A film crew’s arrival in the Mobile area gave a group of Spanish Fort High School runners an unusual break from their normal training routine, trading a workout for a day in front of the cameras.
The production, a feature film with a slim public profile at the time, began shooting in midtown Mobile on South Monterey Street before moving to Spanish Fort High School’s track for its second day of filming. The day’s scenes centered on a track meet, and local extras were needed to fill out the crowd of runners.
Several members of Spanish Fort’s cross-country team answered the call, showing up to the set after already completing a six-mile morning run. Cast among them was one of the film’s principal actors, known for earlier roles in family films and teen dramas, who worked alongside the local athletes for the shoot.
For most of the Spanish Fort runners, it was their first experience as extras, and the day came with some on-set lessons about how filmmaking actually works. One runner, tapped to sprint during a crowd shot, said he did not realize the cameras weren’t rolling on him specifically until he was already halfway through his run, at which point he eased off the pace.
After that scene wrapped, the group lined up for a staged 100-meter dash. A University of South Alabama track athlete who joined the extras for the day called the experience exciting, saying he simply enjoys running regardless of the setting. One of his fellow extras said the highlight of the day was getting to run alongside a college-level athlete, while another said his personal goal was simply not to finish last, all while staying a step behind the film’s lead actor as the scene required.
Not everyone on set that day was a competitive runner. A New Orleans firefighter serving as an extra admitted he hadn’t run at that pace in about a decade and was mainly focused on keeping up. It wasn’t his first brush with a film production in the area either; he had recently wrapped work as an extra on a separate World War II drama that had also filmed scenes around Mobile.
The casting company coordinating background talent for the production said it was continuing to look for local extras as filming progressed, a reminder that the Mobile area’s growing reputation as a filming location keeps creating small but memorable opportunities for area residents, including student athletes, to see how a movie comes together up close.