KSVY radio listener, Rob Adams, won a chance to work as an extra in “Bottleshock”, now being filmed in Sonoma. Ryan lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
Rob Adams had little idea when he tuned into KSVY 91.3 Sonoma two weeks ago that he was at the precipice of immortality – in a manner of speaking. As the locally produced film “Bottleshock” was trawling the town for extras, a call-in contest was underway at the station that asked listeners to identify one of the two brands of wine that took honors at the epochal 1976 Paris tasting on which “Bottleshock” is based. Rob Adams called in and triumphantly listed them both (Stag’s Leap and Chateau Montelena). Adam’s wine knowledge won him an extra’s spot in a scene shot on Monday.
“There’s a lot of waiting, but they work so hard and have so many employees, it’s absolutely amazing to watch – and the lingo, of course. To be a witness to it was pretty exciting,” said Adams, who is inured to stage fright having been a drummer since his youth.
Adams was one of several extras playing vintners in a scene with Alan Rickman who plays Steven Spurrier, the British wine merchant who organized the Paris tasting.
“We were in front of the Toscana Hotel with bottles, begging Alan Rickman, saying ‘Try my wine,’ but without lines. There was definitely some acting involved,” laughed Adams. “And it was hot as hell. We were all dying. It’s not like they’re going, ‘Water, sir?’ It’s more like ‘Sit here! Stay! Don’t go anywhere and don’t talk!’”
When asked if he felt more like an actor or a prop, Adams said he felt a little like both. Throughout, one of Adams’ fellow extras couldn’t resist calling Rickman “Snape” (from his role in the “Harry Potter” films) though he kept getting it wrong and saying “Snake” instead.
“I said, ‘No man, this isn’t Kenny Stabler,’” Adams corrected, referring to the football icon. “It was very cool, but he seemed a little snobby. Pompous. It was like ‘Oh, you speak English’ (roaring) ‘I am English!’ That’s what it reminded me of, but he’s a damn good actor,” recalled Adams, who arrived onset in his own costume of jeans and a cowboy hat. The get-up was met with immediate approval by the wardrobe department. “To be honest, I did it to take a break off work and not commute to the city,” he laughed.
