by Erin Hogan
When you end up at the right place at the right time, amazing things can happen. Just ask Robert Carpenter of Grafton. He was on the set of the new movie Salt, parts of which were filmed in Albany, playing an extra as a DC cop and got the opportunity of a lifetime to be a stand in for Liev Schreiber.
Schreiber played in Wolverine as Sabertooth and is in Salt as co-star Winter. Carpenter was asked to enter the scene before Schreiber had to come in in order to get the lighting right for the places where Schreiber stands during the scene.
Carpenter said that this isn’t the first time he has acted. He said he did Sears and
Colonie mall commercials and anti-drinking and driving billboards when he was younger. As well, he said he has been married about 150 times because he used to act in bridal shows. He calls himself a freelance actor, and he said he looks on craigslist for acting jobs. When he’s not standing in for Liev Schreiber, he’s a construction worker.
Carpenter described his scenes in Salt. While being the DC cop, he said that he was in the scene where he performs a road stop for the character Salt, Angelina Jolie, and he steps out to stop traffic. He said that Salt (Jolie) sees him and jumps onto a moving truck to avoid the cops. Carpenter then went on to describe his experience as Schreiber’s stand in. He said that he would shoot the scene that Schreiber would be in anywhere from 5-10 times in order to get the lighting right, then Schreiber would come in and act out the scene. Carpenter said that if you see a shadow, it’s most likely him and not Schreiber.
Carpenter said that he was on the set every day that the movie was filmed in Albany. He got to eat elegant meals with the stars daily. Along with full meals, he said that caterers were everywhere with food and beverages all day. A normal day for Carpenter started before 5 am when he had to leave his house; he was required to be on set by 6 am. After being on set until 8 pm Carpenter would head home. After getting home at about 9 pm he would get a phone call asking him to repeat the process again tomorrow. He did this for 15 days, which he thought helped make sure that Salt would be a success. According to Carpenter, everything about the movie was amazing and so precise.
Interestingly enough it wasn’t precise enough to avoid breaking a very, very expensive camera. He said one of his favorite days was when he got to see the fancy camera smash into a road sign right in front of him. He was standing in for Schreiber when the camera coming toward him got destroyed.
To Carpenter, the most rewarding part of this whole experience was when Liev Schreiber came to him and thanked him for the work he had done to make Schreiber’s job easier. Schreiber signed a paper thanking him for his work and wishing him the best. Carpenter said that he was on cloud nine and it was incredibly rewarding.
Although Carpenter went through all that work and the movie was released July 23, he still hasn’t seen it. He pointed out that after 15 days the scene that he participated in only lasted 3 and half minutes.