Lincoln woman becomes star for a week

Julien R. Fielding

LINCOLN, Neb. - Being a volunteer can change a person's life.

Judy Hoppe of Lincoln, Neb., should know.

Because of her involvement with the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater, she recently took a foray into the film industry.

As a good friend of Nebraska Film officer Laurie Richards, Hoppe found out about director Alexander Payne's latest film, "About Schmidt," which began shooting in the Omaha area in early March.

"I told her that I would love to get a part, but didn't know how to go about it," Hoppe said.

Richards told her to have a photo taken and then send it to casting director John Jackson.

"I had met (Payne) before at the Great Plains Film Festival," Hoppe said. "He received our Nebraska Person of the Year Award."

At the event, she said, she got "chummy" with him.

"He's a prince," she said. "Even at midnight, he's so nice. He acts like he's the least important person, while everyone else is important. I think that's his philosophy. People really like him."

She also learned that Payne prefers the casting of actors who fit their characters. And since "About Schmidt" is about retirement-age people living in Nebraska, and Hoppe is a 61-year-old from Schuyler, Neb., she knew she stood a good chance of getting a part.

She was right.

She was cast as Millie, a longtime family friend of Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) and his wife, Helen.

"We've been best friends for millions of years, then Helen dies," Hoppe said. "It's all told through flashbacks."

Although loosely based on the 1996 novel of the same title by Louis Begley, it is said that some details of the story have been changed to better fit the Nebraska setting.

In the novel, Schmidt is a recently widowed man in his 60s, trying to cope with the slow erosion of a foundation he has built on marriage, family and his career.

Other details haven't been made available to the public. Not even Hoppe was privy to the entire story.

"You only get your part of the script in the morning," she said. "I didn't even know if I had any lines or not. The small players were all trying to piece together the story."

When Hoppe completed her scenes Friday, even Nicholson didn't seem overly sure of the script's direction.

"He told me he would see me later," she said. "I told him I was finished, and he said, but aren't you coming back for the big wedding?'"

Hoppe later discovered the reason her character wasn't invited to Schmidt's daughter's wedding (Hope Davis) was because she and her husband became angry with Schmidt after he bought a cheap casket to bury his wife.

While many of Hoppe's scenes featured Nicholson, she didn't actually meet the actor until the very end of her shoot.

In her early scenes, filmed in a cemetery and at a mortuary, she was situated several feet behind the Hollywood actor.

"He usually comes onto the set at the very last minute," she said.

Her big chance came in a scene shot at Johnny's Cafe in Omaha.

"We're supposed to be at a retirement dinner with Jack and his wife," she said. "I was about 2 inches from the star."

In between takes, she and Nicholson talked about his two children, ages 9 and 11, who were visiting him on the set, and about Tiger Woods and the recent Masters tournament.

"He was really nice," she said of Nicholson.

During her dinner scene, Hoppe said, the actors were served steak filets.

"They would tell us to eat about one-third of the meat and then stop," she said. "They started with a general take, then would break the scene down. Each time, they brought in fresh food, only with the parts gone. So, if you ate one-third of a steak, they would bring back another piece that was two-thirds. After about the eighth plate, I got sick of looking at it."

It was during this scene that Hoppe got to say her only line. When a waitress comes to their table, she asks a friend, "Isn't she cute?"

"When I left, I said goodbye to Alexander, and he told me, trust me, you're going to be very surprised by the final product,'" she said. "I just hope I'm still in it."

For all her standing around and looking glum, the one scene she believes will make the final cut occurs in the restaurant.

"It's very boring and we're not talking," she said. "Jack looks at me in disgust or boredom and I'm chewing. They had this huge lens close to my face."

Even though she loves movies, Hoppe knew little about the process of filmmaking before she started working on "About Schmidt."

"You don't know what really happens until you see it," she said.

For example, she learned that to make the streets appear wet, big waterworks trucks were used to water everything down.

And to keep in constant contact, everyone on the set wore headsets.

"They wanted to know where you were all the time," she said. "You had to be there when they brought Jack in."

Because of the size of her part, Hoppe even had her own trailer, with her name written on a piece of masking tape above the door. She was fussed over by makeup and hair personnel and had her own stand-in.

Furthermore, she said, there was plenty of good food available on the set. Payne brought in a catering company from Los Angeles, she said, and another vending area provided pop, juice, fresh fruit, yogurt and snacks.

"Food was coming out of your ears," she said. "It was a heady experience. It was wonderful."

Hoppe has extensive experience in acting and starred in theatrical productions in high school and college.

She actually dreamed of being an actress, but explained that in 1961, "a woman didn't do a career." Instead, she got married, had children and supported her husband's career.

But now, things are different, and she's thinking about expanding on her experience.

"There's an agent in Omaha I was told to get in touch with, so who knows?" she said.

Also starring in "About Schmidt" are Dermot Mulroney and Kathy Bates. The screenwriters are Payne and Jim Taylor (who co-wrote Payne's former films, "Election" and "Citizen Ruth.")

Shooting is slated to continue on the film through June. Its budget is estimated at $30 million.

For more information about how to volunteer for the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater, call 1 (402) 472-9100.

Lincoln woman becomes star for a week was originally published in Daily Nonpareil on 12 April, 2001. © Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil LLC