Memo to the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau: Have y'all considered making actor Chris Klein your new guest spokesman? "We had a lot of fun shooting in Atlanta. It was the perfect place to shoot," said Klein, who spent a good bit of time here last year filming the recently released "American Reunion."
Stars of movies shot here always have nice, dare we say publicist-driven, things to say about us, but Klein seemed to genuinely heart us. "I'm a big fan of South City Kitchen in Midtown. I love that place," he said, rattling off with ease a list of his favorite Atlanta haunts. "We were over at Bone's, the quintessential steakhouse. I have done some time at the Buckhead Diner."
He wasn't done! "I really love working here," he said. "The film and TV infrastructure is second to none. I had a fantastic time here last summer. I just hope I have a job that brings me back to Atlanta." Klein was back last week for an event celebrating his cover model status on Modern Luxury's special Men's Book issue. (Local men of style featured in The Atlantan's Men of Style issue, published in April, included Mark Boomershine, Calvin Fong, Kevin Kleinhelter, Al Longman, Sid Mashburn,Stan Mukoro and Don Purcell. The Atlantan is a Modern Luxury brand).
"I don't normally get invited to these things so I'm very excited to be part of the magazine," Klein said. The movie, also starring Jennifer Coolidge, Eugene Levy, Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan and Seann William Scott, reassembles the cast of the bawdy "American Pie" flicks, making the journey from raucous teens to responsible adults.
"We're in our early 20s, but when we get back, it's mayhem as usual," said Klein, whose character, Oz, has matured into a sports anchor. "I give all the credit to the writer and director. One of their prime goals was to bring the '90s nostalgia."
He enjoyed stepping back into the role he played as a kid. "This was the first and maybe the only time I'll have the opportunity to chance to reprise a role I played as a teenager," he said. "Those roles are like our favorite pair of jeans."
Lights, camera, lock and load
Finally, a casting call tailored for my people. The VH1 show “Single Ladies,” which is filmed in Atlanta, is casting for a “redneck who can shoot a gun.”
No kidding. The casting call, open to guys in their 20s to 50s, notes that you’ll be packing a prop piece, and you won’t be able to bring your own heat. Still, they need someone comfortable around firearms. “Please note any experience you have with guns,” the casting notice reads.
No word on whether they’re looking for mullets, Smokey and the Bandit mustaches, RIP #3 tattoos or Wrangler jeans with a permanent outline of a Skoal tin in the pocket, but if you ask us, any of those would give you an edge. Having graduated from a rural North Carolina school system that used to take elementary school children on tours of the tobacco factory and would designate a “smoking bus” on high school band trips, we know of what we speak.
Email photos and your dimensions to SingleLadies2ATL@gmail.com with “Redneck” in the subject line.
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