Extra Extras

I guess I should be pleased that I finally excised my lingering fantasies about making it in Hollywood - I was one of the extras recently when the producers of "Bleed For This" - the cinematic story of Rhode Island boxer Vinnie Pazienza - called for a crowd to help film the final fight scenes at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence.

My brush with stardom began when I strolled into the venue shortly before the required arrival time of 8:00 AM, not wanting to be late - as is frequently the case in my life - for any potential dates with destiny. The idea was to re-create a pivotal fight that Vinnie Paz had with Roberto Duran, so potential participants were told to dress in 80s cocktail outfits. I scrolled through a few dozen pictures before deciding that the best retro look would be Miami Vice, so I picked out a wicked pink tie coupled with black shirt and black pants. I was such an idiot I actually brought a white sport coat to top it off a la Don Johnson / Phillip Michael Thomas, but chickened out at the last minute and left it in the car.

There was already a pecking order established, reminding me of the good old arbitrary radio days in Providence, ironically when Vinnie was up and coming as well as my stint with Carolyn Fox 94HJY, as evidenced by rows of seats set up right next to the "ring", which even had an old style MGM Grand sign in authentic 80s cocktail lettering, apparently reserved for the best outfits. It turned out they were invited guests or veterans from the previous day which makes sense - a reward for staying there 16 hours the previous day. I realized very quickly that I was probably not going to be discovered, so I decided to settle for the free water and lunch to come.

Eventually, finally, something started happening, after I had exhausted every morsel of conversation with the guy sitting next to me, a retired electrician from Westwood whose daughter was in the "business:" and drove down just to see what it was all about, and we were herded onto the main floor. The scene was one familiar in most boxing sagas, the moment when the two contenders make the long walk into the ring, our "extra" roles being to line the sides of the waist high barricades and jeer for Paz but cheer for Duran - or something to that effect - orchestrated by the assistant director and a plethora of other assistants plus assistant wanna bes helping them. This time, I was next to talkative woman whose son was in the "business" and who had been to various "shoots" with him, who started out sounding interesting but - just like the scene itself - became very redundant very quickly.

After several takes featuring my brilliant anti - Paz comments like "He's got a glass jaw!" - which I figured SOMEBODY would notice before picking me out of the crowd for a larger role - we moved to sections of seats on on side of the ring. As you'd expect, a lot of 80s type tunes were playing in the background in between the endless takes. It was eye-opening to see how they re-created the fight. A trainer would get into the ring with the actors and show them both how to throw the punches right before they filmed the scene. Our job was to scream or pantomime screaming while the punches were filmed from all different angles. They actually filmed a couple of scenes, one where Vinnie's trainer is trying to talk sense to him in the corner, and another where Myles Teller - Vinnie - sneers at Duran : "Is that the best you got?" after a flurry of punches.

I didn't get discovered - yet - but as a field trip into movie-making, it was a great experience. Plus I'll go anywhere for a free lunch !!!