Chuck, Derek, Local Guy

Hazzard Road Rally 2005

January 19th through the 22nd I was in Erwinville Louisiana at the filming of The Dukes of Hazzard movie. The scene was the 70th annual Hazzard Road Rally. This is a documentary of the events that conspired to the best of my memory.

Wednesday January 19th

I awoke at 2:20 am after sleeping about 1 or 2 hours cumulatively. The anticipation of the coming event was too much to sleep through. Imagine…getting to meet Jessica Simpson who plays Daisy Duke. I knew I had to be in Erwinville for 5:30 am and it takes about an hour and a half to make it there so I was ready to go. When I went outside it was pretty cold (about 35 degrees). I had brought along three changes of clothes per the directions of the very fast recording I had listened to the night before. I drove up to the gate at State Capitol Dragway at exactly 5:30 and was directed to park. We were all herded into a large holding tent confused and cold. It was hurry up and wait all the way. I met a small group of very nice folks gathered around one of the heaters in a corner and we talked for a while.
I met up with two of my friends, Jason “Birdman” Landry and Jason Weeks. Birdman is the proud owner of his own General Lee ’69 Charger. They were slated to be pit crew “Chuck and Derek” and I was destined to be “Local Guy” for the next four days. We would, of course, call each other by these names at all times to stay “in character”. I ate a bowl of THICK oatmeal and some THIN coffee. There was a pretty good supply of food and drink available for us.
The rest of the day was a mixture of fun and misery if that is possible. We were all to be set in a summer scene in Atlanta Georgia. “75 degrees and sunny!” they kept yelling at us as the steam from our breaths filled the morning air. It was overcast, 35, and windy in reality. Our jackets had to be removed while filming the shots. We did a lot of pantomime clapping and yelling which was pretty funny and we were moved around a lot to fill in various sections of the stands. It is amazing how difficult it is to get some people to follow simple directions but the crew was professional and got them on the right track. I got to wear a long sleeve shirt but some of the ladies in miniskirts and tank tops were not so lucky. They are probably sick as I write this. We got to watch Burt Reynolds and Joe Don Baker do a speech and start the “race”. We had a lunch of many processed meats and a lot of starchy veggies. Most people complained about the food but I had two plates, it was free after all. You could also, if you chose, eat from the World’s Largest Grill supplying Johnsonville Brats on a bun. The workday was 12 hours and 45 minutes, but it was a full 16 from leaving home to my return. I was beat to say the least!
 

                Dented General Lee             Can you find me??

Thursday January 19th

I drove in a fog so dense I had about 30 feet of visibility but made good time. This morning everyone dressed a little better for the occasion but we all hoped it would not be as cold. We filled out the appropriate paperwork and waited. They called out the various specialty folks in the same order. Pit crew, dignitaries, deputies, and then us, the lowly background. This time we started the morning on the opposite side of the track. There was equipment set up close by so we anticipated some face time. The director showed up and picked a girl sitting four seats down from me to sit next to the star of the scene. We had a camera in front of us and were directed to mingle. This is the scene before the race starts and we were fans anticipating the big race day ahead. They filmed a funny scene where some people got to throw hot-dogs and Coke at the actors. It was our best time to shine of the whole event. The sun came out and warmed us up somewhat although it was still a little chilly. Later that day I was asked to walk to my seat for movement in the stands. I hope that makes it in. Local guy walking I think it should be called. Burt did some more scenes and we fake and real clapped for fake and real cars. The General Lee did a bunch of passes with various cars in different positions. We were moved around a lot so it was a pretty active day. I got to meet ant take pictures with the stunt driver and another actor. Lunch was more of the same bland processed, albeit FREE, food that I had come to love. 12 hours passed pretty quickly as we stayed pretty active the rest of the day. Chuck, Derek, and local guy spent the night at my parent’s house so that night we had bar-b-que pork and wine. It was nice to get some good food for a change and not have over an hour to drive.

