Friday, February 20, 2009

I Starred in a Film... Apparently?

Someone googled me and found this:

http://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/hide-and-creep-2004

What strikes me as funny is the fact that the header reads:

"Starring Barry Austin, Melissa Bush, Douglas Dillingham, Christopher Garrison..."

Don't get me wrong, I am actually in the film... for all of 5 seconds. If you watch it, I'm the guy in the red vest dragging a zombie (played by Chuck Hartsell) into the back room of a grocery store. I was credited as "Grocery Store Employee". Apparently, showing up for 5 seconds of screen time (with no lines) constitutes starring in a film. Who knew? I'm not complaining though. I suppose they just listed the credited cast alphabetically, but I'd like to think that my performance was so gripping and convincing that they bumped me up on the roster.

One more thing, if you do actually watch the movie and you manage to keep from blinking long enough to see me, you'll notice that I do a funny little hopping step just before I back through the doors in my shot. That was because there was a sharp drop in the floor there at the threshold and I had already tripped on it once. Those guys were shooting on film so I didn't want to waste their money by blowing a take on clumsiness. Also, I was worried that if I did trip and fall then it would be so funny that they would actually keep it in the movie, and I didn't want to be remembered as the guy who tripped and fell through a door while dragging a (possibly naked, you'll just have to see it) zombie backwards across the floor of a grocery store.

A bit of trivia: I actually had to take time off from my actual job as a grocery store employee to travel 100 miles west to play the part of a grocery store employee. Oh, that zany Universe!