Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 23 I T'S AN EARLY MORNING IN SEPTEMBER AND I'M PULL- ING INTO A CASINO PARKING LOT ABOUT TWENTY MILES FROM MISSOULA, MONTANA. What am I doing at Gray Wolf Peak Casino at 8:30am on a Wednesday? Did I get some sign from the gambling gods that today is my lucky day? No, nothing like that. Actually, I'm here for a special side job. Two weeks earlier, I had read in the Missoulian about a TV show called Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner, and one which began filming in and around the Bitterroot Valley that summer. They were looking for extras, so I left my contact info and head shot, not thinking much about it. A week later a talent agency out of California gave me a call. On my way to set I notice two highly-caffeinated cooks busy making omelets and breakfast burritos for everybody. "It's free!" a young, twenty- something man with facial piercings and sleeve tattoos announces as he exits the tent, carrying away a plate piled with enough food for several people. I definitely get a summer festival vibe from everyone. A rumor gets passed around that Kevin Costner will be on the set later. There's talk of the end of the Season 3 cliffhanger and what this casino scene might mean for Season 4. A few in the crowd relate their experiences as an extra on previous shoots for the show, either around Dillon or Hamilton in the Bitterroot. Since I hav- en't seen the show, bits and pieces of characters and plotlines begin to swirl around in my head. Finally, a man wearing a baseball cap surfaces from the casino. He's young, just north of thirty, and has a scruffy beard. The walkie-talkie hanging from his utility belt screeches static. He tells us he's the extras director and starts bringing us in five or six at a time. Once I'm inside, I make my way through the lobby and reach the main casino floor. Enormous lights have been set up around the set. All the regular Gray Wolf Peak signage has been changed to the fictional casino of the TV show. There are three or four cameras set up, as far as I can tell, the main one attached to a hydraulic crane looming over a blackjack table in the center. Cables crisscross the carpeted floor and connect up to rows of monitors off-set, and this is an initial cause of concern for me, as the area is full of film crew, actors, expensive equip- ment, and now extras. My fear is suddenly knocking over a light fixture that costs more than my car. I get assigned a keno machine about twenty feet from the gaming pit with all the black- jack tables. The film crew is busy running around and setting every- thing up. I meet Marcus, a man in his fifties with salt-and- pepper hair sitting at the keno machine on my left. We start up a conversation. He'd driven down from Troy, Montana to be on the set. He tells me that this isn't the first time he's been on a Hollywood set, and he considers this kind of gig as a good excuse to get out of town, treating it more as a fun day off than anything approaching work. Someone from the extras crew goes around to all the keno machines and gives us a stack of one dollar bills. "Bet the minimum and pretend you're gambling," he says. "These machines get really loud, so keep your volume at the lowest setting!" A young guy leaning against a machine occupied by a girl starts acting flirty, sipping on his fake martini. He tells her he's from Missoula. His dark hair is slicked back by what I imagine to be an ungodly amount of gel. Someone yells out, asking if we're allowed to keep the money if we hit the jackpot. The crew person gets annoyed for a second, then says, "Okay, folks, listen up! Any money you win gets split 50-50. Got that? Remember, bet the minimum!" People like to talk about the "magic of Hollywood." There's certainly a lot of that happening on the set, as cocktail waitresses float around with trays of fake alcohol over by CAB TRAN Scan the QR code to see more about... Yellowstone TV series www.distinctlymontana.com/yellowstone212 DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL

• Cover