Ottawa's Lynn St. Amour has witnessed first-hand the star treatment afforded to a lead actor on one of the most hotly anticipated movies of the year.
The 41-year-old travelled to New York City last year to spend several days working as an extra on Spider-Man 3, which hits theatres tomorrow. The film's star regularly stayed in his trailer until the absolute last minute, she said.
"Tobey Maguire would only come out when everything was ready to go," she said. "Once he came out a little early, and someone held an umbrella over his head so he wouldn't get burned."
Actress Bryce Dallas Howard, who was pregnant during shooting but didn't know it, didn't rate the same level of attention.
"She's not as big as Tobey Maguire," said St. Amour. "She had to sit in the sun."
St. Amour works full-time in the capital selling electronic parts to the hi-tech industry but always wanted to act. After overcoming a series of health problems that laid her out three years ago, she decided to seize the day and take some ACT Ottawa classes with a friend.
"That was just for fun," she said. "The next thing I knew, I had my headshot and I was going on auditions."
St. Amour estimates she's been on hundreds of tryouts since then, learning from her acting teacher rejection just goes with the territory.
Work is coming slowly: She's now acting in an independent movie and appearing in a commercial for radio station Live 88.5 airing this week.
The Spider-Man 3 gig came when she found herself on a New York e-mail list casting call. "Everyone said it was just a gimmick, but we went anyway," she said.
St. Amour and a pal figured if the e-mail turned out to be a scam, they'd have fun hanging out in New York. It turned out they spent two 14-hour days on set, earning far less than the trip cost them.
"The chance of being in such a big production, it was totally amazing," she said, "and I would do it again."
Most of the time was spent outdoors shooting a scene, augmented with 500 or so extras, where the mayor welcomes Spiderman.
At one point, someone announced it was director Sam Raimi's birthday. Raimi climbed up on the set's stage, says St. Amour, and "we sang Happy Birthday to him."
