Broken Lizard is a comedy group comprised of Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erick Stolhanske. Together they write and act in their films, with Chandrasekhar helming the films as director. To date, their film “Super Troopers” has been their greatest success, earning them a legion of Broken Lizard fans.
Their latest film “Beerfest” filmed in our town and so the autograph opportunity door was left open. Many films have been coming here lately, but we’ve been unable to collect for a variety of reasons. Namely time! Collecting autographs at movie sets in our town means finding a good location (if you can find a movie set) and preparing to wait many painful hours for nothing.
Many bigger name stars had been in town filming, so why would we pick the Broken Lizards? Well this autograph success was made possible because I was hired as a background actor for many days of the filming of “Beerfest”. This definitely hasn’t been the first time I’ve been hired as an extra and as a general rule I have never asked for an autograph while working.
I came close to breaking my rule when I was on set of the film “North Country”. There I was standing in a holding room with other Extras when Woody Harrelson comes in to get his Segway. Being the friendly guy he is, he started chatting to some of the extras and soon he was being asked for autographs and started signing away.
That’s when I whipped out an index card and started to make my way closer to Woody. Right then a Production Assistant stopped the autograph frenzy and after Woody left, she made any autograph seekers leave and said they would never call them again… Blacklisted! That only reinforced my previous hesitance to ever ask for an autograph on a film set while working.
This rule was about to go right out the window when I worked on “Beerfest”. The first day I worked on the film I was brought out from the background and into a more prominent role with Steve Lemme. Steve came up to me and talked with me a bit and soon I found myself at the center of attention when the cameras were rolling. Steve, improvising, was including me in the scene take after take. Steve is such a cool guy and even as months went by he remembered my name.
I had been working on the set for a good amount of time now and one evening after a long shoot, I walked out to find a group of fans talking with Steve Lemme and Blanchard Ryan. Steve called me over and asked how it was going. After talking with them for some time, one of the fans said can I have an autograph? A couple more fans joined and asked for autographs. That’s when the autograph temptation was too great for me. It was like the ring in "Lord of the Rings", it was calling me, begging me to take part in this autograph frenzy.
I finally gave in and handed him a “Beerfest” movie prop program to sign. Of course he didn’t mind and continued chatting with me as he signed my movie prop. Then the lovely Blanchard Ryan, who’s also in the film, signed my program without any hesitation. That’s when Erik Stolhanske walked out and immediately came over to sign as well. All of us thanked them for their time and were off to prepare for the next night of filming. This was definitely an unexpected autograph success, but since we didn’t get caught... it was very cool.
More days working on the “Beerfest” set provided me with some more opportunities to ask for autographs, would I dare try again? You bet! Here I was on the last day of shooting in a ridiculous German outfit, complete with cone shaped hat and lederhosen. The film set for the most part was laid back and I could tell trying to get autographs wouldn't be entirely frowned upon. That's when I spotted someone holding a “Super Troopers” DVD and I knew that I should stick by them in case they ask for autographs.
It was now midday and they were setting up the next scene. Star and director Jay Chandrasekhar was just watching them set up the next scene when the fan with the “Super Troopers” DVD made their move. He couldn’t have been nicer and quickly added his autograph to the DVD cover. Before he could turn around, I was already there with my index card out and ready to get signed. He gladly took my index card and personalized it with a great quote from “Super Troopers”, “Earl – No Mustache Ride For You- Jay Chandrasekhar”. I thanked him and quickly disappeared in the crowd of extras.
Soon after I was getting some snacks at craft service when I overheard a couple of ladies saying that they were about to ask Paul Soter and Steve Lemme for an autograph, when they were finished doing interviews for the DVD release of “Beerfest”. Paul finished his interview first and came over to sign some autographs for the two Extras and that’s when I decided to tag along. He had no problem signing my index card and added another great Broken Lizard personalization to my collection, “I like your hat – Paul Soter”. Of course he was referring to the cone head shaped hat I had been wearing all day filming.
