Shawshank Redemption at 30, part 2
- Brett Hiner: A Work in Progress
- September 19, 2024
- 75
Editor’s note: Part one of the “Celebrating 30 Years of Shawshank” series appeared Aug. 24 and can be viewed online at thebargainhunter.com/news/col-brett-hiner.
In summer 1993 Amber Anderson had a decision to make.
About to enter her fourth year of college, she was working at her summer job when the opportunity to be an extra in some oddly titled movie being shot in Mansfield came across her radar.
Three years earlier I graduated high school with Amber. We worked diligently together on our school’s yearbook production staff, were both involved in emceeing various school follies-style talent shows, shared a deeply rooted passion for Duran Duran, and ended up going to the same college. In other words Amber and I were good friends.
So I was not surprised when she recently told me she quit her summer job in 1993 because they would not give her a requested day off to join that oddly titled movie being filmed in Mansfield. While it may have cost her a better-sized paycheck to help support those tuition needs, the experience was well worth it.
“I went to a cattle-call audition for extras at Ashland High School and thought it would be a fun way to spend my vacation. I was paid $50 for one day of shooting, plus I received credit toward an SAG membership and all of the food I could eat from the craft service table,” Anderson said.
In a blink and you’ll miss it scene, Anderson can be seen in the grocery checkout line, in a beautifully designed off-shoulder green/light-blue dress, arguing with her on-screen husband over a purchase. Morgan Freeman, aka “Red,” is finishing bagging the groceries of the customer in front of her, 5 feet away.
Before the scene was shot, Anderson headed to the makeup trailer to have her ‘60s-style look finalized for filming. When she arrived, she found herself in a chair next to Freeman.
“I remember him looking up from his newspaper and complimenting me on my ‘look,’” she said.
Fans of the film know it is a male-centric story, with the female roles not coming much bigger than Anderson’s.
The one exception might be actress and professional singer/guitarist Claire Slemmer, who plays the bank teller at the end of the film. Her scene occurs when Tim Robbins’ character saunters into the bank to claim over $370,000 of Warden Norton’s money. The real bank actually opened in Ashland in 1874, became The Farmers Bank in 1917 and currently serves as the home of the Crosby Advisory Group LLC.
Needless to say, the bank was chosen for the 13-ton bank vault door used as the backdrop in the scene.
Slemmer, like many of the smaller featured roles in the film, was cast out of the theater scene in Cincinnati.
“I memorized my lines, of course, which was not too challenging, as there were only 14 words,” Slemmer said. “When Tim (Robbins) delivered the line, ‘Will you mail this package for me?’ the script indicated I should just take the package from him and turn away. But it seemed so natural for me to respond to him. I took a risk and added, “I’d be happy to.” No one corrected me. We did the scene.
“So then I had 18 words, which exceeds the number of words the other women in the film deliver. That’s why I jokingly claim that I’m the ‘leading lady of Shawshank.’”
As exciting as the experience was, Slemmer almost skated her way right out of the movie.
Lacing up her rollerblades the evening before shooting, Slemmer set out to explore Mansfield, where she was greeted by a small pothole.
“I went floating into the air, all the while thinking, ‘I’m not gonna be in the film,’” Slemmer said. “But I only had slight injuries on my hip and shoulder, so I looked fine the next day. Lesson to budding-superstars: don’t take risks like that before an important shoot.”
For Anderson and Slemmer alike, the anticipation of seeing the final film, wondering if they would make the final cut, never really left their thoughts in the yearlong interim between shooting and the film’s release date. Anderson, in particular, had reason to worry.
With a filming tidbit known only to those on set, she said they also filmed a scene in the grocery store where “Freeman’s character becomes agitated and runs through the aisles.” If they had used that scene, she likely would have landed on the cutting room floor.
But when she saw the film in a screening with many of those who also had bit parts, “I let out a loud shriek. In fact, there was a constant stream of people exclaiming when they would see themselves on screen,” she said.
Aside from the beautifully constructed script, Director Frank Darabont’s pacing and Thomas Newman’s musical score that expertly captures the emotions of the film’s characters, a good chunk of Shawshank’s now-30 years of movie success goes to some small towns scattered throughout Northeastern Ohio and the extras who inhabited them in summer 1993.
There is a reason so many involved in/with the film come back to Mansfield every five years to join the film’s ever-increasing fan base, celebrating anniversary after anniversary.
“I remember reading the script and crying and laughing all the way through it, so I knew it would be something special,” Slemmer said. “But the best part about the experience really came later, when I realized how much this film meant to people. The themes of hope and friendship have inspired and touched so many people. The fans are just the best.”