The stars of the John Dillinger biopic "Public Enemies" will be hitting the red carpet tonight at the AMC River East at 6 p.m. Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard and company spent much of last summer filming the movie right here in Chicago. WGN's Dean Richards will be on hand to grab as many interviews as possible. Be sure to watch WGN at 5:30 and 9:00 to get the scoop. As for my brush with directing greatness....I've actually met Michael Mann before - he directed me in the film "Ali." Yeah, don't get too excited. I was an extra in a pivotal scene where Ali is drafted into the armed forces and he refuses to go (at 5:00 in the clip above). I'm one of about 20 recruits standing in two lines. It was filmed in the old armory building at North and Kedzie. We spent an entire day shooting this scene. I even got a few seconds of closeup time! Sadly none of it was used and I missed a Spanish midterm at NIU. The price of fame, right?
Anyhow, Mr. Mann was a wonderful director who took good care to make sure my 1960's threads were in perfect shape. He even requested more hold for my retro hairdo before completely pulling me out of focus.
Mr. Ali, I mean Smith, was standing in the line in front of me. See that guy out of focus during Will's glorious closeups? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's me. I joked that he was too tall, blocking all of my prime camera time. He apologized and belted out a signature Will Smith laugh. Lucky for him I was able to retake my Spanish midterm, or I would have been really upset.
I've never had a chance to meet Johnny Depp, but judging from other interviews he seems like a real thrill. Christian Bale and I had a chance to meet while he was in town promoting "3:10 to Yuma." Unfortunately I had to cut our interview short. I had an errand to run....
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