#67 Public Enemy

This spring and summer in Wisconsin they will be shooting a movie called Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp about the American bank robber John Dillinger in the 1930's. They announced that they will be holding a casting call for extras for in Milwaukee. So today I applied to be an extra in a movie. Along with about 1000 other people I made the brutal 3 hour wait in line outside in the freezing cold. I don't think I've ever been that cold before. They asked that you show up wearing a dark suit and overcoat, the women were asked to wear dresses, which made for an even more painful experience for the women. Once inside, they take a large group and explain the pains of being an extra and if you're not willing to have your hair cut you probably shouldn't be here. From there you branch off into different lines where they take a card with all your info, like clothing sizes, height, skills, bicycle?, nationality etc... then you get a number that you hold up and they take your mugshot. That's it. We were told the director Michael Mann goes through each of the photos and handpicks the extras himself, if picked we'll get a call. On a very cool side note, Mark Borchardt from American Movie was a few people in front of me in line. If you haven't seen this documentary about his struggle as an independent filmmaker I strongly recommend it.