‘Friday Night Lights’ crew wraps up its Odessa shoot

By Cliff Hamilton
Odessa American

Odessa’s stint as the movie-making hub of the Permian Basin ended this weekend.
Local filming for “Friday Night Lights” ended Saturday morning as the production’s second unit wrapped its last night of all-night shooting at Ratliff Stadium.
The first unit, which films the stars and principal scenes, wrapped Thursday.
The crew now moves to Houston where on Monday it will begin shooting the movie’s climax in the Astrodome.
Publicist Ernie Malik said the first unit will shoot for about a week and the second for about two weeks. Shooting is scheduled to wrap April 15.
Malik said the film would then go to Los Angeles for post-production. The movie is slated for release Oct. 15.
“They have something they think the town’s going to be proud of,” Malik said.
For the three weeks they were here, the cast and crew spent their off time kicking back in Odessa’s bars and restaurants.
“It was exciting,” Barnaby’s manager Tamara Moersch said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the movie, saying ‘I saw him. I talked to him.’ ”
Moersch said at a wrap party last Sunday night the cast and crew packed the bar with about 150 people.“It was a blast,” Moersch said. “They drank us out of everything.”
Moersch said despite giving last call at 2 a.m., “at 2:30 it was still wall-to-wall. They didn’t want to leave.”
Nancy Massey, who owns the Oasis Bar and Grill, said the the cast and crew frequented her place. She said the bar was a little lighter when the crew left, too.
“They drank more Petrona (tequila) than I’ve seen in a year,” Massey said. “They went through almost a year’s worth of tequila in three weeks.”
Raymone Allen, a waiter for the Oasis, said the filmmakers often brought a party atmosphere with them.
“There’s a couple of them who would liven up the crowd some,” Allen said. “Garrett (Hedlund, who plays fullback Don Billingsley), he would go up and do karaoke all the time. He’d get up there and sing at night.”
Local stargazers sometimes packed the star hangouts as well.
“It was our job to keep the fans away,” Massey said. “When they’re all in here it’s just like a zoo.”
Massey and Zucchi’s Ristorante owner Larry Burdette said they wanted the crew members to not have to worry about hoards of autograph hounds, even those in their employ.
“The staff was really cool about it,” Burdette said. “They said ‘Let’s don’t bother these people.’ ”
For the employees at the restaurants who got a chance to know some of the “Friday Night Lights” crew, the movie makers turned out to be very human.
Oasis hostess Brandy Barnett, who also was an extra in the film, said the movie’s stars were in reality very down-to-earth.
“They’re really nice, wonderful to talk to,” she said. “They’re just like normal people. Just getting to know them makes me think no one’s really different from anybody else.”
Massey said actor Billy Bob Thornton, who plays Permian coach Gary Gaines, couldn’t have been any more normal.
“He’d sit at the bar and have his Budweiser just like everybody else,” Massey said.
He just happened to be a big tipper as well. Massey said the staff members who delivered room service would fight to make delivery to Thornton’s room for the tips.
Massey said everyone she met from “Friday Night Lights” was very polite.
“I think the general consensus was they were the nicest bunch we’d ever had in here en masse,” she said.
Burdette agreed.
“It was just fun. We didn’t have to do anything special for them. They didn’t ask for anything special. They were just good patrons,” he said.
“The people themselves, they’re good people. We had some great times with these guys,” Burdette said. “I hope they make a ‘Friday Night Lights 2.’ ”