Friday January 20th

We could get up late now at 4:45! Call time was 6 am. My mom cooked us a real breakfast of eggs and biscuits. We left at 5:30 and I took a shortcut to make it there in a whopping 16 minutes, even in the fog. After all the usual preliminary duties we got all our stuff together. I made the comment that it felt like we were at summer camp and the counselors were lining up the days activities for us. Little did we know, this was destined to be the most boring day of the week. We sat around awaiting our directions for 4 hours. There was nothing to do but at least it was nice outside. It had warmed up by now and we were at least in better spirits than the day before. They were shooting scenes at the far end of the track so we were not needed. At 10:00 they pulled us off in groups and brought us to sit spread out in small groups around the bleachers where we would spend a lot of time waiting. All the folks I had gotten to know were separated from me so I didn’t do much talking. We went to lunch a couple hours later and I vowed to bring some Louisiana seasoning to spice up the bland food they had prepared for us, but still I ate two plates. We went back to our seats for more waiting so I slept on the bleachers while Chuck and Derek slept on the grass infield. We did a couple of cheers here and there but it was mostly dead. I actually got a little sunburned in the stands. Chuck and Derek got some good face time at the finish line cheering and waving. I was glad when this day was finally over. That night it was thick and hearty spaghetti at the parents house which was excellent. We watched an old Dukes of Hazzard episode before bed and critiqued the performance of the extras. Only one day to go….

Saturday January 21st

Up again at 4:45 and the donuts awaited us. I just had coffee so I could get some of that oatmeal everyone else hated at the tent. Sure it was thick and tasteless but if you put enough sugar and butter in latex paint it would probably be good enough to drink. This was our last day and I was a little sad. This had really been fun overall so I didn’t really want it to end. All the stars trailers were gone when we arrived. We were corralled in the tent, which by now smelled like a mixture of oyster shells, mud and wet hay till about 8:00. We were informed that a different crew would film this day and mostly they would be doing the final stunt scenes. There would also be a different crew on services duty so we were going to be supplied with all manner of snacks and drinks. When we got called out we were positioned in the stands and, as promised, there were all sorts of new goodies to eat from trail mix to oatmeal crème pies. It was fairly calm on the track except for the occasional pass of the stunt drivers, which was actually pretty cool. It was very windy but fairly warm or at least I thought. There were still a lot of people in jackets and blankets. After surviving that first day this was nothing to me. At lunch I ate from the tent but today I had a secret weapon…seasoning! I ended up passing it around to the people at my table and I probably could’ve sold it. Man, did it help! After lunch we got placed on the far side of the track for a time. We watched as the stunt driver made numerous screeching power slides at the tracks end. It was now about 2:00 and one of the crew who had sort-of gotten to know a few of us pulled us out of the stands. He let us in on there was nothing that was going to happen on this side of the track so he pulled us quietly aside to go to the direct track side for some up-close fun. I guessed he thought we had paid our dues. Finally, people who could move around and be free surrounded us. I had enough of sitting on a 2x8 board in the bleachers for sure! The drivers were really giving it all they had now, as this was the real-time finish of the “race”. The two hours passed quickly and when they yelled, “that’s a wrap!” we were close to the big red and white tent where it all started. We signed out for the last time and said our goodbyes. This was the first day we were done by 4:30 so no one was in a big hurry. I could sense not a lot of people were really ready to leave. I know I wasn’t. There was a quietness I had not seen before in the air.

To “wrap up” I can’t wait till this movie comes out. I want to see this scene and remember all that went into making it happen. It took four days to make about 15 minutes of movie. That’s pretty impressive. All in all I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was a great experience and I got paid to boot! It was my big shot at stardom and I think I pulled it off with flying colors. If I have one regret it is that Jessica Simpson never got the chance to meet me. Oh well…too bad for her.

Thanks, Paul "Local Guy"