Building an 'Empire'

By AMY CALDER, Blethen Maine News Service

Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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	Staff photo by John Ewing Hopefuls for extra roles in the filming of "Empire Falls," an upcoming movie to be shot in the Waterville area, jam a hallway at the American Legion hall during a casting call. At left is Press Herald reporter Ray Routhier, who participated in the casting call.
	Staff photo by John Ewing More than a thousand people showed up at a casting call for an upcoming HBO movie to be filmed in the Waterville area based on the book "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo. The casting call was held at the American Legion hall in Waterville.
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WATERVILLE — An eye doctor from Skowhegan, a catalogue designer from a seed company, a utility worker and a 10-year-old kid all think they have star power. On Friday, they stood in line with more than 1,000 people at the American Legion Hall in this central Maine city to find out. They were among the ordinary people from Maine and elsewhere who turned out in droves for the chance to land bit parts or roles as extras in "Empire Falls."

The HBO movie will be filmed in and around Skowhegan and Waterville this fall. It is based on Richard Russo's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, and stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ed Harris, Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

No celebrities were at Friday's casting call, which was held largely to tap extras for crowd scenes, though there also are about two dozen small speaking roles to fill.

Alex Pakulski, an optometrist from Skowhegan, was typical of the star-struck regular folk who waited patiently for their moment to stand before talent scouts. Pakulski 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 noted that he has acting experience; he's been in a school play and is counting on a part in the film. "I'm hoping I'll get a couple days off from school," he said.

Judy Bowzer, 63, and Lynnette King, 47, also made the drive from Skowhegan in hopes of landing a few minutes, or moments, of fame.

"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."

However, Lacey Martin, a student at the University of Maine, was realistic about her expectations. "I'm a theater major . . . and I really hope to get a speaking part, but I know there's a lot of competition," she said.

Martin, like dozens of others, 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 number up to their chin, recited their name and, if they wanted to, read a line from the script.

Cooke said people came to Waterville from all over the country to audition on Thursday.

"We had 80 people audition for speaking roles - people from New York to North Carolina," she said. "We just saw a person from L.A. They are coming from all over the place."

She told those auditioning for extra parts on Friday that there were more than 30 speaking roles available, and that 2,600 extras were needed.

"We would like to fill them with Maine people first," she said.

Those chosen will be called any time 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.

Jim Wright of Cornville, 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 supported his bid to appear in the movie.

"I talked with the company and they said it'd be great," 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.

Sipe, a resident of Mount Vernon who is a catalogue designer at Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, 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 at noon on Monday at the Legion hall and run until 7 p.m.

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