From the Newsroom -- Tony Dodero

On Christmas Day, the Daily Pilot newsroom will get a nice present. We

will officially have a movie star in our midst.

Well, maybe not exactly a movie star, but we should at least be able

to boast that we have someone with a cameo role in an upcoming,

sure-to-be-a-blockbuster movie.

OK, that may be stretching it a little too, but I can almost guarantee

that our Sports Editor Roger Carlson will be one of those folks known as

“extras,” populating the background of the new flick, “Ali.”

“Ali,” which opens Tuesday, stars Will Smith, alongside our own Roger

Carlson, as the legendary boxer, Muhammad Ali.

Roger, a fixture here at the Pilot since Ali was known by his original

name, Cassius Clay, and a legend himself in local prep sports circles, is

anxious to see the movie, particularly hoping that one shot gets in.

But for the most part, he didn’t think much of the whole experience of

just hanging out in the background.

“You’re not doing anything,” he said of his extra job. “You’re just a

flower pot.”

Roger learned about the part from former Pilot Editor William Lobdell,

who told him about a casting call from a talent agency for older

sports-writer types.

Knowing he fit the bill perfectly, he put his name in the hat and sure

enough was called a year ago January to show up at the filming of the

movie, which was taking place on a lot somewhere in the San Fernando

Valley.

He doesn’t exactly know how much of his work will be shown and how

much will be on the cutting room floor, but from talking with him, it

seems there’s a good chance that he will appear in several scenes.

He even had an encounter with the movie’s director, Michael Mann, who

also directed “The Insider” with Russell Crowe and “Heat” with Robert

DeNiro, Al Pacino and Val Kilmer.

“He looked at me once and said ‘take your hat off,” Roger said.

He took it off and then he said Mann made a gesture that seemed like

he was saying to put it back on, but when he did one of his assistants

starting screaming at him “no, no, no.”

Oh those fickle Tinseltown folk.

Roger ultimately became one of 88 “sports-writer types” to be called

back time and again to be extras in the movie and he was one of 44 lucky

ones who were placed in the front row on most shots.

His work on the movie sometime started at 4 a.m. and often didn’t end

until 2 a.m. the next day, with pretty meager wages and lousy food.

“I never thought I’d get so tired doing nothing,” he said. “It’s a

strange business.”

Still, he could well appear in the background at the end of a press

conference scene and at the end of the fight between Ali and Sonny

Liston, played by boxer Michael Bentt. Roger is sitting in the front row,

he says, right behind the actor playing Joe Louis.

For the part, he spent hours in makeup and donned a sports coat, tie

and notepad and tried to look just like a sport writer, circa 1965, which

happens to be one year after Roger started as a part time writer at the

Daily Pilot.

Just like the sports writers who covered Ali at the time, Roger didn’t

think much of the cocky prize fighter back then, but he has come to

respect him as one of the world’s greatest boxers.

“He came on as one of the most outrageous big mouths of all time,” he

said. “We weren’t used to that. Nobody did that.”

Since his work ended on the flick, he hasn’t heard word one from the

producers about the movie, not even when it would open.

But he has some great memories.

He had great praise for Bentt in his portrayal of Liston, the burly

heavyweight who everyone at the time thought would knock Ali out cold.

And as for Will Smith?

“Not only super-talented, but a very decent person,” Roger said. “Did

his homework and executed. His imitation of Ali’s boxing style is pretty

awesome, as well as his tone of voice and delivery.”

He said Smith made the experience fun by mixing business with laughter

between scenes.

“He constantly shadow-boxed and tapped away at the make-up girl, as

well as punching the assistant director in the ribs, to the delight of

everyone, because the assistant director was in reality, Michael Mann’s

hatchet man, among other things.”

So after the presents are opened Christmas Day and you’re thinking

about a movie, if you happen to watch “Ali” make sure you look hard at

the background.

You may just see a familiar Daily Pilot face.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you

have story ideas or concerns about news coverage please send messages

either via e-mail to [email protected] or by phone at 949-574-4258.