Who's Got Star Power?
Casting call for 'Empire Falls' draws hundreds
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
WATERVILLE — Wannabe stars came out of the woodwork Friday hoping to land a role in "Empire Falls," an HBO movie to be filmed in and around Skowhegan and Waterville this fall.
During the open auditions for the film, Cameron Bonsey, left, studies the abiulities of potential cast members during a group improvisation scene on Friday. click to enlarge
More than 1,000 people packed the American Legion Hall on College Avenue and lined up across the parking lot to nearby Front Street, waiting to audition for speaking roles and extras.
The movie, based on Richard Russo's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ed Harris, Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
"I'm a theater major at the University of Maine at Orono and I really hope to get a speaking part, but I know there's a lot of competition," said Lacey Martin, 20.
Martin, of Bangor, arrived early for the noon casting call, stood in a line that meandered through hallways in the basement of the building, and sat waiting in a stuffy, crowded room for her number to appear on a white board at the head of the room.
Carrying her resume and photograph — and the number 304 — she had a long wait, but was in the audition room by mid-afternoon.
With about a dozen others allowed in the small air-conditioned space, she stood before casting director Dee Cooke and Cameron Bonsey, owner of Maine Talent Source. One by one, they walked up to a pink line on the floor, held their numbers up to their chins, recited their names and if they wanted to, read a line from the script while Bonsey recorded them on film:
"It's not nice to tell someone's secrets, Charlene," Martin recited. "I don't tell yours."
After the audition, Martin said she was confident she had done a good job.
"They were very professional and it was good to see other people auditioning, too," she said. "I really enjoyed the experience."
By 2:25 p.m., 600 numbers had been handed out. People of all ages, shapes and sizes mingled as they waited in and outside the building. Some played cards or ate lunches they had packed. One woman was doing needlepoint.
Alex Pakulski, an optometrist from Skowhegan, was there with his son, Michael, 10.
"We all want to be in show business," the elder Pakulski said. "We just decided, 'We're doing this.' We'd be kicking ourselves if we didn't do it."
His son said he had been in a school play and hoped to get a part in the film.
"I'm hoping I'll get a couple days off from school," he said.
Outside, earlier, Judy Bowzer, 63, and Lynnette King, 47, both of Skowhegan, said they hoped to land a part — any part.
"I retired in February and I have my days free," said Bowzer, former welfare director for the town of Skowhegan. "This is something I've always been interested in and I think it would be a fun thing to do."
King, administrator of the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, said she played Smith in the local play, "A Woman of Destiny," in 1997.
"I'm a huge Paul Newman fan," she said. "I think I've seen everything he's been in."
Cooke said people came to Waterville from all over the country to audition on Thursday.
"Yesterday we had 80 people audition for speaking roles — people from New York to North Carolina," she said. "We just saw a person from LA. They are coming from all over the place."
She told those auditioning for extra parts Friday that there were more than 30 speaking roles available, and 2,600 extras were needed.
"We would like to fill them with Maine people first," she said.
Those chosen will be called anywhere from Sept. 8 through mid-November, and will be notified again the night before they will be asked to show up on the set to let them know where and at what time, she said.
Cornville resident Jim Wright, an employee of Central Maine Power Co. who has done a dozen television commercials for the company, was waiting in line Friday to audition. He said CMP was supportive of his bid to appear in the movie.
"I talked with the company and they said it'd be great," he said.
Lawrence Smith, of Aurora Co., an independent film company in Vassalboro, was hired to help the casting people keep an orderly flow through the building and make sure people signed up properly and went to the right places.
"Everybody against the wall — I need to keep this aisle clear!" he called as he moved quickly through the crowded hallways. He said auditions were going smoothly Friday.
"It's excellent," he said.
At 2:25 p.m., Heidi Sipe, 39, was the last person in a line of hundreds waiting to get inside the building. Some people had brought their own folding chairs; others played frisbee in the parking lot to kill time.
"I just arrived and see a long line so it'll be a wait, but at least it's not raining," Sipe, said. A resident of Mount Vernon who works as a catalog designer at Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Sipe said appearing in a film set in Maine is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so it was worth the wait.
"We don't get to do this that often," she said.
Auditions are expected to resume noon to 7 p.m. Monday at the Legion hall.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com