Casting Day For Public Enemies!

 Last spring I had went out for being in Public Enemies, a new film by director Michael Mann about the true life story of the notorious bank robber and gangster, John Dillinger.   Johnny Depp is playing Dillinger and Christian Bale was back for the 2nd summer in a row in Chicago playing the FBI agent hunting him.  The film was set in the 1930s and Mann was very set on using the actual locations throughout Chicago.    He also went all over Wisconsin and Indiana for the rest of the filming.   I missed out when filming started back in Feburary on getting a speaking part so I resorted to getting extra work.  I did want to be a part of this project in any way, shape, or form.  I was being recruited for a big ballroom scene because I did have a background in dnace from when I was younger.  I finally got the call to come into the office.

It was an early call and the weather was nice that day so I wound up making a day of it in downtown Chicago.   I had made some friends throught the Chicago film industry and even had a friend who worked on the hospital scene of Dark Knight with me had wound up on the production crew.  Turns out that none of them could hook me up with getting on the film.  The director is very very detail orientated and actually picks everyone from the main actors to even the most minor background person on his films!   If you seen his previous work, Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox, there was that shoot out scene in an Asian nightclub.  He hand picked every single person in that scene!!!  SO I would take some photos and fill out paperwork and then the director himself would review it.

I was instructed to dress in a suit and tie and any type of overcoat I had.  They were just trying to get a visual for Mr. Mann to picture using us in the film.  I had not cut my hair in a while because I was trying out for a Taiwanese film set in the 70s called Formosa Betrayed.  I had a huge mustache and side burns because the one casting director wanted to use me as a cop or a teacher.  The PE people were ok with it but I was told not to change anything til I hear from them.  The office was located near Millinium Park which I had not seen before because it opened after I moved to HK.

It's amazing how fast this area has become an icon of the city.  The bean you see at the top is the main attraction although the fountain blocks with the faces have become just as popular.  Many film and tv productions started throwing this area in as well.  The tv show The Beast had a scene in there and so did Leverage.  The WWE promo I filmed used there too.  Unfortuneatly Public Enemies could not use it.

The bean is basically a solid formed mirror.  It allows for some really fun photo oppertunities as you can see.

I almost used up my camera battery taking pics of this thing.  I won't bore you with all of those.

On my way out of the park, there were some cute girls promoting some new extra vent on top of a beer can.

The one girl with just bare arms next to me was actually giving me a sales pitch on a beer can!!!   I laughed and told her beer is one of the few things I would not need an explaination to buy!   They were very cool and gave me a little rubber squishy Coors can.   It was a cool little souvenier from the day.   After I left there I was hungry and only wanted to eat at one place........CHINATOWN!!!

Crazy to say but one of the things I miss the most about living in Hong Kong was I could eat Chinese food every day.  I ate like a pig while I was here.   Its the only place around me that I can get authentic dishes just like in HK and China when I was there.

I had to have some of my usual favorites.

Then I was off for the day.   On my way out of town I went by La Salle Street.  This was the intersection where I first worked as Sgt. Spellman in Dark Kngiht.

They also filmed that truck flip sequence and the bat pod chase right here as well.

Now came the hard part.   Waiting for the call back......