Hundreds line up in Ukiah casting call for HBO series starring Amy Adams

A casting call held in Ukiah on Saturday may have lacked Hollywood hype and sparkle, but there were stars in the eyes of hundreds of applicants seeking parts as background extras for a scene scheduled to be filmed locally for a new HBO series starring Amy Adams.

Many saw the opportunity as a potential springboard into acting careers or other theater- or film-related work.

“Acting is my passion,” said Baysia McCollam, 14, who arrived at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center with five classmates and a teacher from Sacramento-area performing arts school KD Studios.

Makela Yepez, 18, a student at the City of 10,000 Buddhas, near Ukiah, was accompanied by like-minded friends Owen Browne, 17, and Ari Sunbeam, 24, both Mendocino College students. The trio was fresh off a Mendocino College production of “American Idiot,” which closed Sunday, and psyched about the chance to work on a film set.

“Any experience helps toward that path,” Yepez said. And “I’m getting paid to do what I like,” he said.

The casting call drew about 730 applicants by late Saturday afternoon for the 500 to 1,000 extras needed for the small-town festival scene, to be filmed over a week next month in Redwood Valley, north of Ukiah.

Extras are paid $84 for eight hours plus overtime and are provided with meals during filming.

“Don’t go get a Range Rover,” Rich King, of Rich King Casting, told the gathered applicants, eliciting some laughter.

“I was real happy with the turnout,” King said later in an interview. “It was a great group.”

In “Sharp Objects,” the HBO series, Adams plays a troubled journalist sent to her hometown in Missouri to report on the murders of two girls. The series is based on the book by Gillian Flynn, also author of “Gone Girl.” Patricia Clarkson also stars, playing Adams’ mother.

Other extras in waiting on Saturday saw the opportunity as less of a career move than adding a new experience to their lives.

“I always wanted to be a movie star,” quipped Jacquie Lee, 75, a retired restaurateur from Redwood Valley.

“It was always kind of a dream of mine. A bucket list kind of thing to get on a movie set some time,” said Arleta Casalegno, 64, of Fort Bragg.

Joe Gaskill, 25, of Windsor whose day job is making labels for a wine-shipping company, said he’s always looking for something new and interesting to do. Last year, it was going to Rio de Janeiro to help manage the daily living requirements of Olympians.

“It’s just something cool to do,” he said.

More than a dozen of the applicants had worked on movie sets previously, King said. He will be contacting those selected for the extra roles, but couldn’t say exactly when that would happen.

Jeff Streeter, 69, has worked on several other film productions that have been filmed partially in Mendocino County over the decades, including “Overboard” and “Pontiac Moon,” sometimes managing traffic, other times as an extra. But he doesn’t do it for the shot at stardom.

“I hope to work,” said Streeter, who is retired from construction but earns money making jams, jellies and bat houses.

Some 45 films have been shot at least partially in Mendocino County since 1904, according to the Mendocino County Film Commission. They include “East of Eden,” starring James Dean in 1954; “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” in 1965, with an all-star cast that included Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin and Jonathan Winters; and “Overboard,” starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, in 1987. Scenes of the television series “Murder, She Wrote,” also were set on the Mendocino coast.

Redwood Valley was chosen for a scene in “Sharp Objects” because it met some very specific requirements, said Sharon Davis, Mendocino County film commissioner and chief executive officer of the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce.

The location managers were looking for a Victorian farmhouse set on rolling hills with not too many trees. Davis searched Google Earth and real estate websites to track down the property. She said she couldn’t give the location or the owners’ names.

“It was just one of those lucky things,” Davis said of finding the right house.

Most of the series will be filmed in Los Angeles, with a small portion in Atlanta, King said.