 Title: Leatherheads, feature film
Cast: George Clooney, Renee Zellweger
Extra: Mike Venditti
Producers: Grant Heslov, George Clooney, Casey Silver
Director: George Clooney
Script: George Clooney, Stephen Schiff, Duncan Brantley, Rick Reilly
About Mike
Home: Concord, North Carolina.
Work: Wachovia 10 years
Hobby: Computer geek.
Family: Wife, Cindy
Characters: Fan, Statistician, Fan on Scoreboard
Did you know?
Mike’s nephew, Robert, sold Top Shelf Production his first graphic novel script, “The Surrogates”. Rob took the Venditti's family name as his pen name to honor his grandfather, Mike's father. "The Surrogates" is being made into a movie by Disney starring Bruce Willis. When filming starts Mike and Rob wil be on the set. "I'm hoping for a few lines. You never know what can happen -- I may be walking down a real red carpet some day," Mike said.
Mike worked his way onto the big screen
Mike Venditti first head about the casting call like many others – on a news report. Only the call to act in a George Clooney and Renee Zellweger movie was too much to pass up. Mike answered the call, waited in line for an hour and was given a form to complete. He added his headshot and waited – for what appeared to be very long weeks. “I had the time off and my wife supported me,” Mike said.
Mike got the call to report to Charlotte and was cast in several scenes in the seven days he was on the set. “I did background a lot at first, I was a statistician with a table on the sideline. Me and the other statistician were so close we were looking at Carter (Clooney).
The scene that Mike remembers most was a humorous stint as a spectator at the scoreboard side of the stadium where Clooney’s team was driving for a score.
“The quarterback threw a pass and somebody caught the ball and was tackled in the end zone. Nobody can tell who caught the ball, everybody was so muddy. We were told to cheer, cheer, and cheer!
Clooney comes up with the ball and we turn away dejected. The scene was shot that way a few times. Then the quarterback runs the ball and gets tackled. Nobody can tell what team it is because everybody is so muddy. Someone runs in with a bucket of water and washes the mud off the player so we can see who it is.”
Mike said the crew was signing people out and taking people aside and placing them in the stands. “They needed more fans in Charlotte. They would signal people out and move them to another place so they could digitize them and make the crowd seem bigger than it was.”
Mike was intrigued with some of the construction methods used on the set. “The piece of what appeared to be wood was very light like Styrofoam. They were painted white with a big red X in the center as a mark for the group.”
The weather didn’t cooperate. “It was 90 degrees and many of the extras wore giant overcoats,” Mike said. “Between each scene we were taking off our coats and pretended it was cold.”
Mike said the extras were given pointers from production assistants before each take. “The first day one scene had Carter getting the ball and scores. ‘No high 5s. No high 5s’ was yelled over and over.”
Between takes, Mike said, Clooney would be playing catch. “It was so neat watching George throwing the football back and forth. He was joking around with the other cast members. ‘I’m thinking, here’s a guy just throwing the football around like anybody else.’ Here’s a guy like anybody else, just throwing the ball around having fun.”
The mud scene was fun to watch, Mike said. “Here’s Big Gus (Keith Loneker) taking a belly flop in the mud!” I guess the players weren’t muddy enough so a lady was walking around grabbing a handful of mud from a bucket and splattering it on the faces of the players.
Players were wallowing in the mud trying to get muddier than they were. I just laughed. It was like little kids playing in the mud!”
As much as Clooney is given star treatment, Mike said Clooney doesn’t flaunt his status. “Clooney raked the grass the first day I was there.
Here’s George Clooney, a guy who could command top money, but he just grabbed a rake and worked the grass like anybody else.”
As Clooney was tossing the football between scenes Mike said he tried to get his attention, hoping the mega-star would acknowledge Mike.
“He’s throwing the football around and some of the fans are heckling him. He’s like a little kid throwing the ball. As George is about to throw a pass I reach out with my hand and wave. He starts to throw the ball and the other extras try to get his attention. I didn’t expect him to throw it to me, but I was hoping he would at least give a wave or something.”
There were plenty of questions from family and friends when Mike would come home. His sister “thinks George Clooney is the sexiest man alive. She was just asking questions so rapidly I didn’t have a chance to answer. ‘How well did you see him? Did you see him up close? Did you talk to him?”
Meeting Renee
As focused Mike was watching Clooney it was Renee Zellweger that caught Mike’s eye. “Renee was incredibly gorgeous,” Mike said. “The film doesn’t do her justice.”
Mike also some other run-ins with Renee.
“When I went to fitting in South Carolina, Renee was coming out of the back and as we passed I said ‘hi’ and she said hi back at me. I couldn’t believe I was in the same building with Renee and now I was having a conversation!”
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