I’ve told friends from time to time that I had a bit part in big Hollywood movie – Space Camp. It took place in the late summer or early fall of 1985, just after graduation. As an extra, we got paid $35/day plus some really nice catered food.
But I got lucky because they had a scene that needed two tall extras. We were needed to conceal a cartload of cables that ran alongside two vending machines. So me and another good looking blond fella who went to Randolph (a private school), got the lucky break. In the scene, the black actor (whose name escapes me) needs change for a coke. He asks if I have change. I say “no”. So he buy asks Joachim Phoenix to buy him a Coke. Joachim says “You don’t need money” and, being the technogeek demigod he is, he punches the buttons in a specific sequence that causes the machine to spit out a bunch of Cokes.
I got paid for the scene even though the scene was eventually cut from the film. My cut was the guild rate of $360. It was a nice paycheck.
You can still see me in the background in several scenes. My friend Kevin Lay found me here in scene 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56lY8MZfMSU&feature=related.
You can see me behind some of the main stars, tall and thin like so many teenage boys are, wearing a yellow t-shirt. See if you can spot me.
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