My Experience as a Movie Extra in "The Replacements"

*Originally published on 10/27/10



I was in a major Hollywood production, for reals yo. Back in 2000, it was announced that M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, would be used as a filming location for "The Replacements". The film was a sports comedy that featured a ragtag group of misfits who are hired to play in the NFL during a players strike. A call went out for people to come out and act as the crowd.

They did digitally fill in the gaps, but they wanted live people to fill as many of the seats as possible. My family decided to make a day of it. We drove to the stadium to watch them shoot as well as participate as the cheering crowd in the stands.

While I, obviously, did not get to talk to any of the main cast members, I could clearly see Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves from where I was sitting. It wasn't a close up look, they were still a pretty good distance away from where we were sitting, but you could tell it was them.

It wasn't the most exciting shoot. I remember one actor had to kick a field goal, and that shot took a while as they had to take their normal number of retakes in addition to ones where he missed.

While I haven't done a frame by frame analysis of the film, I'm almost certain that I can't be seen in any of the shots, which is unfortunate as I think I turned in a hell of a performance as crowd member #10,635.

OK, kidding aside, it was a rather fun time to be had and it was certainly a unique experience. Most of the crowd was blurred out to keep the main stars in focus so while everyone in the stadium was in the movie, they weren't really "in" the movie, if you understand my meaning.

In terms of direction, there wasn't much for us. It was basically, be quiet at these points and stand up and cheer at these points. Simple stuff really, while there were crowd close ups in the movie, the camera crew never went around the stands to get shots of us cheering or clapping, I would imagine that those were filmed on set with professional extras.

When Gene Hackman came out, he was met with enthusiastic applause and he reacted with a low key wave. As they had to get down to business, the standing ovation had to come to an end so that the shooting could proceed.

It was pretty much an all day event, I know people tend to paint film actors as people who don't work all that much, but we were there for more than a full shift and they only got a few shots done. Making a movie is a lot of work, don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise. If I recall correctly, the concession stands were open so we were able to get food or beverages when we needed them. As most of the shooting was on field, I doubt they would've freaked out if someone left their seat for a few moments.

The experience was over ten years ago, but I do still like to brag about it. It was a fun time, I got to see some major Hollywood actors fairly up close, and I got bragging rights to boot, so all in all, I can't complain. It would be neat if more movies did that as it would give people a glimpse into the business as well as give them a fun experience they can talk about with their friends.