Extra, extra

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PENDLETON — A Pendleton woman and self-described Melissa McCarthy “fangirl” got much more than her wish to meet the actor when she applied to be a movie extra in one of her films.

The effort to meet the star turned into a multi-year odyssey that opened up a world Lauren Heiden knew little about — filmmaking — and will continue to resonate with her for years to come as the two films she came to be in are released, one today, Thursday, Nov. 26, on the streaming platform HBO Max.

“It’s like the highlight of my entire life,” said Heiden, 36, a lifelong Pendleton resident and mother of two. “Except for my faith and my family, it was the highlight of my life.

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Heiden traveled to Atlanta four times —in October and November 2018 and 2019 — to participate in background roles in two movies starring McCarthy: “Superintelligence,” a sci-fi action comedy, and “Thunder Force,” a superhero action comedy to be released on Netflix at a later date, possibly next year.

The two three-day shoots for “Superintelligence,” in which she plays a cyber-intelligence officer, and the two two-day shoots for “Thunder Force,” in which she plays a Chicago police officer, gave her the chance to learn about the industry, meet McCarthy and others, and pick up some new life lessons she feels compelled to share, including in a book she has started to write.

Heiden said she is a longtime fan of McCarthy, having watched her on TV and in film. A self-described stay-at-home mom, said she watches a lot of comedies after putting her two children, now ages 5 and 9, to bed.

She loves McCarthy’s brand of humor and admires her motivation and business drive. At one point, prior to her Atlanta experiences, she started reading about McCarthy and her husband — director, producer, screenwriter and actor Ben Falcone — and how the duo ran their own production company together

Then an opportunity came up: There was a casting call for extras.

It was unfamiliar territory, she said, but she applied. As it turned out, the process “wasn’t too complex.” Besides, she couldn’t deny herself a shot at it.

She heard back after just a couple of hours that she was hired, that it was going to come true.

“My dream was to meet Melissa, and it’s not like I can go buy a sporting events ticket to watch her play her sport or buy a concert ticket to watch her sing, you know, like what we do with athletes that we like or singers that we enjoy listening to.

“And so, it’s like ‘How do you meet an actor?’ And so I was, like, well, how about I go be in a movie. So that’s what I did. Twice.”

In one scene in “Superintelligence,” Heiden plays a part in the background featuring actor Jean Smart, who plays President of the United States. Heiden said for her part, she’s sitting directly behind Smart working at a computer in a scene the lasts a few minutes in the film.

In real life, it was different.

“And so I just sat there for eight hours, because the way that it’s done, to shoot just a scene,” Heiden said. “I mean, you do 30 takes on just one tiny little scene, and we were sitting there for about eight hours doing the thing over and over.

“But it was so fun because you would hear the “cameras roll,” “cut,” and after every take I would be, like, ‘OK, we did it guys, good job,’ and I would look around at the other extras that were kind of there, and we were like ‘OK, guys, good,’ even though we’re so just the background … but we were there, right in the heat of it all, you know, listening to Melissa’s husband Ben feed lines to each of the actors, the talent. You can’t get any closer to movie-making than where I was sitting.”

Heiden didn’t get meet McCarthy during filming for “Superintelligence,” but she did get to spend a 14-hour shift on set with her in “Thunder Force.” She also had a 5-minute one-on-one personal conversation.

“And so I did get to meet her and hug her and tell her, you know, that it was the top thing on my bucket list, meeting her. It was just the experience of a lifetime.

“I was there on camera with her, standing, like, 6 feet away from her. And I don’t know if you can think of somebody who you, like, really admire — if you could meet one person on this earth, like, who would it be? — for me it was her, and that was amazing,” she said. “It would be like a David Bowie fan singing on stage with David Bowie. It was the same thing, I mean I was in front of the camera with her. Just little old me from Pendleton, Indiana, with absolutely no business being there, honestly.”

Heiden took part in a virtual premiere of “Superintelligence” last week and is looking forward to watching it with a small group of family and friends on HBO MAX. Her family was instrumental in making it all possible, she said. They supported her in many ways. Her husband, Matt, agreed to the pursuit. Her dad, Madison County Sheriff Scott Mellinger, gave her rides back and forth to the airport; and her mom took care of her children, and her siblings also pitched in.

She also can’t wait to see “Thunder Force,” even though she can’t be sure how much she’ll make it into the final cut.

“I’m most excited about the one that will come out next year because I had several different parts that I played. I played Chicago PD.”

Heiden said she does not plan to be an extra again, and it has nothing to do with the $80-per-shift pay. It has more to do with her not being an aspiring actress, and even more to do with the fact that, as she sees it, the experience she had was unbeatable.

But she’s not letting her nascent ties the film industry wither or her experiences in Atlanta — so-called “Hollywood of the South” — fade into her past.

She created a professionally produced video conveying how meaningful her time there was to her, with hopes of obtaining an administrative job of some kind with McCarthy’s crew, one that can be done virtually. She sent it to someone who works with McCarthy and believes it was passed along.

She has yet to hear back.

She’s also writing about her experiences the past couple of years, about all the things that happened to her and life lessons she’s gleaned. She’s up to 110 pages so far.

“It’s really just a story of hope and dreams coming true and adventures — really just ‘adventures’ would be the best word. Just adventures of my four trips.

“And I’m not a writer, but this just kept pouring out of my pores, like just how this was, it was so emotional, so spontaneous and adventurous, and so out of my character. I don’t miss, like, even one of my kids’ … I’m that helicopter mom who is just here for everything. Like I tuck my kids into bed every single night. I don’t go off and do things. I mean, here and there I have, but I can count it all on one hand.

“To get me to leave home, and leave my kids,would have to take something huge, and anybody who knows me would know that.”

Her dad agreed.

“She just loves Melissa McCarthy to death,” Mellinger said.

“She has no intention of leaving Pendleton at all,” he said. “She just loves Melissa McCarthy.”

Heiden said the message she wants to get out is simple: “If you have a dream or a goal, just go for it.

“You’re never too old. I’ve got an MBA from Ball State in business and marketing and entrepreneurship, like I was never in theater or acting or anything. I was so far from that. But as we learn and grow and mature and develop, we get new interests, and it’s become an interest.

“You know, I’m 36 but I’m not too old to pursue something like that. And I, being a stay-at-home mom with limited resources — that didn’t stop me, either.”

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