Last summer, I wrote the post “Lights, Camera, Exhaustion: I Worked as a Movie Extra for 6 Grueling Yet Awesome Days” about the opportunity I had to be an extra in a movie.
It was so cool to get the chance to do this and see how the sausage is made. It was also grueling with a lot of long days in the hot sun.
At the time, I wasn’t allowed to reveal the movie that they were filming. However, I think it was one of the worst-kept secrets out there. Everyone and their brother knew what they were filming in Cleveland at the time.
But if you didn’t happen to guess it, I’ll tell you – it was a bird… no, wait… it was a plane. Nope, that’s not it… it was the Superman movie!!!
One year later, the Superman movie premiered in the U.S. on July 11, 2025, and brought in over $600 million in box office sales. Wow!
The question is, did I make it into the movie, or did I end up on the cutting room floor?
I’m sure you figured out by the title that I actually did make it into the movie! I found 5 shots in 3 scenes that I was in… how cool is that?!
The Superman movie on the big screen
I had no intentions of seeing the Superman movie in a crowded theater when it opened. Instead, we made it a drive-in night of fun on the Monday after opening weekend! Ah, the advantages of early retirement! As expected, it wasn’t very busy at all… not bad for a movie that brought in $125 million just on its domestic opening weekend!
You might be thinking, “There are still drive-in movie theaters in operation??” And the answer is, yes, there are. As of 2024, there are still about 283 of them in the U.S.and I’m glad we have a couple near us.
I love it because you’re not packed in a theater, you get to be outside (if you want), and it’s just a fun experience. So we rolled with it…
We hung out until dark and then it began…
I gotta say, we loved it. It was fun and upbeat with a good plot, plenty of action, and just the right amount of humor. The light tone of the movie was reminiscent of Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman movie with Christopher Reeve. And I loved David Corenswet as Superman – perfect fit for the role!
But what about seeing myself in the film?
Yeah, I recognized the scenes I was in, but the crowds flashed by too fast to be able to see if I was there. It didn’t matter, though, because I was enjoying the movie too much to care.
Plus, I just figured I’d be able to go through it a little more once it started streaming and I could pause and rewind to take a better look.
The scenes of Superman that I made it into
Once the Superman movie was released on home media, I took about half an hour to pick through the scenes I was a part of to see if I could spot myself.
It was pretty gratifying to find myself in 5 shots across 3 scenes.
I took some screenshots so you can check ’em out. Most of the spots were only for a second or two, but it’s better than not being in it at all!
Scene #1
The first one is when Clark is making his way to the Daily Planet. I was just a guy walking the crowded streets for this scene (you can click on the images to enlarge them)…
And then, I somehow noticed myself in the background crossing by again when they do a close-up of the newspaper several seconds later…
We spent probably around 4 hours filming this sidewalk scene that amounted to about 15 seconds in the movie. Crazy, right?
Scene #2
This scene was cool to film because it had all the superhero actors from the movie there. It also became a pivotal point of the movie. I won’t spoil it in case you haven’t seen it, but I was in the background here…
And then a couple of seconds later…
Scene #3
The last scene I was in was when everyone was hurrying to evacuate…
In that scene, I hold the door for a girl to get into the car, hand her suitcase to her, and then head around the car to get in. But the funny part was that the car was already filled with people, so the assistant director would have me help her, head around the car, and then just keep going on foot, blending in with the rest of the crowd since no one would notice anyway. That part didn’t make it in anyway – just the small snippet of me at the car door made it into that clip.
Were there any more?
I wish I knew the answer, but I’m not greedy. I’m excited that I made it into the Superman movie at all!
Nevertheless, I only took about half an hour to just sort of skim through the scenes of the movie I know I was a part of and looked for myself. Those were the handful I spotted, but there could be more.
However, I was also fortunate to be part of a select group for a really unique thing. They brought me into a trailer and did a computer scan of me. They had me stand on this platform with my arms out as if I was holding an invisible box, and then about 300 cameras all around me took a photo in about a second with flashes everywhere.
From that, they now had a computer-created digital “me” that they could put anywhere they wanted. So if James Gunn (the director) decided he wanted more people in a crowd somewhere in post-production, they could just drop me in. Technology’s so cool.
Oh, and for folks like me who like to know about privacy ramifications, I was told that this was for the Superman movie only and that they would destroy it after the movie was complete. I’m taking them at their word, but I was willing to chance it (this was optional to do).
So, it’s possible I’m in places in the movie that I might not even have been on set for at the time.
There are also a lot of really zoomed-out scenes that I remember being a part of, but there’s no way to know it’s me in any of those.
This was such a special and fun experience all around and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it. I made a lot of friends over those 6 days on set, and it was cool to see a lot of familiar faces in the film as well.
I didn’t get my hopes up, but it’s rewarding to find out that I made it into the Superman movie after all and that it turned out to be such an awesome flick! Good times!
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Thanks for reading!!
— Jim
That’s so cool! It’s pretty awesome there were scenes they could see your face, after the first few stills I was fearing a Mike Wachowski-type thing where we were only seeing the back of your head or your face getting blocked. Glad to hear the grueling filming sessions paid off (kinda!).