News

Reservist spends day as extra on set of Jackie Robinson biopic

  • Published
  • By Bo Joyner
  • Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  June 8 was a day to remember for Scotty Brown. The former high school baseball player and current Air Force reservist spent the day running through baseball drills on an old diamond near historic Luther Williams Field in Macon, Ga., while the motion picture cameras rolled.

Brown was selected as an extra for the filming of "42," a biopic about legendary baseball player and civil rights leader Jackie Robinson.

"This was just one of those 'bucket list' things," Brown said. "When I heard that they were looking for extras for a baseball movie being filmed in Macon, I figured I would give it a shot."

Brown said he came across the call for extras on the web page of local Macon television station WMAZ and submitted his name. A few weeks later, he was asked by the casting company to send in three pictures of himself. Not long after that, he got the call to show up at Luther Williams Field at 6:30 a.m. June 8.

"It was a long day," Brown said. 'We were there from 6:30 in the morning until about 7:30 that night. I definitely have a lot more respect for the people who work in the movie industry. They put in a lot of hard work."

Brown said the scenes they were shooting that day take place in spring training in the 1940s. Robinson broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

"42" stars Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, the Dodgers executive who signed Robinson. Chadwick Boseman plays Robinson in the movie. Brown said that both Ford and Boseman were on the set the day he was shooting.

"Mr. Boseman actually came out and spent about an hour hanging out with some of the extras," he said. "He was a really nice guy."

Brown came back for shooting on June 11, but it rained most of the day.

"We just ended up doing a few locker room shots that day," he said.

As an Air Force reservist, Brown is assigned to the 94th Aerial Port Squadron at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. He played high school baseball at Bleckley County High in Cochran, Ga.

In addition to breaking down racial barriers, Robinson was one of the greatest baseball players of his generation. He won the 1947 Rookie of the Year award and 1949 National League Most Valuable Player award, and earned election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. His number, 42, is retired throughout Major League Baseball.

"42" is tentatively scheduled for release in April 2013. Brown said he will definitely be in the audience the day it opens.