Lynn actor stars in the background

LYNN – Don’t blink – that’s Louis J. Rodrigue shaking Johnny Depp’s hand; that’s Rodrigue dancing behind Robert De Niro, and that’s him in the chase scene in the car next to the one Tom Cruise is driving.Rodrigue is a self-described “stand-in” or “background” actor and West Lynn native with a 30-year resume spanning modeling work, advertisement appearances and movie work carefully plotted out to never upstage the big star.A Lynnway resident, Rodrigue worked on new movies “Black Mass” and “Joy” – both partly filmed in Lynn – and “Manchester-by-the-Sea,” but he won’t know until the movies hit theaters if his scenes survived the editing process.He is in the opening scene of “True Lies” and he plays a police captain in “Gone Baby Gone,” but Rodrigue said his job is to blend into the background of a movie scene and, at all costs, avoid upstaging the movie’s stars.That means staying in character – even if he is just someone walking in a funeral procession (“The Judge”) or dancing at a party (“Joy”) or portraying an early American senator (“Amistad”), and it means moving effortlessly around the cables and equipment packed into film sets.”You can’t just walk around or the director will hit the roof,” he said.Rodrigue’s father was a bandleader who performed locally and toured until the Great Depression sent him scurrying to find a steady job. Rodrigue said the costumes and the bright lights rubbed off on him and, following a stint in the Marine Corps and jobs in the dry cleaning business and with GE, he tried his hand at modeling.Initial work in Boston brought him to New York City where he said he worked his way into regular appearances on The Cosby Show.”I would go down to New York on a Wednesday, we rehearsed Wednesday and Thursday and, on Thursday afternoon, the show went live,” he said.Married to his wife, Carol Paige, for 52 years, Rodrigue said he picked up modeling, movie and television work where he could find it. He portrayed a doctor in a diabetes brochure and a janitor in a floor buffer advertisement. He said a picture showing him walking up a set of stairs required him to lift up and step down on his right foot 20 times before the shot’s director was satisfied.He counts Jeff Bridges among the more personable actors he has met, but said most stars – notably Depp – are focused on their roles and director’s instructions during movie making, not on socializing with other film workers.Most of his current jobs come from casting directors who are familiar with his work and know he can be counted on to show up and blend into a scene. He said there is no such thing as being too old to act.”I like everything about it – I never know what I am going to be doing,” he said.