Analy High grad calls experience as 'Us' extra 'really cool'

Raina Pope spotted herself in “Us,” the monstrously popular and open-to-interpretation horror film shot in Santa Cruz by director Jordan Peele.

“My face is actually in focus,” exalts Raina, a 2013 graduate of Sebastopol's Analy High School who lives now in Santa Cruz and serves at a sushi restaurant.

Having acted at both Analy and Santa Rosa Junior College, Raina jumped on it last year when she learned extras were needed for “Us.” She got picked.

As cameras rolled on the beach in Santa Cruz in the fall, she playfully buried a young man in the sand while, nearby, the vacationer played by female lead Lupita Nyong'o started to get the creeps.

“I watched her perform that scene over 10 times,” said Raina, who's 24 and a granddaughter of Camp Meeker peace-justice activist Mary Moore. “It was really cool.”

Raina's had to smile at reports that “Us,” which opened big last weekend, has some viewers saying they're now frightened to go to Santa Cruz or its famed Boardwalk.

“No one is scared in Santa Cruz,” Raina said. “It's just a hype everywhere else.”

She likes the film, likes “that it's one of the first scary movies with an all-black cast.”

And she likes that she's not just a blur in that beach scene.