That's me in the background...

(Note: No, you didn't miss a bunch of posts. Taking a cue from his friend Mark, Matt has backdated a couple posts so he can get a bunch up at once. A lot has happened!)

So here is a picture of - in case you can't tell - the top of Matt's foot. Gross, right? Well, there's a point. Matt has run seven marathons, hiked the Grand Canyon and danced like a crazy person. But it wasn't until he became a Movie Star that he got a blister on top of his foot.
What follows is a true account of Matt's first day as an extra. It is filled with (not much) drama, (some) comedy and (mostly) standing around thinking about feet.

After the initial fitting and haircut, Matt was told to report to the movie set at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, May 18. The Extra Coordinators had warned there was a possibility of a 4:30 a.m. call, so Matt was relieved that he could sleep in a little bit. But bright and early, he was driving downtown for his first day as a Movie Star, with visions of scenes with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale dancing in his head.

The reality checks started almost as soon as he got to the set.

"Are you background?"

No, Matt was not background! He was an Extra! A wonderful, proud tradition that included thousands of nameless, faceless people desperate to see themselves on the same screen as that guy who was in Benny & Joon.

Background! Trees are background. Mailboxes are background. Dogs are background! Not Matt. Matt was an Extra.

"Um," Matt said. "Yeah...um...background."

"Sign in here," the disinterested woman replied. "Take a seat."

OK, so Matt was not going to be a Big Movie Star after all. From the start, the crew made it clear Matt and the Extras really were background, extraneous, expendable. The directors and assistant directors and sub directors weren't mean, but they didn't learn names, didn't worry all that much if you were in pain and definitely didn't want to hear your opinion on anything. (Which is perfectly understandable.)

However, that being said, there's a decent chance that some Joe Extra walking in off the street will actually end up displayed prominently in the movie. And if any extra tells you they don't care about seeing the stars, or they don't care if they end up on camera, they are huge - and terrible - liars. It's in the back of everybody's mind. That's why you're doing it. That's the only reason to do it.

That very thought crossed Matt's mind as he filed into the big dressing room tent set up on a Chicago parking lot. Among hundreds of train conductors, FBI agents and pedestrians, Matt located the costume he had been fitted for, only to discover the suspenders had vanished. Matt panicked. Surely, he would be pitted in a critical scene with Mr. Johnny Depp when - wham! - his pants would fall down. Matt didn't know director Michael Mann personally, but he imagined that he frowned on extras - pardon, Background - depantsing themselves in key scenes.

As Matt sweated this, he noticed the guy next to him (who, it turned out, was a reporter for the Tribune) had no shoes. Seeing that, the suspenders didn't seem as bad. Still, it could be a problem. Matt and Joey No Shoes commiserated about their bad fates when they saw that a man across the dressing room - a portly fellow with boxers struggling to rise above crack level - had no pants.

Someone had stolen this man's pants.

I wept because I had no suspenders. Then I met a man with no shoes. We wept because we had no shoes or suspenders, until we met a man with no pants and low boxers. Then we really wept.

Finally, someone found suspenders and shoes and - thankfully - pants for all concerned. Next it was over to hair and make-up. Hair - as you can see in these two odd self portraits - was pretty much short on the sides and cemented across on the top. Matt's stylist was, no joke, cross eyed. Still, Matt ended up wearing a fedora, so that didn't matter much.

After that, the next five hours were spent doing not much of anything. All the Backgrounders sat in an empty warehouse, and waited. And waited. They got served a pretty good free lunch, then waited some more. Matt read about another gangster killed by the feds, Pablo Escobar, and kept waiting. Finally, all the Backgroundistas walked back five blocks to the tent, for a costume check. A slightly unpleasant but extremely efficient woman ripped off men's hats ("this is from the 40s!" she yelled) and told Matt he better button up his shirt. ("Tighten up," she scolded. "You're working.") Then, everyone walked back to the warehouse and waited. Then, back to the tent and they checked all the costumes again. Then more waiting.

Finally, around 1:30 p.m., Matt and the Backgroundettes got the call. Show time! Everyone hiked over to Union Station, where three tracks were blocked off for the scene. Regular people (see how quickly Matt slipped into that!) took pictures of the Backgrounditos, which was pretty cool. Everyone was excited and bumping into each other as onlookers tried to see if anyone was Anybody Important.

A crew handed Matt a prop - a large suitcase - and Matt finally walked into Union Station for his first movie shoot. Life goal #45 - check!

