On our recent trip to Washington, DC we stayed at the Normandy Hotel. This is a small hotel between Dupont Circle and Woodley Park. We lived in the Washington DC metro area for 5 years and I was familiar with the area. In fact, I was the team captain of my kickball team and we played in the Adams Morgan area. While my wife was attending her dental Hygiene conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, I toured the city. The first day of her conference, I walked with her to the Omni and then decided to visit the Adams Morgan area. As I crossed the bridge I noticed all of these trucks parked on the bridge. Parking on the bridge is not allowed and I knew this had to be a special event. I stopped and talked to one of the drivers and they told me they were shooting a movie today.
movie set traillers parked on the bridge north of Adams Morgan
The movie was untitled but it was a romantic comedy starring Reece Witherspoon and Paul Rudd. I continued my walk and headed toward my old hangout, Adams Mill Bar and Grill. This was our sponsor for the kickball team, Out on Parroll. As I passed and took pictures of the awning, I noticed a couple of stage hand pulling equipment and setting up tables. I pulled one aside and he asked me to take his picture. They told me they were shooting a scene where Paul runs across the street to meet with Reece. I decided to grab breakfast and then see what happens. At around 11 am, they finally started to get serious. The street was blocked off, all of the extras were in position and I found myself sitting at a table outside of a Starbucks watching the scene unfold.
Set coordinators
I was 15 feet from Paul during most of the action. It was pretty cool and the set director told me that I will probably be in the scene. They shot the thing over 20 times and it was amazing that all of the cars and people in the scene were extras. The director would yell "action" and all the people would start to walk, the cars would move ahead and Paul would cross the street. It as all timed perfectly and it was fun to see the action unfold. After the scene was shot, they dismissed the extras on our side of the street and I followed the extras back to the staging area where we had lunch. It was a great experience and my 15 minutes of fame or maybe only 15 seconds in movie land was captured on film. Look for me at a theatre near you or just wait to catch me on DVD. Cheers!
