HU student acts as extra in George Clooney film
FOR RELEASE: Monday, October 17, 2011
HUNTINGTON, Ind. Huntington University film student Isaac Becker saw his dreams come true when he acted as an extra in the George Clooney film, "The Ides of March."Becker, a junior film production student and a native of Britton, Mich., was on hand when the campaign scene was shot on March 15, 2011, in nearby Ann Arbor, Mich.
"I always wanted to go to Hollywood and make a movie. I never thought that Hollywood would come to me, but during spring break last year, that's exactly what happened," Becker said. "Getting the opportunity to be in a movie of any kind was a very exciting thing for me. The fact that it was a political thriller directed by George Clooney only made my experience better."
This American political drama, released this month, stars Ryan Gosling, Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright and Evan Rachel Wood. The story is based on "an idealistic staffer for a newbie presidential candidate who gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail," according to IMDB.
Becker got the opportunity to act as an extra from a high school friend who connected him with the casting director. The scene required college students to listen to the politician's speech and even tweet and shoot camera phone photos while the characters were on stage.
"My specific responsibilities as an extra were to keep silent most of the time and listen to his speech, except when they asked us to stand and cheer for him," Becker said. "The only other thing we had to do was occasionally use the prop cell phones they gave us to pretend that we were texting, tweeting or taking pictures during his speech. They had a scene where a gospel choir sang a song while Clooney's character was offstage, and even though that scene didn't make it into the movie, I did my best to be involved in the scene by pretending to be recording the whole song on my phone's camera."
And while Becker's name will not be seen rolling through the credits, his face will forever be in the movies.
"I saw the movie last weekend, and definitely enjoyed seeing my face on screen," he said. "It was a perfect introduction to the world of Hollywood film."
