Trafford man carves out niche as an extra in Pittsburgh film projects
When a band of thugs battles Gotham cops in "The Dark Knight Rises," filmgoers will be sucked into a brawl they'll think is happening in winter.
But Jackson Nunn knows better.
Last summer, as a background actor in the upcoming blockbuster, Nunn had to perform in the fight scene while wearing a winter jacket, dodging fake snowflakes and inhaling dust from a bomb explosion on a mid-summer day on the Carnegie Mellon University campus in Pittsburgh.
The mid-90s heat and sweat-soaked clothing reminded him of his exhausting preseason football practices for the former Trafford High School in the late 1960s.
"When I was out there in the hot sun, it gave me flashbacks of football camp because it was miserable," said Nunn, a former running back and placekicker who played college ball at Eastern Michigan University.
"When I was attacking this guy, I cramped up in my calf, and the medic was there and wrapped me up. Then, I went back out there little by little. Probably not enough water."
That's the life of a movie extra, although the lifelong Trafford resident can't stand that term for his work.
As a background performer, Nunn spent nine long days on the set for uncredited roles as a thug and prisoner.
And until July 20, when the last of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy opens nationwide, he won't know how much face time - if any - he'll have on the big screen.
"What I went through, I better be on film," Nunn said with a hearty laugh.
Nunn has worked on more than 30 films and TV shows and 12 commercials since entering the industry by happenstance.
A friend recruited him; his brother, Bill; and their horse to appear in the 1995 TV movie, "The Piano Lesson," based on an August Wilson play about Pittsburgh in the 1930s.
He got involved because of his hobby restoring old wagons, such as one his horse pulls in one scene filmed in Washington County. He has been hooked ever since.
If you look closely while watching many of the big-budget flicks or TV shows that filmed in Southwestern Pennsylvania in the past decade and a half, you'll find Nunn.
He buys Viagra pills off Jake Gyllenhaal's Pfizer salesman in "Love and Other Drugs" and shares a stage with Michael Douglas and Katie Holmes in a dance scene in "Wonder Boys."
He also might pop up in December in a scene in "Jack Reacher" - which filmed locally under the title "One Shot" - as a beer drinker in a bar scene with Tom Cruise.
His filmography includes multiple uncredited roles as a prisoner or other bad-guy variations, leading Nunn, who works part-time as a stagehand, to lament, "I guess I look like a criminal, huh?"
Nancy Mosser, who runs a casting company in Pittsburgh's Lawrence-
ville neighborhood, said Nunn usually is called to play blue-collar roles. His signature Afro opens him up for some period pieces, too.
"We've used him in scenes when they need someone from the 1960s," Mosser said. "He's got great hair for that."
The schedule of a background character usually features long stretches of boredom with sprinklings of fun moments during a job that could last as long as 14 hours in a day, she said.
Even a bit actor has appointments with hair, makeup and wardrobe artists, but the pay for many roles is minimum wage.
Some featured background parts can earn a few hundred dollars.
About 2,500 extras are needed per film shot on location in the region. As the industry has grown here, extras have become an important part of attracting projects, said Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office.
The enthusiasm background actors show here is stronger than in some other cities, she said.
"It's epitomized by the numbers of local people that are willing to come out and be a part of it and enjoy the opportunity," Keezer said.
Frequently, that crowd includes Nunn, who has taken acting lessons and said he's become choosier about the parts he pursues. He also has turned down some chances to join projects in bigger cities like Philadelphia.
Last year, Nunn landed a speaking role as Jim Burns, a gas station attendant in the film "River of Darkness," which stars former wrestler Kurt Angle as a small-town sheriff investigating a series of murders.
It's one of the few named parts he's had in an acting career defined by roles such as "pool player," "bar guy number three," "hospital visitor" and "TV news photographer."
"I could play anything. If you're a good actor, you have to have an imagination that works. As long as I'm having fun and enjoying the role, it doesn't matter what it is."
