They are about the same height and weight. They may even resemble one another a bit from their profiles. Other than that, not many people are likely to confuse aspiring Chicago actor/model Bob Kaliebe with movie star Kevin Costner.
But for four days in July, Kaliebe was Kevin Costner.
They wore the same clothes. They spent hours together on the same movie set. They even waved at a few starstruck female fans.
“All of a sudden, crowds started forming on the street when they heard Kevin Costner was there. People ask you what you’re doing in the film, and you say, `Oh, I’m standing in for Kevin Costner.’ `Oh really?’ “
Such is the life of a movie stand-in, who literally stands in for a star so lighting and extras can be properly arranged.
“It was fun being on a major shoot,” Kaliebe said. “It’s kind of neat because you’re right there where all the action is. You have to be on the set all day because you never know when they might need you.”
For the 33-year-old Kaliebe, it was good experience to go along with his commercials, print advertising and industrial films. But for North Shore Talent Inc. of Libertyville, the only modeling/talent-booking agency in Lake County, it was a milestone, the first time the 11-year-old company has placed one of its clients in a motion picture. And Kaliebe wasn’t the only one who got on the set; other clients of the agency landed small roles too.
“It definitely gives us a bigger profile than we had before,” said Kerstin Schaefer, North Shore Talent’s director. “We’ve been trying to prove that just because we’re in Libertyville doesn’t mean we can’t do the job as well as anyone downtown. . . . A lot of people don’t think they can get the same quality in the suburbs as they do in the city. We’re trying to change that.”
The agency was founded by Mundelein native Shelley Hoselton, 44, a successful model in the Chicago area when she was a child and teenager. Hoselton said she wanted models, actors and actresses inspired enough to get into this business to have a less intimidating place to turn than the higher-pressure agencies in the city. Upon undertaking the venture, she recalled, others in the industry warned her that a suburban talent agency wouldn’t work because it was too far from the action of downtown Chicago.
So far, Hoselton has proved the naysayers wrong. But for all her experience in front of the camera, Hoselton devotes virtually all of her attention to Shelley’s School of Dance, adjacent to the talent agency, where instructors teach children a variety of dance styles, as well as focus, discipline, body awareness and grace. The talent agency clients are not required to take any dance lessons.
Hoselton said models just starting out have to be comfortable with themselves and must be prepared for the inevitable rejections. That aspect of the business can be brutal, she said.
“You’re told what’s wrong with you, never what’s right,” said Hoselton, who was one of the Morton Salt girls in print ads when she was 11. “I tell people getting into the industry it’s not personal. . . . Every audition you get puts you a step closer to the opportunity that’s right for you.”
As much as she enjoyed her modeling days–she happily pulled out a portfolio of her old print ads–she leaves the talent portion of the agency to Schaefer. A former model herself, Schaefer, 30, came to the United States from Germany in 1986 to be an au pair for a family in Northbrook. At 6 foot 1, she was the right height for modeling, and she found her way into the profession thanks to a photographer she met (and later married and divorced).
Schaefer, now remarried and living in Island Lake, said the worst kind of wannabe models are the ones who simply want to see if it’s fun–and that never leads anywhere. Models and actors just starting out need another job to provide steady income, and they need flexibility in that job, Schaefer said, so they can meet appointments in their modeling and acting quest.
Sherill Tripp, an agent with North Shore Talent, said she laughs when she hears what some would-be models think the business is all about.
“They say, `I just want to be a model. I don’t know what I want to do in life,’ ” Tripp said. “It’s hard, hard work. There is nothing easy about it. You have to be able to take rejection. . . . You have got to be tough.”
North Shore Talent won’t take just anyone who wants to be a model. Schaefer and Tripp won’t accept anyone under 2 years old, and they especially eschew parents who treat modeling as a lark rather than a profession.
“A quick buck,” Tripp said, explaining why some parents make their children pose.
Schaefer agreed. “We have mothers of 2-month-old babies call and say their child wants to get into modeling,” she said.
Schaefer and Tripp also do not want what they call “pageant people.”
