By Kathy Chaffin
Salisbury Post
CONCORD ó George Clooney would have been proud. “Leatherheads” extra Jay Phillips ó wearing a black tuxedo and sunglasses ó stepped onto the red carpet Friday at the entrance to Concord Mills Theaters with the same ease as the film’s director and lead actor.
Phillips, with glamorous girlfriend Jessica Morris by his side, flashed a smile worthy of a Hollywood leading man as he waved to more than 100 family, friends and co-workers.
Walking through the crowd, he was as generous with hugs and autographs as Clooney on his March 26 visit to Salisbury.
When Ginger Rogers, who works with his mother, Susan Johnson, in the surgery department at Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast, asked Phillips to sign her chest, he obliged. And like any adoring fan, she swooned.
Phillips, 23, said his mother’s co-workers have photos of him on their lockers at the Concord medical center. “I might not be a star yet,” he said, “but up at NorthEast in the surgery department, I’m a big hit.”
Johnson sent out invitations to the premiere reading, “We wish, as his family and friends, to share in the joy of ‘most probably’ seeing him on the big screen.”
She had arranged for a private showing of “Leatherheads,” featuring footage filmed at The Salisbury Station and Spencer Shops, by selling 175 tickets beforehand. Close to 250 family members and friends turned out for the movie.
Phillips’ younger brother, Alex, and his friend, Jesse ó wearing “Leatherheads” T-shirts ó passed out candy in Hollywood Boulevard bags at the entrance to the theater. Johnson handed out wooden key chains featuring her son’s photo in the middle of a director’s clapper board.
It was Johnson who talked him into appearing at the premiere. “It was more for fun than anything else,” he said.
Phillips ó who played a firefighter’s helper, a linebacker and lineman during shooting ó said he made it into three or four scenes in the edited version. “When it comes out on DVD, we’re going to all get together and pause to verify how long we were in each scene,” he said.
Mike Phillips, who works at the Salisbury Post Office, was among the crowd gathered to cheer on his son. Jay’s two sisters, two stepbrothers and grandparents were also at the premiere along with his girlfriend’s parents and grandparents.
“I had family come from Florida on my mom’s side to see me,” he said. “They also came from all over on my dad’s side. To have that many people show up, it was great.”
After the movie, Johnson presented her son with a souvenir Oscar for “Best Featured Extra” and a souvenir Hollywood Walk of Fame star bearing his name.
“I got up and thanked my family and everyone who supported me,” he said, including the friend of his mother who loaned him the tux and his supervisor at Plain or Fancy Catering who loaned him a 2007 black Mercedes SUV to drive to the premiere.
“Man, was it bad,” Phillips said. “The windshield wipers came on by themselves. I was thinking about turning them on, and they came on. It blew my mind.”
After serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom as a military police officer for the Marines, he broke his neck in a water sports accident two weeks after returning home for leave and was given a medical discharge.
Phillips had recovered from his injury when he heard about the auditions for “Leatherheads” and jumped at the chance to be a part of the movie.
“It was a cool experience,” he said. “A lot of extras were only there a day or two or three at the most. I got called back week after week.”
He slipped his mother onto the set in Spencer and his father at The Salisbury Station. “I told them, ‘Just look like you know what you’re doing,’ ” he said. ” ‘Walk with confidence, and they’ll let you right on.’ ”
Phillips worked a total of eight and a half weeks as an extra, traveling all over North and South Carolina.
When the filming ended, he returned to his two jobs ó one at Plain or Fancy Catering and the other at the Salisbury UPS office ó and classes at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, where he is studying heating, air conditioning and refrigeration.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249 or kchaffin@salisburypost.com.