MACON, Ga. — We're taking a walk down memory lane Friday. It's the 10th anniversary of the filming of "42" starring Chadwick Boseman playing a young Jackie Robinson at the start of his baseball career.
We visited some Macon spots that made it onto the big screen and some people who got their chance before the cameras.
“Paid very little, but that didn't matter-- you wanted to do it.”
13WMAZ’s part-time meteorologist Mike Fuller was an extra in “42." He was one out of 100, and they were paid $8 a day.
"Came down to the park around 7 a.m. and they had special parking for us. The movie is set back in the '40s, so we're all dressed up in coat, ties, we're all dressed up -- hats,” Fuller explains.
He says most of the time, extras were just waiting on set for their scene, but it was worth it.
"We shot a scene at the Terminal Station downtown. They turned a room into a restaurant and they shot that at like 1 in the morning. I was in that scene, which got cut, but it was a lot of fun,” he says.
Photos: From the filming of '42'
Fuller says that Macon was picked as the film's location due to its historic charm, like Luther Williams Field where Jackie Robinson once played ball.
"This ballpark is-- I believe-- is the second oldest in the country, if not the oldest. I mean, you can't find something like this. We can't build this for a movie, this is the real deal,” Fuller says.
Aaron Buzza from the Macon Film Commission says that the movie “42” opened the eyes to a lot of filmmakers here. He says that Macon makes about $4 million to $5 million a year just from films being shot here.
Dewayne Jackson has worked at Kaybee's for the past 42 years. He says he was here when the movie was being filmed right outside their doors.
"They introduced themselves, told us what was going on, and then they said, 'It's going to be a bit of an inconvenience to you and your customers for a little while,' which was, like, two weeks. We understood it. We want to be good sports about it, so we allowed them to come in to do what they had to do,” he says.
Jackson says that once the film was released, “42” did slowly bring more attention and business to town. He won't say how much, but the filmmakers did compensate the business for their trouble.