MAKING BAMBOO SHARK MOVIE

Sunday afternoons are special and Sunday October 12, 2008 was a very special afternoon indeed. I spent it in a Christian youth center outside Harrisburg beating up a male model. What would make me do that? The word “Action!”

I was playing a Mafia thug extra in the movie “Bamboo Shark” starring Mickey Rooney and over 50 celebrity impersonators. In it, the mob is trying to retrieve its money stolen by some college students who’re making a movie.

I answered a movie internet ad for extras given me by aspiring actress/model Rhonda Weader. My wife Nancy, grandson Jack Roddey and his friend, from outside Port Royal, Tyler Dolan went along for the ride. Jack and Tyler were immediately drafted to be in the movie acting as student crewmembers. They were really pumped about that, bouncing around the set like tennis balls at Wimbledon.

Our single scene showed Tom Petty in a top hat wrestling a crew member, a bald guy in a black suit who looked like a stocky Mr. Clean knocking out Sylvester Stallone, Jack accidentally popping out a Mafia thug’s contact ( Mark Bitner) as he and Tyler punched and pushed him around and me socking a sitting crew member, played by a male model.

We did over ten takes, broke and then returned to do another ten from a different angle. The only direction I got was to not hit my guy so much as I was sweating and too red faced the first time. I had brushed my brow pretending to sweat for effect. ACTING! And I get red faced just thinking bad thoughts all the time, but I dialed it down like they wanted, so they wouldn’t think I was having a heart attack.

There was a tender moment off screen when The Terminator spritzed Rambo’s biceps with his tiny spray bottle to make them glisten and gleam under the hot movie lights. I told Jack that an extra was an extra special actor whose mere presence on the silver screen spoke volumes and didn’t need lines. I was told by an assistant that everybody loved Jack and Tyler’s acting because they beat up their middle aged Mafia thug so enthusiastically. They had movie stars in their eyes. Their potential that certain Sunday was unlimited.

Making a movie is fun, but tedious with take after take after take. It’s all in the lighting, that’s why they say LIGHTS, Camera, Action! And the actors speak softly because a movie mike really magnifies.
The next time you see a movie scene, where the star runs down the street past numerous anonymous people, just remember that they are the extras with their own hopes and dreams of making a free sandwich from the meat and cheese platter put out for the actual actors.

A little over three months later my precious goofy grandson, Jack T. Roddey, was shot to death. He was only 14. So treasure those special Sunday afternoons together, because they can be gone in a gasp.

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN COMMON GROUND MAGAZINE