For most Auburn students, the closest they’ve come to fame is getting their name on the list at Skybar or jumping on stage to sing karaoke on a Tuesday night.
However, some students have gotten their foot in the door of casting companies, allowing them to appear on the big screen.
Payden Evans, senior in media studies, has been interested in film since seventh grade.
Evans said his film career debuted two years ago through his friend who worked on “The Walking Dead.” He said he worked with them for a summer until he got a job offer to be cast as a werewolf on “The Originals,” a spin-off of “The Vampire Diaries.”
Evans filmed two episodes as a villainous werewolf and his casting agent with Tammy Smith Casting liked his work and wanted him to film for “The Vampire Diaries,” according to Evans.
He said he filmed for “The Vampire Diaries” for approximately two months as a fraternity guy on season five and six until his character was killed.
Next, Evans started working with “The Divergent Series: Insurgent” where he played a divergent in the candor faction and shot approximately four or five scenes.
“They killed me off of that too, it seems to be a running theme that they like to kill me off on shows,” Evans said.
On set he said he had long filming days of 12-14 hours starting at 5:30 a.m.
Evans said he worked with Auburn graduate Octavia Spencer on the “Insurgent” set.
“She’s great, and you know, she represents the Auburn Family better than anybody,” Evans said.
Evans also said he had a small speaking part in “Insurgent,” but it didn’t make the final cut of the movie.
“Starting off in film is, you know, kind of nerve-racking and hard to get into, but once you do, it’s kind of easier to find work,” Evans said.
From working with “Insurgent” he met up with the second assistant directors and networked to find his way into their inner circle as a production assistant, according to Evans.
This led him to work behind the camera on the set of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2.”
His job consisted of processing 1,900 extras, or background actors, for 21 hours, placing them on set and telling them what movements to make.
“I really liked working behind the camera,” Evans said.
Evans has now been working as a production assistant for approximately four months, and said he alternates between helping with production and filming any type of smaller acting roles.
“I think ‘Insurgent’ was probably the best set I think I’ve ever worked on, all the crew, all the cast, even all the extras, everybody just got along really well, so it just kind of melted into one big family by the end of it,” Evans said.
According to Evans, a production assistant usually has to complete approximately 600 days of work to become a second assistant director, and he said from the work he has already done, he has already worked his way toward that.
I think any Auburn student stands a chance in this industry, ‘cause I mean, if I can make it, just about anybody can,” Evans said.
Other Auburn students have also gotten opportunities to appear in popular films.
Graudate Brady McNeil and Jennifer Mayo, junior in finance applied to play an extra for “Goosebumps,” a new movie coming out October 2015 based on the television show.
McNeil said he saw an online advertisement where a casting company was looking for people to portray high school students.
However, this wasn’t the first time McNeil was on a movie set.
In 2012-13 McNeil started on the set of “CBGB,” an independent film based on the country bluegrass blues club in New York City, considered the creator of rock ‘n’ roll in the 70s.
“Harry Potter” stars Alan Rickman and Rupert Grint, along with Ashley Greene from Twilight were a few of the big-name actors in this film.
According to McNeil, the general rule is not to talk to the main actors, because that could get an extra fired.
“I didn’t really get anything past the ‘Hey,’ from, I ran into to Ashley Greene outside of the actual set, and she was walking from her trailer to the set, and I was walking away from the set, and she was very nice,” McNeil said.
He also said the same situation happened with Rupert Grint.
According to McNeil he was a background actor in “The Vampire Diaries” and the movie, “The Duff, which were all filmed last summer.
While McNeil was filming “The Duff,” Jennifer applied with Caballero Casting to be a member of the audience in “Pitch Perfect 2” with her brother Auburn graduate Jimmy Mayo.
However, Jennifer had an extra experience.
She was asked to be in a feature group, K-Pop, with five other girls.
Jennifer said they got their own trailer and had people doing their hair and make-up.
She was on set for five days from 4 p.m.-4 a.m., according to Jennifer.
She said three of the five days she spent filming approximately four different scenes in the K-Pop group and the other two days were spent filming scenes as members of the audience.
Out of all the hours spent filming, one special scene made it into the movie.
“In the movie, there was a zoom-in on my face while I was brushing my hair,” Jennifer said. “It was just weird. When I went to go watch it with my family, I didn’t want to go watch, because I didn’t think I was in it … and a bunch of people were texting me telling me that they saw me, and so I didn’t know which part I was coming up in, and I was watching it, and I screamed in the movie theater when I saw my face just, like, on the screen.”
Jimmy also made it in the movie, according to Jennifer. She said he was in the first five seconds of the movie.
Jennifer said at one point her group shared the same space as the rival group in the movie, so she got a photo with Birgitte Hjort Sørensen.
“It was crazy, but it was worth it,” Jennifer said. “They paid us, but it’s something that I probably would’ve done for free, ‘cause if you like the movie, it’s like a dream come true.”
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
