Movies Filmed Around Connecticut – Have you Ever Been an Extra?

There are a lot of different news satire websites, The Onion being one of the more well-known ones. The latest fake news report I read makes me wish it was real.

It's a story from Daily News 3 that says there are multiple reports that part of the next film in the Star Wars saga will be filmed near New Britain, Connecticut. It also says that the writer and director, Rian Johnson, chose the location, and that they will be looking for people in the area to be extras in the film.

Reading the article got me thinking about how I always thought it would be fun to work in the movie business, more behind the scenes than in front of the camera. It would be fun to be an extra though.

One time, I applied to be an extra in a movie. My friend and I went together to the Edmond Town Hall in Newtown to try to be extras in the movie Sleepers. Given that it was a movie about a boys juvenile detention center, the odds were stacked pretty high against us actually getting called in, but we had fun going through the process.

We didn't make it in the movie, but a bunch of guys we knew ended up in some of the scenes. Most were in the cafeteria fight scene. I still remember the guys being excused from class to go and film the scenes. So, while the movie isn't the most uplifting of films, in fact, it can be downright depressing, it's cool to watch it and be brought back to that time in high school.

There have been quite a few movies that have been, at least partially, filmed in Connecticut. Here are 15 movies from a list of 61 that was published by the Connecticut Post:

• Die Hard with a Vengeance
• Mr. Deeds
• Mystic Pizza
• Other People's Money
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
• The Stepford Wives (1976)
• The Stepford Wives (2004)
• The Hunt for Red October
• Revolutionary Road
• War of the Worlds
• Amistad
• Sleepers 
• Valley of the Dolls
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Mona Lisa Smile

Have you ever been an extra in a movie?