HANCEVILLE, Ala. — When Wallace State Community College Dental Hygiene student Portia Watkins begins her career as a dental hygienist in a few short months, she will have at least a couple of conversation starters when she’s speaking to her patients.
Watkins, 26, of Phenix City, has worked as an extra on two different feature projects, including the blockbuster “Black Panther,” that made history by becoming the first superhero film to be nominated for a Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
During filming for the movie “Black Panther,” Watkins served as an extra during a fight scene featured near the beginning of the movie, where the title character must defend his place on the throne of Wakanda.
Watkins said a friend she worked with at one time worked as an extra and led her to a website called Project Casting that he uses to find films needing extras. She was able to narrow her search to filming locations in the Atlanta area, with one of those being for the film Black Panther.
“I just went through the listing to see what days matched up with the days I was off,” Watkins said. “I think I actually asked to be off that day since it was early enough in advance that I could ask off.”
After sending in a photo and other details, she waited for an email to see if she would be selected to be an extra. Luckily, she was.
Watkins said she got up at 5 o’clock the morning of the shoot with hopes to make it through Atlanta traffic and be on site by 8 a.m. as requested. “But I ended up getting there closer to 9,” she said. “On the way there I called and said, ‘Hey, I was supposed to be there at 8 a.m.’ They said take your time, it’s fine. Once I got there, we waited probably two hours before we actually got started.”
Her role was as one of the members of The River Tribe. She was given a green and yellow costume consisting of a dress with a halter top and headdress to wear during the scenes. “It wasn’t heavy, but it was hard to keep on,” Watkins said of the headdress.
She and the other extras would work in groups, cheering and chanting during the scenes filmed at a rock quarry in the middle of winter. “It was pretty chilly,” she said. “I remember the actors commenting on how cold the water was.”
Watkins said the extras were in groups of about 15 and were switched on and off the set during filming. “We had to shoot the same scene over and over again. I was there for probably at least 12 hours.”
Some of the work was done with green screen technology, Watkins said. They would stand on green boxes during some of the scenes. Computer generated imaging would complete the scenes during editing.
“It was cool seeing it in person and then seeing how they put in the extra stuff in the movie,” Watkins said.
Her memories of the day were all she was able to take away from the day. They weren’t allowed to take photos of themselves in costume and couldn’t ask the stars for autographs, she said. A few of the actors did speak to them, thanking them for helping with the film. She was paid for her time, but Watkins said it wasn’t a lot.
And finding herself in the film was pretty much impossible, she said, but she’s OK with that.
“The experience was nice and to just be able to say, you might not see me, but I was there. I’m in there somewhere,” she said.
Watkins went on to serve as an extra in “The Bobby Brown Story” a two-night TV movie for BET. She said she was an extra in the concert scene, which was shot about 35 times during her time there.
“He sang ‘Tenderoni,’” Watkins said of the scene. “I didn’t know the song before then, but after doing it 35 times, I knew it.”
Watkins has been focusing on her studies as she prepares to graduate in May, so she hasn’t looked for more extra work so far, but she said she wouldn’t mind doing it again.
She’s also become a fan of Black Panther, something she didn’t know much about before working on the film. “It was really good, and it caught my attention,” she said of the film. “I’m excited for the next one to come out.” Black Panther 2 is expected to come out in May 2022.
According to Time magazine and Vox media, “Black Panther” may be the first megabudget, Hollywood blockbuster movie — not just about superheroes – to celebrate black culture. Ticket sales surpassed $1.3 billion. It is ranked as the No. 5 superhero title of all time, and the No. 12 highest-grossing film in history. Director Ryan Coogler told Time that the movie tackled an important genre: “Superhero films that deal with issues of being of African descent.”
Wallace State Community College has been celebrating Black History Month during February. The month is designated annually as national Black History Month, also called African American History Month, in celebration of the contributions to our nation made by people of African American decent, and pays tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.
The college hosted the world-renowned Ailey II Dance Company on Feb. 11; held a special Trivia Tuesday event focused on African American Inventors on Feb. 11 (National Inventors’ Day); and will welcome motivational speaker David Anthony Johnson to campus on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
For more information about Wallace State Community College, visit www.wallacestate.edu or call 256-352-8000.
