City abuzz as actors prepare for shoot

You never know where the Hollywood stars from Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines” will turn up next.

One might be at the end of the bar sipping a beer. Another might be tagging along with police responding to a disturbance in your neighborhood.

The production crew may be staying in a room down the hall at your hotel or ordering breakfast in an adjacent booth at the local diner. And depending on where you live, they could even be knocking at your front door.

Yet without an itinerary or having a person in the know, it’s hard to track the star power as it navigates a city of more than 66,0000 people. It’s sort of like tracking bolts of lighting: You never know where they’re going to strike, but there’s no mistaking them when they do.

Schenectady is atwitter with reports of actors Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling making brief unannounced appearances in host of different locations throughout the city.

“I get calls and emails every day,” said Don Rittner, the chairman of the Schenectady Film Commission, which was instrumental in bringing the production to the city. “It’s great. It’s exciting.”

In the movie, Gosling’s character turns to a life of crime to support his newborn son. He crosses paths with Cooper, who portrays a rookie cop, launching a confrontation that spirals into a generational feud.

With filming expected to start next week, star sightings are becoming more frequent. Gosling, who plays troubled motorcycle stunt rider Luke Glanton, popped into the Van Dyck Restaurant & Lounge last week only to be quickly inundated by fans.

“He was trying to be a normal guy, but it wasn’t working out for him,” said Dean Plakas, the manager of Newest Lunch, who was at the Van Dyck at the time.

Cooper, who plays an up-and-coming cop named Avery Cross, also made a cameo in the city over the past week. His most visible appearance was during the Police Department’s swearing-in ceremony at City Hall on Monday.

The co-star of the movie told city officials that he didn’t want to draw attention away from the new officers and remained quiet in the background. But he was inevitably noticed later by the media, which touched off a whirlwind of posts on Twitter.com.

In truth, Cooper had been in the city for at least two days studying his role. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, he acknowledged doing research at the city Police Department during the day and riding along with cops at night.

“My grandfather was a cop, and I grew up knowing cops. My uncle is a cop. So I definitely was not unaware of the energy of cop culture,” he said during the interview. “But certainly there’s a difference between that and actually going on these ride-alongs and walking into these houses with domestic disturbances, and being in the headquarters and really being around these guys for long periods of time and getting to know them and talk to them and their backgrounds and it’s invaluable, what I’ve learned.”

Cooper also spent a couple of hours with the county’s top prosecutor Sunday, learning the role of his character later on in the movie. Apparently, the character eventually runs for district attorney, a role that Bob Carney knows very well.

“He’s charming guy,” Carney said of Cooper. “He’s very interested in delving into the role of the district attorney.”

Carney’s office in the Schenectady County Court building is also among the locations being considered for filming. He said the producer inquired about using the office and he was quick to oblige.

Only don’t expect to see Carney in the background during the filming. He’d rather relinquish the office for a while.

“My sister is the actor in the family,” he quipped.

Others aren’t sure whether they’ll be part of the filming, but are eager to see the crews come to the city. Plakas was approached by the director several months ago at his Albany Street restaurant, but hasn’t heard from him since.

“At the time, they seemed like they were interested in shooting here,” he said from the 1950s-style diner. “But they had no shortage of places volunteering.”

Some residents throughout the city and in other communities received letters from the film crew asking to use their homes as a possible filming location. Others, like Lee Sikes of Broadway Choppers, received a personal visit from Cianfrance.

The small shop off Bradley Street is lined with custom-made Harleys in various states of completion — sort of the atmosphere in which one would expect Gosling’s character to dwell. And ironically, the shop has also drawn quite a bit of interest from a stunt crew that was passing through the area two years ago.

When the move “Salt” started shooting in Albany in April 2009, Broadway Choppers was a spot a number of the stunt actors decided to hang out. Sikes said he’d be just as thrilled to have Cianfrance’s crew in to stay for awhile.

“It would be tremendous, obviously,” he said. “I think it’s good for Schenectady.”

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