A scene to remember
Woonsocket’s Ginny Loring Cooke, a longtime film extra, is now gracing the silver screen in an Oscar contender
WOONSOCKET – Ginny Loring Cooke has been in show business for decades, but last March, the septuagenarian found herself in a scenario entirely new to her: acting in a speaking role for a major film.
“It was quite an experience,” she said. “I have been in show business forever, since I was a kid, but I had never really done anything of this nature.”
Cooke, an East Woonsocket resident, traveled to Lynn, Mass. on March 26, 2015 for her part as “Mrs. Groom (2nd tenant)” in “Manchester by the Sea.” She had been quiet about the experience and went to see the movie alone a few weeks ago, out of concern that maybe her scene would be cut.
But after seeing that it wasn’t, Cooke has been spreading the word, and she says her family is “ecstatic.” The titular locale of the film was meaningful to them, considering her father’s side of the family is from nearby Gloucester and Rockport, other towns on Cape Ann.
In the hours before filming last March, Cooke met lead
actor Casey Affleck, director Kenneth Lonergan and other actors in the film, “and everybody was extremely gracious,” she said. “You know, you have a certain concept of Hollywood types and they were not that way at all; they were terrific.”
“Manchester by the Sea” follows Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), who is working as a janitor in Quincy when his brother dies. Chandler then heads to Manchester and looks after his brother’s son.
Cooke’s scene in “Manchester by the Sea” comes early in the movie – so early that her name is the fifth one listed in the cast on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). It was filmed in an apartment in Lynn, which is supposed to be Quincy.
She’s talking on the phone in a galley kitchen while Affleck’s character is standing on a table changing a light bulb in the background. The implication, Cooke said, is that her character had complained about needing a new light bulb.
Mrs. Groom is agreeing to go to a bar mitzvah but it will involve seven hours in a car.
“I’m going to be ready to slit my throat after that,” she says. When Cooke saw the film at AMC Loews Boston Common 19, she was happy to hear that line got a laugh from the audience.
Cooke’s success in getting a part in “Manchester by the Sea” came after a scheduling conflict kept her from a small part in “Black Mass.”
Casting director Carolyn Pickman had called Cooke for a part in “Black Mass,” but Cooke is a tour director and had to leave for Pennsylvania shortly, so she wasn’t able to take it.
“I really was kicking myself that I had to give up – that was a scene with Johnny Depp!” she said with a gasp. But Pickman later called her about “Manchester by the Sea,” and her schedule was open this time.
Cooke’s only previous work in movies had been as an extra.
“When you’re an extra, the pay is very little, and you hang around for hours waiting for them to shoot a scene, and then you get a boxed lunch. It’s entirely different,” Cooke said, noting that having a speaking part means “you really do get the VIP treatment.”
She reported to the parking lot of a closed restaurant – where equipment was kept – around 10 a.m. Someone parked her car for her, and she was escorted to a dressing room so the crew could make sure she knew her lines.
Her scene was delayed because of another film being shot in the morning, so she was taken to a Catholic school in Lynn for a catered lunch. That’s where she met Affleck and Lonergan.
Afterward, it was time to shoot her scene. With each take, Cooke got more nervous, because then she was forgetting her lines, but she said Affleck helped ease her tension with a joke.
Cooke previously worked as a dancer and singer. She worked on cruise ships and opened for acts like Dorothy Lamour, The Four Aces and Jack Soo.
Her performances have taken to Suriname, Russia, Montreal and all over the country, but closer to home, she performed at the 1025 Club in Johnston a lot. Cooke worked as a social hostess for Holland America Cruises in the 1970s and for Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in Sudbury in the 80s, and she served as a tour escort for Collette Tours in the ’90s.
She still takes people on tours and does senior shows.