Title: Leatherheads, feature film
Cast: George Clooney, Renee Zellweger
Extra: Roy Chatman
Producers: Grant Heslov, George Clooney, Casey Silver
Director: George Clooney
Script: George Clooney, Stephen Schiff, Duncan Brantley, Rick Reilly

About Roy
Role: Chain Gang, game official, fan.
Acting venues: Ware Shoals, Hughes Junior High (Greenville), Travelers Rest and Charlotte.
Wife: Mary is the secretary to Greenville Tech president Tom Barton.
Son, Frank is a vice president at Wachovia in Charlotte. He got his undergraduate degree from Clemson and masters at the University of South Carolina.
Daughter, Susan, is Chef Emeril Laguse’s executive assistant.  She received her undergraduate and graduate degree at the University of South Carolina. Emeril will be the grand marshal for the New Year’s Day Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California
Wedding bells: Susan is getting married in New Orleans in December.
Retired: Roy worked for Kraft’s Foods for almost 30 years as a distributor for Anderson and Greenwood counties and was promoted to the Food Service Division calling on mass feeders like hospitals.
 
EMERIL ON LINE ONE! – Frank, Roy’s son, was in New Orleans entertaining guests at Emeril’s restaurant. The service wasn’t up to par and Frank called his sister, Susan, to let her know the guests’ disappointment. “She told her brother, ‘here’s Emeril, tell him yourself.’ Emeril called the restaurant to voice his concern. ‘Immediately the service improved and Frank said they couldn’t have been treated nicer.”

SPURRIER TEAMMATE – Steve Spurrier was a teammate on Roy Chatman’s basketball team at Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee. “I was in the same class as Spurrier and his brother, Glenn, was one year behind.”

FEEL LUCKY? – Roy was hired by South Carolina Education Lottery Commissioner Eddie Passileague to set up the computers and train managers and assistant managers how to order the lottery tickets. “I did that for about 15 months and retired for good,” said Roy.

Chatman had best view to judge football talent

Roy Chatman has been around football he knew how to work the chains along the sidelines to determine first down yardage.

He didn’t think he needed any help. It was basic and the officials monitored the chains in games. But this wasn’t a game.

This was “Leatherheads,” directed and starring Oscar winning actor George Clooney. The outcome of this game isn’t resting on yards and inches. It’s going to be determined by scores of millions of dollars.

That’s where Clooney comes in. “Clooney would come over to us and tell us to more of this and more of that,” said Roy. That is Roy’s way of saying Clooney was teaching Roy how to act on the sidelines.

“I don’t think they over dramatized the football part of the movie,” said Roy. “They never went full speed. Just about half speed.”

Roy remembers observing Clooney’s opponents made up of local college players who made the team through a series of tryouts. “They had a whole group of young guys. They were good, too,” said Roy.

Roy is hopeful some of the filming with him on the sidelines will make the final cut. “With all the film they took who knows what they will pick. No one knows.”

Roy doesn’t remember what he put on his “Leatherheads” casting call form but it sure made an impression.

“When I got to wardrobe one of the women said she had been looking for me and started laughing. She said I was on her list because she thought what I wrote was so funny it showed a sense of humor. I just can’t remember what it was I wrote but I sure wish I did,” said Roy.

One of Roy’s memories while in wardrobe was when he came to the set wearing a felt hat. He thought it would work well in the period movie. “The woman working with me took one look at me with my hat on and grabbed it. She said, ‘Hell no, you’re not wearing that’ and threw it on the ground.” She wasn’t mad. It was her way of making light of the hat I was wearing.”

Roy didn’t know what to expect by being cast in the movie. He said he’s glad to have had the experience. “What I really enjoyed was that I got to talk to a lot of different people. There’s three of us from the Poinsettia Club that see each other and tell stories about our experiences.”