From University of Memphis employee to movie star -- this ideaisn't that far-fetched considering last Saturday's events atLeMoyne-Owen College.
Two University of Memphis employees answered a casting call forthe Coen Brothers' new film, The Ladykillers, starringAcademy-Award winner Tom Hanks.
Kelley Muller-Smith, an office associate for Tennessee EarlyIntervention System at The U of M, and Verlean Franklin, a U of Mcustodial worker, both auditioned for the major role of Mrs. MarvaMunson, a 60-year-old Southern black woman who runs a boardinghouse.
Muller-Smith first heard about the casting call from a co-workerand then read an article about the auditions in the CommercialAppeal. After a short deliberation, she began preparing for therole of Munson.
With God on her mind, Muller-Smith stepped into the auditionroom and gave it her best shot.
"First off, I always pray about anything I do," she said "Then Ithought about the valuable information that was given in the paperabout the role, and I tried to portray it as best I could."
Muller-Smith went to the auditions with little actingexperience. She toured with the Broadway production called Timbuktumore than 20 years ago.
"It has been many years, back in the 1970s, since I have doneanything like this. Trying to do something that I haven't done inso long was kind of nice," Muller-Smith said.
Unlike Muller-Smith, Franklin had absolutely no experiencebefore she auditioned for the Coen Brothers' film.
After viewing a broadcast about the open casting call on NewsChannel 3, Franklin took the advice of her loved ones and decidedto audition for the part.
"One of the reasons that I really decided to audition wasbecause of my granddaughters. They told me that I looked the partand probably that I could play the part. So it was more or less mygranddaughters that talked me into playing the part," Franklinsaid.
Although it was her first time auditioning for a role, Franklinremained calm throughout the entire process. Franklin approachedthe role of Munson by being herself, which she said made her lessnervous.
"There were women there who had been in movies and had quite abit of experience. But (the casting director) told us they were notlooking for experience, and they just wanted us to be ourselves,"Franklin said.
Casting directors for the film have held several casting callsin other Southern cities. But Muller-Smith has a slight advantageover the competition. Earlier this week, she was called back tore-audition for the role.
"I was very excited because it was an open call, which meansthat you get a lot of people to come to the audition, and I justhadn't done anything like this in so, so very long. So I wasexcited about the opportunity to try and make it happen again,"Muller-Smith said.
The LadyKillers was written and will be directed by The CoenBrothers. Their previous films include O Brother, Where Art Thou?and Fargo. This new film is a remake of the 1955 comedy classic ofthe same name.
