Want to be in a movie? Local filmmaker needs extras to pose as game show audience
If you’ve always wanted to be in a movie and you have some free time on Saturday, independent filmmaker Dan Steadman invites you to be an extra in his next film, “The Galoshes.”
He’d like to fill the Lincoln Theatre in Belleville with people posing as members of a game-show audience in the 1970s. It’s a volunteer gig, but Steadman guarantees everyone will make the final cut.
“This is a chance for people who have never acted in their lives,” he said. “There’s no experience necessary. All they have to do is not stare into the lens of a camera. That’s the only qualification.”
“The Galoshes” is a spinoff of Steadman’s 2017 film “The Shoe,” which covered eight decades in the life of a pair of silver shoes and the ladies who owned them.
One of the actors in “The Galoshes” is Gloria Krause, 65, a retired IRS employee who lives in Belleville. She plays a member of the game show’s stage crew.
Krause is a student in Steadman’s acting workshops in Belleville. She also appeared in “The Shoe.”
“I’m very interested in acting and performing, and Dan gives us the opportunity with the films he makes in Illinois and Missouri,” she said. “It’s always a lot of fun. It’s interesting. I love the whole process.”
Steadman expects to premiere “The Galoshes” this fall at the Lincoln. It covers eight decades of a pair of galoshes and the men who owned them.
People interested in being extras should arrive at 11 a.m. Saturday outside the theater at 103 E. Main St. in Belleville. They should wear clothing and hairstyles that could have been worn in the 1970s (only the waist up will show). Participants must be 18 or older.
“We have up to 500 seats, so we really encourage people to come out and join the fun,” Steadman said. “We should wrap up by noon.”
Steadman, 45, is a Michigan native who came to the metro-east in 2013 to direct the independent film “Belleville.” He ended up moving from Los Angeles to Farmington, Missouri.
In the past five years, Steadman has found his niche teaching acting workshops in Belleville and giving students a chance to star in films produced by his company, Circa87.
Last year’s production was a comic “mockumentary” called “The Boy with the Nose.” It was based on Steadman’s summer as a clown on a public-access TV show in the 1980s.
“(The movie) was a fake documentary about this real-life experience that I had,” he said.
Steadman also produced “Expect Delays” in 2014, “Proximity” in 2016 and “The Racket” in 2017. “Proximity” featured St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright, working alongside local actors.
Steadman has been a movie extra. Most notably, he got 5 to 10 minutes of screen time with comedy legend Jim Carrey in the 2001 film “The Majestic.”
But Steadman also experienced the disappointment of getting cut out of movies. That’s why he guarantees everyone who shows up at the Lincoln will appear in the game-show scene of “The Galoshes.”
“I don’t want people to go to all the trouble of coming and not end up in the movie,” he said.
For more information on Saturday’s filming, write to circa87films@gmail.com.
This story was originally published March 6, 2019 at 10:02 AM.
