Mr. Smith comes to Monroeville
Story By Zandy Dudiak, Staff Writer
Photos By Chris DiSabato of Gateway Associated Photographers
Snowmen and strings of bright, clear lights still dangle from the ceiling of Monroeville Mall five weeks after retailers deep-discounted winter coats and filled store racks with summer shorts.
Wearing his trademark full-length wool coat and long shorts, movie director Kevin Smith fits right in as he moves between a scene in the former Thomas Kincade storefront and the crew members standing just outside.
“I don’t know who they are,” says Joan Lunney, a volunteer at Monroeville Mall Ministry’s Talk Shop kiosk, as she watches the action.
While they may have some name recognition among mall rats and clerks — at least younger ones — Smith and the film’s stars, Seth Rogen of “Knocked Up” fame and Elizabeth Banks of “Scrubs,” still aren’t well known among the older crowd.
“They’re shooting a movie that’s coming out next Christmas,” Lunney says, unaware of the film’s somewhat-irreverent title, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.”
The movie is not a porn film, but a yet-to-be-rated comedy about lifelong friends who make an adult film to solve their cash flow problems, only to find they have more feelings for each other than they previously thought.
The cast was filming at the mall last week.
While the details of the film are hush-hush, there will be some risque, though funny, moments. Smith’s films generally have an “R” rating.
Last week, Tony Amen of Penn Hills and Jackson Nunn of Trafford, both frequent movie extras for Pittsburgh films, worked on a scene at Club Erotica in McKees Rocks.
For Amen, who also appeared as an extra in Smith’s locally-filmed 1998 movie “Dogma,” it was deja vu of sorts. Amen worked alongside actor Woody Harrelson while shooting a scene for “Kingpin” back in 1996 when the strip club was called Mancini’s.
Crew member Jared Wellman, a Forest Hills native now living in Los Angeles, belongs to unions in both cities, enabling him to work as a lighting technician on films being shot either place. Though willing to talk about themselves and their local ties, Wellman and other crew members do not discuss details of movies in production with outsiders.
Cast member Craig Robinson, who plays warehouse worker Darryl Philbin in the television hit “The Office,” comes out from the storefront, takes a seat and gets a backrub in front of the Happy Feet kiosk. An autograph seeker approaches, camera in hand, and Robinson good-naturedly obliges.
But when Robinson is approached for this story, publicist Amy Cohn ends the interview before he has a chance to say more than a few words.
Just below them, toddlers and their parents play in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, oblivious that “Porno” is being shot above them. But a play area sign, in the spirit of the late Fred Rogers, reminds everyone that “You are always welcome in this neighborhood.”
Some fans traveled a distance to see the stars.
Shaun Brake and Justin Griffin, both Smith fans from Akron, Ohio, are leaning against glass and rail on the top floor of the mall waiting to get a photo of Griffin with the director and other performers. Griffin, who has a collection of photos of himself with celebrities, snagged one with Bill Clinton two weeks ago.
Griffin explains his rules — not entering the work space and watching for the stars to cross into public areas before making his approach.
Others, like Chad Bracken of Punxsutawney, made the trip just for the chance to see the film being made.
The prize for longest distance probably goes to Eddie Smith of Ireland, who read Smith’s message board, decided to “holiday” in Pittsburgh and volunteered as an extra. Dressed in a blue vest, he is portraying an employee of Janda’s HD Gallery.
Smith, who also wrote the script, has chosen Monroeville as the name of the fictitious town where the movie is set.
The entourage has been spotted filming along Monroeville Boulevard at the Monroeville Municipal Center and at Twin Fountains Plaza, where the former Meadows ice cream parlor has been converted into a coffee shop for the film. The giveaway is the touch of Tinseltown outside — two large tinsel Christmas trees still standing in February.
The scene takes place on Black Friday, the official launch of the Christmas shopping season, thus the decorations, says mall marketing director Mindy Suhoza.
This is the first movie filmed at the mall since George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” 30 years ago. And that was filmed at night when the mall was closed.
Smith’s shooting schedule provides for some more public interaction.
Lunney, who hosted her own quilting show on the Monroeville cable access channel and runs cameras for the mall ministry’s cable show, leans over to a crew member assembling a large metal frame for a light diffuser, a task he may repeat many times before shooting wraps up about mid-March.
“I’ll pray for you if you want,” Lunney says.
“I need all the prayers I can get,” he replies with a smile.
