La-Z-Boy exec finds 'extra' fun
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 23, 2007
Greensboro, N.C. — If the furniture industry ever fades to black, La-Z-Boy's Dave Carpenter has found himself a second career.
Movie star.
On a whim, the director of credit services for La-Z-Boy Greensboro visited a local mall this spring to apply for a job as an extra in the upcoming movie "Leatherheads," starring Renee Zellweger, George Clooney and John Krasinski.
Little did he know he would get a speaking part of sorts as a Chicago newspaper reporter hounding Zellweger during a press conference scene that was shot in nearby Winston-Salem on April 25 — which is both Carpenter's AND Zellweger's birthday.
The romantic comedy is set in 1925, around the birth of professional football. Clooney, a writer and director of the film, also stars as an aging football hero. Krasinski is the bright new football talent and a war hero to boot. Zellweger, like Carpenter, is a reporter. But she has a somewhat larger role.
Carpenter was one of hundreds of extras used for the movie. He was dressed in period clothing that he said made him look just like his father, and his hair was slicked back and parted in the middle.
He generally was used in crowd and background scenes — entering a football stadium, walking by a registration desk in a hotel lobby — and for one day as a newspaper reporter.
The five days of shooting were long, from about 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. or later, but all the extras were well taken care of and fed. "It was all-you-can-eat," Carpenter said. "Prime rib, steaks, salads, desserts. It was top shelf."
His paychecks averaged about $75 per day. He said he's framing one and cashing the others.
On the set, Carpenter was scolded only once, during the first take of his big scene, when he looked into the camera while chasing a troubled Zellweger down the hall for a quote. But after that, he remembered the rules, which included no engaging the actors in conversation and no asking for autographs.
He did send a letter to a Clooney representative, extending a dining invitation from the owner of M. Stephen's Restaurant in High Point, but it didn't get a response.
"Leatherheads" is expected to reach theaters in early December, and Carpenter will have to wait until then to see if his scenes made the cut.
"It was unbelievably fun, and I got to meet all kinds of new people," he said.
"I rarely go to the movies, but that will change after the 'Leatherheads' experience. I'll never look at any movie the same, because so much of my attention will be on the extras in the movie and wondering how many times a scene was taken before the final cut made it to the big screen."
