When she got the call to play stand-in for Dolly Parton in an upcoming movie, Sue Heward didn`t know whether to laugh or run for the nearest plastic surgeon.
She laughed. And then she ran to the nearest K mart ”big-bra” section for something stuffable.
Heward`s debut as one of Parton`s stand-ins came during the current filming in southwest suburban Lemont of ”Straight Talk.”
Stand-ins toil under the lights and cameras but never appear on film. The fruits of Heward`s labors will appear on-screen in how Parton`s face is warmly lit, and in the way a faraway shot of Parton entering a room seamlessly rolls into a closeup of her face when she speaks.
For everyone trying to get into the movies the hard way, being a stand-in is near the bottom of the ladder but still a step up from being an extra, one of those forgettable people who make up a film`s human backdrop.
Karel King was even higher on the ladder: He was a photo double for Jim Belushi in ”Only the Lonely” and ”Curly Sue,” two movies filmed in Chicago last fall.
Because he actually appears on film, King can sit in a theater and revel in his big scenes, such as the one in which he crosses a street and enters a building. Unfortunately for him, everyone else will think it`s Belushi: Photo doubles are only filmed from behind or far away.
Such is the nearly invisible life of the ”second team,” to which stand- ins and photo doubles belong.
Stand-ins watch the stars rehearse a scene, then take the star`s place and go through the motions again while the camera and lighting crews make adjustments.
Photo doubles are filmed in minor scenes such as driving down a road or walking away-scenes the star is unavailable for or too important to bother with.
Being on the second team is a thankless job: Your name usually doesn`t even appear in the closing credits, the pay is mediocre (about $75 a day plus overtime), and the hours are long and unpredictable.
Still, there have been ever-growing opportunities lately to take a crack at it in Illinois. Thirteen feature films have been set or are under way in the state so far this year-11 of them in Chicago-and 11 were filmed in the state in 1990, according to Ron Verkuilen, a field scout for the Illinois Film Office.
Whatever the rewards, there is no shortage of actors and non-actors eager to create their own version of stardom.
For example, imagine you are in downtown Lemont, where ”Straight Talk”
is being film-ed. At 8:30 a.m. the country town is quiet, with a breeze barely swinging the gingerbread-style sign at the Christmas Inn.
Gray-haired Lemont residents are having pancakes as usual at The Strand Cafe, across from the dance studio where interior shots of the movie are being filmed.
Then Guy DiBenedetto walks in.
As soon as folks see his helmet of black hair, electric-blue T-shirt, black slacks and black cowboy boots, they know he`s a stranger and figure he`s a star.
Not even close. DiBenedetto, a bit-part actor and bookkeeper for a Dominick`s grocery store in Chicago, is the stand-in for James Woods, who stars with Parton in ”Straight Talk.”
DiBenedetto, 31, doesn`t look anything like Woods and sheepishly admits it, but stand-ins don`t have to resemble the stars they work with in any way except for general build, height and coloring.
This is definitely the case for Heward, who at 5 foot 5 is the same height as Parton (in heels), but who panicked that her 34 B chest would be a bust next to Parton`s.
”If need be, I told them I can wear additional `support,` ” said Heward, a free-lance producer from Bloomingdale.
After trying on four or five bras and enduring some curious looks from the other K mart shoppers, Heward ended up buying a 38 D, into which she plans ”to pop in a half roll of Charmin.”
While DiBenedetto drew moon-eyed looks from some of Lemont`s women, Heward, 31, already was fighting off autograph hounds. In one outdoor scene, she was wearing a denim jacket identical to Parton`s when a group of youngsters approached her.
”I`m not famous,” she told them. ”You don`t need my autograph.” But they insisted and she signed, only to find that this drew more people.
During a typical day of filming, the real actors-Parton and Woods, for example-would come onto the set and go through a scene of five or six sentences. Heward and DiBenedetto would sit close by and watch, making mental notes of how the actors would sit, where they would walk or stand, even how they would move their hands.
After Parton and Woods finished the scene, they would go to their trailers to relax and wait to be called again. Meanwhile, Heward and DiBenedetto would carefully repeat the scene`s actions, with crew members tape-marking where Parton and Woods had stood or turned.
Then the stand-in sits or stands while the lighting crew adjusts the general lighting and the camera crew adjusts its equipment for a wide shot. The crews carefully work toward the stand-in with more detailed lighting and tighter camera angles. The whole process for a single scene might take 40 minutes, Heward said.
Ever the hopefuls
There are several ways to become a stand-in or double. Some are actors on file at talent agencies. Others answer newspaper ads.
John Plecki, a Chicago paramedic, joined his buddies at the firehouse last summer in signing up to be an extra on ”Backdraft.” He wasn`t called for that film, but in October was asked to be a stand-in for John Candy in
”Only the Lonely,” released in May.
Actors who hope that second-team work will get them discovered, or at least noticed, are playing the game wisely. ”They do stand a better chance of being upgraded” than do extras, said Joan Philo, a casting director for the Chicago talent agency Holzer, Roche and Ridge. ”If you`re working closely with the crew and director and if they like you, they can upgrade you, maybe, to speaking parts.”
In casting stand-ins, fussier directors or producers will insist on actors or people with stand-in experience because the job requires so much concentration, said Lisa Beasley, extras casting coordinator for Columbia Pictures.
