I’d always said I wanted to be an extra in a movie, to be able to say at so many minutes into such and such a movie that was me walking across the street. Last February I finally had my chance.
First Man, about Neil Armstrong’s trip to the moon, was shooting a scene at the Kennedy Space Center, near our home in Florida. They were looking for men to be boring old geeky white guy NASA executives. I could do that!
I was amazed by the amount of energy and attention to detail that went into what I’m sure will only be a few seconds of the final movie. They were shooting the scene where the astronauts were leaving the space center for a shuttle van to take them to the rocket. Here’s a photo from the actual 1969 event that they were using in setting the scene.
By a stroke of good luck, my friend Theresa worked at the Space Center and got some pictures from the offices across the way. Here’s what the scene in the movie looked like.
We must have shot the scene 20 or 30 times. It took most of a day. That poor guy playing the kneeling photographer on the right, he kept trying to get a more comfortable position and they kept telling him, no, look at the picture, you need to be kneeling, with your arm up like so.
Where am I? Well you can’t see me in the picture above, and there’s a good chance only my right arm will get in the movie because the main camera was set up on the left (looking at the picture). In the historic photo I’m the guy in the suit up on the ramp to the astronaut’s right and I walk down the ramp following them. Here’s one of Theresa’s shots that shows me waiting between takes.
The other extra people are NASA techs, security people, and a gaggle of photographers.
We spent time a few days earlier getting dressed for our roles. I didn’t find out until afterwards that the person doing our costumes, Mary Zophres, the one who fitted me for my suit, had been nominated for an academy award for her work on La La Land. She clearly enjoyed her work, taking pride in the period authenticity she brought to movies. I came out with a greater appreciation for that aspect of movies and now finding myself enjoying the scenes and costumes in movies I watch, even if the story line is dumb.
They insisted we wear suspenders. Why? Nobody today is willing to hitch their pants up to the height they were worn then, so we had suspenders, under the jacket, to hold our trousers to the correct period height.
I had hoped to be the exec in the primo position by a post on the right of the picture, and I was, for a little bit. But James Hansen, the author of the book on which the film is based, wanted a cameo in the film and took my spot. So, before I wound up on the ramp, they moved me to behind him, which was interesting because I got to talk to him for a while.
He made the observation that we didn’t have the technology to fake a moon landing back in 1969, but we do now. He said the images in the movie are amazing, and were mostly shot with physical models, rather than computer graphics, in Atlanta.
Well look for my right arm in that scene when you see the movie. Although… if they use some of the footage they shot from behind as the astronauts were leaving the building I’ll be very visible.
In summary, it was a very long boring day, but I’m glad to have had the chance. It was especially fun for me because in 1969 I was actually working on Apollo. (I was doing computer support for the backup navigation system, which, maybe interestingly to some, was an optical sextant.)
For those who don’t know the history, here, from America’s most reliable news source, is the headlines from the day.
Here’s James Hanson’s book that inspired the movie:
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong
