Oct. 19, 2009

Illinois softball alum Shanna Diller used her softball skills to earn a part as an extra in a movie starring Reese Witherspoon. Read about her firsthand experiences on set below:

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This summer there was a casting call for any women with softball experience to try-out in Philadelphia for a Reese Witherspoon movie that involved the sport. Since I play in the NPF (National Pro Fastpitch League) I was not required to fly out to Philadelphia for the try-out. Instead, I could just submit a highlight video with some information about myself. I did this at the end of June and a few weeks ago I heard back from Sports Studio (the company in charge of finding athletes to be extras in the film).They said I had made the final cut and would need to be in Philadelphia for filming October 8-16.So I flew out on Thursday, October 8 for my adventure.

Production treated us much better than regular extras. We were put up in a nice hotel in downtown Philadelphia, were given per diem money each day, and paid each day we were there. There were many other girls from the NPF who were there to film and some other local girls who had finished playing college softball. Olympic players including Crystyl Bustos, Amanda Freed, Andrea Duran, and Jamie Clarkwere also there to shoot a different scene. All in all, there were probably 35 softball players being used as extras in the film.

To give you a little background on the movie, Reese Witherspoon plays Lisa Jorgenson.Lisa is a three-time Olympic softball player who ends up getting cut from the National Team. The movie is a romantic-comedy with a love triangle involved Owen Wilson (a pro baseball player), Reese, and Paul Rudd (a business executive). There are only four scenes in the whole film that involved ussoftball players, so it is definitely not a softball movie.

My scene had 15 girls and we were a Junior Olympic softball team. We were all doing different drills and Reese walks by our practice because she is supposed to talk with the head coach about her future with the National Team. We had to then all stop and stare at her in awe, so I hope my dramatic acting skills are up to par! We practiced a lot of different drills to do during the filming because we had to prepare for the director hating the set-up of our drills.We rehearsed to have us practicing in the dirt of the infield but the director wanted to move us to about 1/4 of an area on the outfield grass. So there are 15 of us doing different drills in the smallest area. It was very unrealistic but I guess it works on film.They filmed from two different angles. I was doing a run-through drill with two other girls, basically just charging a low ball. The camera crew scanned our entire group, so as long as they don't cut anything down, I should make it on film!

Sue Endquist was heading up the softball part of the movie. She is the former UCLA softball coach and a legend of the sport. So for me, being able to practice with her for two days and interact with her was a great experience. We practiced softball for four hours each day on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, we did a lot of skill work for 2.5 hours and then broke down the scenes we were in. Three actresses from the movie also came to practice with us and learned how to play. The first actress was named Laura and she plays the Emotional Girl in the movie. She was actually pretty good at softball because she had played in high school. Teyonah was another actress and she plays Riva in the film, who is Reese Witherspoon's best friend and also her teammate on the national team. The final actress who came to practice was named Chelsea and she takes over Reese's position on the Olympic team. Chelsea did not have any softball background but she was out there trying her best and learned a lot in those two days. It was neat because these girls were excited to work with us. We did the same thing on Sunday but worked more on each scene.

Reese Witherspoon came up to us before filming and was so excited to work with all of us. She had practiced for a few months with Sue on softball skills and she was ready to use what she learned on camera. She was the nicest person and took time to speak with all of us. I respect her even more and she still remains my favorite actress.

After my scene concluded filming, there were three other scenes to film. One of the scenes was the National Team playing Australia and another scene involved Reese playing. The script called for Reese to take a softball hit or throw to the face. Her stunt double is Carri Leto-Martin, who played softball for Northwestern and also played in the NPF. The softball she is taking to the face is actually lamb's wool that looks like a softball.

Filming this movie was a great experience. There are very few movies out there with female athletes, and to be a part of this and show people the sport of softball was a great opportunity. This movie is called "How Do You Know" and it has a release date of December 2010.

Thanks for reading and Go Illini!!!

-- Shanna