On the other hand, photo doubles can be anyone, so long as the right person sees a resemblance to the right star.
When King, a disc jockey from North Riverside who is also on file at a talent agency, was being considered as a double for Jim Belushi in the upcoming John Hughes film ”Curly Sue,” his looks got mixed reviews.
”The producer said I looked like Belushi, but when I got to makeup, the makeup lady said I didn`t look a thing like him. But then I went in front of John Hughes, and he said I was fine,” said King, 31.
`I guess if he thinks I look like Belushi, I do,” he said.
There isn`t room for doubles to do much acting, but when he was working on ”Only the Lonely,” King practiced moving like Belushi so he could carry off a wedding scene in which he fidgets at the back of a church.
”Belushi likes to put his hands in his pockets and shuffle around,”
King said. ”He`s not one of your more confident people, like Roger Moore.”
Plecki had no acting experience, only the right looks. The guys around the Fire Department station at 5349 S. Wabash Ave. long ago had dubbed the blond 6-foot-3, 280-pound paramedic ”Uncle Buck,” so few were surprised when he was chosen to be a stand-in and double for Candy.
Plecki`s furlough and work schedule-on duty 24 hours, off duty 48 hours-coincided perfectly with the filming schedule, enabling him to work on the movie for about 12 days between October and December.
”It was just fascinating because when you`re watching a movie in a theater you take everything for granted,” he said. ”But now for any movie I watch, I have a lot of appreciation for every single shot that goes in.”
A baby jug
Peggy Davies certainly understands that. As a photo double for Anne Jackson, Davies recently spent four hours a day for five days at the Lincoln Park Zoo doing one thing: cooing over an empty jug that doubled for a baby.
The scene is from the upcoming movie ”Folks,” which just finished filming in Chicago and also stars Tom Selleck and Don Ameche. In the zoo scene, Davies bends over a baby stroller with a jug in it while Selleck and Ameche have an argument, said Davies, who is in her late 50s and works regularly in Chicago as an extra.
For this scene, Davies arrived at the zoo each day at 6:30 a.m. and put on her costume, gray wig and makeup, even though her face was never filmed. Then she waited, sometimes for hours, to be called. At least she had her own trailer, equipped with a bathroom and walkie-talkie so she could listen to the filming, she said.
The scene was repeated every time an actor flubbed a line; every time someone went the wrong way; every time the extras moved too fast or too slow; and every time it just wasn`t quite right, Davies said.
”Sometimes you wondered what the devil was wrong this time,” she said, but then she would patiently bend toward the stroller again.
Everyone on the second team must have this kind of patience. Even children are expected to put in long, tedious hours without protest.
During the 70 days between October and May that Lisa DiSanto, 8, of Chicago, was a photo double for Alison Porter in the title role of ”Curly Sue,” Lisa`s workdays started as early as 6:15 a.m. or as late as 11:30 p.m. But her mother, Yolanda, said the crew treated Lisa extremely well, even letting her use the star`s trailer when Lisa needed a nap.
After going to school all day, Ben Lissner, 10, of Highland Park, often worked from 3 p.m. to midnight when he doubled for Macaulay Culkin last year in ”Home Alone.” Other times, Ben might skip school and make up his lessons with an on-set tutor.
But Ruth Lissner thought the experience for her son, the second-youngest of five children, was well worth the four months of chaos.
”It made him the center of attention,” she said. ”He`s from a large family, so he doesn`t always get heard. This made him feel special.”
Ben is proud of his work, especially a scene of him running across a bridge, carrying a toothbrush.
”They would take (Macaulay Culkin) and then me, and we would each run across the bridge, over and over, so they could get it right,” he said.
There are small pleasures to being on the second team that have nothing to do with making movies. Ben`s favorite part about being a photo double was going to the set at Niles West High School and racing down the halls on one of the old-fashioned scooters provided for him and Macaulay.
Being a stand-in or photo double also means getting to eat with the cast and crew, a sure sign that one has arrived.
King recalled his lean days in 1986 as a mere extra in ”The Color of Money,” when ”the guy serving us wouldn`t even let anyone take more than one bag of chips.” Then he rhapsodized about fatter days in 1989, when he was a stand-in in ”The Package,” starring Gene Hackman.
”The extras were getting sloppy Joes and maybe pork chops or spaghetti, if you were lucky,” he said, ”while the cast and crew and stand-ins got lobster tail, blackened fish, shrimp and filet mignon.”
Waiting for a line
Like any group of backstage hands and benchwarmers, members of the second team are grateful to belong but wistful for more.
King dreams of seeing his name in the closing credits, even if only buried among the gaffers, best boys and key grips.
DiBenedetto would love someday to give up his job at Dominick`s and be a full-time actor. For now, he wishes for speaking parts-any speaking parts.
”I want to get a line. I still like doing this, but it`s getting the line that`s close to what I really want to do,” he said.
Plecki loves his job at the fire station-he has wanted to be a paramedic ever since grammar school-but said if the money were right, he wouldn`t mind standing in for a living. He hasn`t been able to accept any roles since ”Only the Lonely” because of his work schedule, but he remains optimistic.
”They have my pager number.”