“We want real, natural kids,” Tripp said. “We don’t want kids to be made up to be anything but what they are.”
Schaefer said the models who get the most work are 5 foot 11 and taller, but Midwestern women tend to be shorter, and Midwestern fashion shows feature dresses that are of a length to match that height. So models can be 5 foot 7 to 5 foot 11 in this region. And petite models, 5 foot to 5 foot 4, are finding their niche, as are plus-sized models, she explained.
Schaefer said she was speaking at a middle school career day a few months ago and was asked by youngsters about bulimia.
“Agencies want athletic, fit and trim, not skinny,” she said. “A lot of would-be models wrongly think they have to starve themselves.”
By and large, most of North Shore Talent’s clients work as models at trade shows and conventions or appear in print advertisements or industrial films or local commercials.
That all changed the second week of July, when Costner’s movie, “Message in a Bottle,” filmed scenes in Chicago. It was the agency’s first feature film.
North Shore talent got the Costner movie thanks to Chicago casting director Kate Mattson, owner of K.T. Casting, one of the only Chicago-area casting directors that gets jobs for principal talent as well as extras. Mattson had worked with North Shore Talent for about six years and suggested the agency to Warner Bros. location casting director, Sally Jackson, who had called Mattson after failing to reach agreement with two other agencies.
“North Shore wanted to do this for a long time,” Mattson said. “They’re good people, and they insist on quality.”
Said Schaefer, “It’s all connections, who you know in this business.”
North Shore boasts about 300 clients, and Schaefer likes to keep it that way because she knows they are all quality clients. But the client list swelled to as many as 600 when “Message in a Bottle” needed extras, so North Shore sent 260 to O’Hare International Airport and Cedar Street and North Beach in Chicago, where the movie was shot.
Being an extra is no bonanza. It pays only $50 for eight hours of work, and the agency takes 10 percent of that. If one of the agency’s clients lands a “bump,” which is industry lingo for an extra who gets some dialogue or someone who stands in for a star, there’s a little more money at stake: $65 for eight hours work.
“Tough work,” Schaefer said. “You’re only doing it to be with the stars.”
Among the North Shore clients who made it as extras was Evelyn Edge of Genoa City, Wis. The 2-year-old landed a bit part (with a line) thanks to, you guessed it, the right connection: Her mother, Joy, is a teacher at Antioch Community High School and counts Tripp’s two daughters among her students. Edge said Tripp got acquainted with Evelyn and suggested she take Evelyn to the tryout at the Renaissance Hotel in Chicago on July 3.
“We were in and out in like three minutes,” Edge recalled. “We didn’t think we had the part. . . . We just had a snapshot. When they called and told us she had the job, we were really quite amazed.”
Edge said her daughter liked the experience and made $60.
“We think she’s cute because she’s our kid,” Edge said. “To have other people think she’s cute, it’s like, wow.”
Then there’s Philip Traynor, an 8-year-old from Westchester who found work on the set of “Message in a Bottle.” His big line: “Hello.” He and his twin brother, William, also stood in for the child who co-starred with Bruce Willis in “Mercury Rising,” which filmed in Chicago in 1997, said the boys’ dad, Ray.
A plumber by trade, Ray Traynor first toyed with the idea of getting his kids into show business about seven years ago when it was suggested by a client who was a technical adviser to director Ron Howard on the movie “Backdraft,” also filmed in Chicago. Traynor said his wife was going through 200 diapers a week at the time and wanted no part of carting the boys to auditions. But two years ago, Traynor’s daughters, then 9 and 10, urged him to try again, and he did. He signed up all four of his children.
Traynor himself, though, is the one getting the most work as an extra, landing spots in “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “The Jackal,” as well as 17 episodes of the filmed-in-Chicago TV show “Early Edition.” His daughters also served as extras in two “Early Edition” episodes.
Not bad for a guy who hasn’t been in show business since an 8th-grade stage production of “Tom Sawyer.”
“It’s just fun,” Traynor said, “a little break from the monotony of life.”
