The extra experience
North Fork locals contribute to the romance of 'The Romantics'
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Audrey Rothman, shown with actor Josh Duhamel, enjoyed a moment in the spotlight when she and her husband, Bob, were extras in a scene from 'The Romantics,' now being filmed in Southold.
But there wasn't much time for the locals to chat with the stars on the set at Old Field Vineyards, said Southold resident Heather Cusack.
"We were pretty much working straight from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.," she said. "Move here, look here. We were mouthing words so as not to disturb the sound. It was exhausting."
Ms. Cusack, 47, was one of about 100 North Fork residents who responded to the production company's advertisements for extras and were cast as wedding guests in the romantic comedy directed by Galt Niederhoffer, who also wrote the book of the same name. They were paid $85 and mixed in with other actors from the Screen Actors Guild, who came from all over the Northeast.
For many, this was their motion picture debut, complete with movie stars, cameras, a fake rain shower -- and paparazzi snapping pictures and harassing the cast and crew from the beach. (See separate story, page 3.) But for others, like Southold resident Audrey Rothman, "The Romantics" is just another "extra credit."
Ms. Rothman and her husband, Bob, who runs Rothman's Department Store in Southold with his son, are actually old hands at playing one of the crowd. In 1986, they were extras in "Sweet Liberty," a comedy starring and directed by Alan Alda that was filmed in the Southampton movie theater.
Ms. Rothman, 78, was a third-grade teacher at Oysterponds Elementary School for 20 years and said she has participated in a few North Fork Community Theatre productions over the years -- but she never really considered herself an actor. Being an extra, she said, is just something to take her and her husband "out of the norm."
"It gave us a big lift," she said. "It'll be something to talk about for a long time."
But it was also enjoyable watching everyone work, she said.
"It was fun seeing the human side of all these people that you see on the screen," Ms. Rothman said.
Dressed in a suit with fall colors, Ms. Rothman said she wasn't given a specific place to sit among the ensemble. But others, depending on their look and what they chose to wear, were directed to sit on either the groom's side or the bride's side. The groom, played by former soap opera star Josh Duhamel, is a romantic kind of guy from a working-class Irish family. The bride, played by Anna Paquin, is described in the plot as a beautiful, uncomplicated and very wealthy woman.
Ms. Cusack described the bride's side as very "white Anglo-Saxon Protestant."
"I ended up on the WASP-y side," she said. "The people who had a real look got to sit up front, like my friend who is very handsome."
She added that a couple of her redheaded friends got to sit on the Irish side. Others, like longtime Greenport resident Martha Johnson, got to sit up front with big names like Candice Bergen, who plays Ms. Paquin's mother in the picture.
Ms. Johnson, 87, wore a pink linen dress and said her teeth chattered throughout the shoot. Because she was so cold, she got to sit by a fireplace inside a house on the property -- right next to Tom Cruise, who was waiting to pick up his wife, Katie Holmes.
"He was very gracious and charming," she said, adding that all of the actors were "just adorable."
"I loved it, loved it," Ms. Johnson said of her first experience as an extra. "They were some of the most interesting people."
Ms. Cusack, who also brought her 21-year-old son, Max, to the shoot, agreed that the stars added a lot of fun to a long day without a break and not much food -- though she said all the extras were "fed like kings" at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Greenport after the work was done.
"Elijah Wood was so cute, clapping and jumping up and down, trying to get everyone enthused," she said. "Tom Cruise was very sweet, friendly and nice."
Meeting the celebrities was also a high point for Southold resident Betty Doolan, a 72-year-old retired administrative assistant with very little previous acting experience. Though sitting through take after take of about five scenes got a little tedious for her, Ms. Doolan said she enjoyed running though "rain" -- pumped through huge rubber hoses -- in what is to be a final climactic scene of the film.
"Oh boy, I thought we were really going to get wet," she said. "We did the take three or four times. It was a dash, but it was fun."
But after all that work, does Ms. Doolan think she'll actually get to see herself in the final edit?
"Who knows? We might just end up on the cutting-room floor," she said. "And we'll probably have to sit through the whole movie to find out."
eschultz@timesreview.com
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