Union Station looked cool. A giant coal-burning engine was on the middle track and the two outside tracks had antique green passenger trains. For a few seconds, it was like walking back into the 1930s. Amazing. (You can see some 'pretty sweet' video of one of the trains here.)

Then, ADs (assistant directors to you regular people) started placing people all along the platform. The basic scene - as Matt understood it - was everyone was just arriving in Chicago, amazed by the big city. The ADs started giving everyone little stories.

"You two stand together. You just got married and you're waiting for the train."

Then, to Matt: "You're their brother. You're traveling with them."

So, this was movie acting.

Matt wanted to know about this character. Was he traveling to Chicago or away from it? Why would he be tagging along with newlyweds? And why were his shoes so darn uncomfortable?

But before any of these questions were answered, the ADs gave Matt a new character: Guy standing further away. No, further. Furrrrther.

By the time the ADs finished moving Matt, he couldn't see the cameras anymore. Matt ended up standing with a very nice lady who was a nurse from Indiana - in real life, not in the movie.

This post is really long, so we'll take a break from the narrative to interject this: One of the "rules" of being a Backgrounditis was you were not supposed to talk to the media about the shoot.

To Matt, this is funny for three reasons:

One, Matt IS the media. And he's constantly talking to himself.

Two, Public Enemies is a true story. No one's going to be too surprised by the details of what happens to John Dillinger.

Third, Matt couldn't reveal any details about the filming even if he wanted to. Why? Well, back to the story.

Matt could not reveal any details about the filming because he had no idea what was going on. For the most part, he was so far away he never saw the cameras. He definitely never heard them say "action" and only heard them say "cut" two or three times.

Hour after hour, Matt and the other Backgroundians walked up and down the platform.

Someone would shout "Rolling!" and Matt would get ready.

Then "Background!" and Matt would start walking toward the front of the train. He'd walk until someone said stop. None of the Big Stars seemed to be there. Matt saw the director a few times, but he had no idea what this scene was about or where it fit in the movie until hours later, when someone else explained it. (It was about the Texas Rangers arriving in Chicago.)

To break the monotony, the train eventually moved and when it did, whoa boy. It shot dirty, sticky, awful soot all over Matt. Half of his face was almost completely black. Ahh, the glamour, the glory.

After about five hours of back and forth, back and forth, they finally moved the Backgroundians out to the beautiful main room of Union Station, seen at right. In this scene - Matt was told later - the Texas Rangers meet Melvin Purvis, played by Christian Bale. Some people even got to hear the director yell at Bale.

Not Matt.

Matt was walking back and forth, back and forth at the end of the hallway. Why? To "build a human wall" so some ATMs further down the hall wouldn't show up. It was true background work.

Around 7:30 p.m., the crew took a short break and offered everyone pizza. But by the time Matt got from where he was stationed in ATM blocking Siberia, every slice was gone. Still, the Backgroundillas had a few minutes for a bathroom break, so Matt scoured the area looking for place to wash off some soot and use the facilities, which they hadn't been allowed to do for hours. It was on the way to this bathroom break that Matt passed Billy Crudup.

That's right, Billy Crudup! Mr. Prefontaine! Mr. Almost Famous! Mr. MasterCard-is-Priceless commercials! Anyways, he's one of those actors where you'd know him if you saw him.

Matt was pretty impressed, especially since Crudup is playing J. Edgar Hoover and as you can see here they don't really look alike. But, well, makeup did a pretty good job and Matt could have swore he was walking past J. Ed himself.

Finally, at 8:30 p.m. someone yelled "that's a wrap!" (or so Matt was told) and they sent everyone home for the night.

As the they waited in line to turn in their costumes one of the other Backgroundoramas tried to figure out how much he got paid. He estimated about $100.

"By the time I buy the DVD, a movie ticket and a small popcorn, I'll break even!" he laughed.

All in all, the experience reminded Matt a lot of running the marathon and not just because of the nasty blister he got after his newlywed brother and sister-in-law left him with crummy shoes. At the time, it was tiring and monotonous. When Matt called Lynne on the way home, he wasn't sure if he wanted to even go for the second shoot, at the Biograph.

But the next day, Matt was thrilled he had been part of it and the stories kept pouring out.

So, yes, Matt went back for the overnight shoot at the Biograph, determined to spot Johnny Depp or Christian Bale (two of Matt's favorite actors). But that's for another long post later...

Tally for Day One of Public Enemies shooting: 13 hours of shooting, one free lunch, one free haircut, no Johnny Depp, a top of the foot blister and one celebrity sighting.

All in all, priceless.