all of the trappings of a Senate chamber. Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) and Rear Admiral Lyle Haggerty (Bryan Cranston) were at the witness table, while Steven Soderbergh circled the room with his camera. It was a somber hearing, fitting for addressig a very contagius, and deadly, virus.

Mitch Imhoff (Matt Damon) is the husband of Beth Imhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow), and represents the ordinary citizen, desperately seeking information, and a cure, for the contagion.

Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) is the ardent conspiracy theorist in Contagion (2011) who is the so-called index patient for what becomes a parallel epidemic of fear and panic. Not patient zero for the virus, but patient zero of the ensuing panic.

Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) testified at the Senate Hearing, that was presided over by the real Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. Dr. Cheever was a powerful presence in the room; while I was a Washington D.C. Lobbyist, intently listening to his testimony.

Rear Admiral Lyle Haggerty (Bryan Cranston) also testified at the Senate Hearing, presided over by the real Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. Unfortunately, as I noted before, the scene was cut. Given the present controversy in the U. S. Senate over coronavirus planning and assistance, it could have been a powerful addition to the film. No one, but the director, will ever know.

Roger, (John Hawkes) was the CDC custodian and an acquaintance of Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) in Contagion (2011). Dr. Cheever later gives his own serum to Roger for his son. John Hawkes is also Viggo in Too Old to Die Young (2019), so Cristina Rodlo and I have both worked with Hawkes. Connections in the film industry can, over the years, become quite entangled.

I've worked with Topher Grace in two films, Spider-Man 3 (2007) and The Giant Mechanical Man (2012). He plays Doug, an egotistical self-help guru in Mechanical Man. My scene with Topher and Jenna Fischer, (playing Janice, see note below) was shot on a bitter cold night in Royal Oak, Michigan. You can see my silver, grey hair as we pass by on the street, in a nice medium shot.