Interview with Dayne T. Lamb, featured extra from John Lee Hancock’s The Alamo!
AS: Tell us a bit about yourself.
DT: Well, my name is Dayne T. Lamb and I was born in 1961. In 1965, my family moved to Austin, Texas where my father was military and we were stationed there from England. We went to San Antonio and saw the Alamo in 1966. I was 5. Davy Crockett’s musket was in a case in front of the Alamo back then and the whole vacation was awe inspiring. Little did I know that 37 years later, I would be in the remake of that great movie.
At an early age I started preforming on stage and continued acting throughout highschool and college. Most of my young adult acting jobs where community theatre, but later on I did alot of commercials and paid preformances for dinner theatres. It wasn’t until after a five year run with a traveling renaissance festival that I came to Austin, Texas in 2002 to homestead my father’s house.
AS: When did you first hear about the casting call? What was the casting process like for you?
DT: It was in Austin, Texas a few weeks after moving there. I read in the paper about auditions for the movie, The Alamo. I jumped at the chance.
The auditions were set for the middle of October I believe, that was so long ago, at the Ommi Hotel. Knowing I had to bring a head shot, I felt I had a chance at a part because of my very long hair and mustache and beard I sported because of the Ren Fair I had just left. I filed in a huge line where they took our head shots and information. Then a pannel of folks in a large open room asked alot of questions about ourselves. Being very personable, I was selected to go on. The second part of the audition was to be an all day event.
The second part of the audition took place a few weeks after the first interview. It was an all day trek at a ranch in Texas, where a little over 400 guys marched around in the cold with muskets through the mud. I looked at it as part of the training and took it very serious. Alot of guys didn’t last through the ordeal, but the ones that did went through some stunt training, horse riding, musket practic and a whole lot of marching.
At the end, they chose only 120 guys to be Alamo Defenders. I was one of the lucky ones. After signing my life away, I was told to show up to Riding Training on December 2. I did and spent two days riding horse with a few others. Although I learned alot, and even though I could hold my own with the rest of them, I was later selected to become a New Orleans Gray. For me, any part was a good part. It ment I was in the movie. Filming was set for Jan 2nd.
AS: Everyone, from extras to cast members, had to experience a few hours of training for their parts. Describe the training you went through.
DT: The training came on the set. After getting into costume, we where devided into our groups. The New Orleans Grays group met with their leader, a reenactor named Jim Lauderdale. It was Jim that told us who the New Orleans Grays were and what affect they had on the battles of the time. He taught us how to mossie, march, and walk with muskets. He took us through battle strategies in open ground and closed ground. I listened to every word he said and did as he did the whole time. The crew started calling me Too Strict because of it. I followed it to the letter. For me, I was training to be a soldier. Stay sharp, stay alive.
The attitude became noticed by the filming crew and some of our practices where caught in the extra features the DVD offers. I saw myself calling out the orders when we trained Jett Black, a hired actor who had a part in the film among the NOGs.
AS: Throughout the film, you are seen a number of times as New Orleans Gray, Henry Courtman. How were you selected?
DT: I was selected as a NOG before my first costume fitting. They took my information and gave me a top notch New Orleans Gray uniform. I joined the company that day and we began our training right then.
Henry Courtman came later in the following months. The cigar came from the director John Lee Handcock. We where called to the Alamo first thing for the opening shot of Travis taking command. The director asked who among the NOGs smoked. I did, and raised my hand. I thought for sure I was fired, but instead, was given a cigar and told to stand up by the SouthWest cannon. I kept the cigar from then on.
The name came by one of the extra’s doing the research and finding a list of names of those who died in the battle of the Alamo. He devided the names into the groups of the set, NOGs, Bowies Men, Travis Men, Colorados, and so on. I looked through the thick notebook he had and found Henry Courtman’s name and a brief bio. German, landed in New Orleans and joined the New Orleans Greys. Faught in the battle of Bexar and died in the battle of the Alamo. He was perfect. I am barely heard in the extra feature deleted sceen of the NOGs kicking the Mexican army out of Bexar yelling Oust oust… German for out. I was the one holding the flag in the scene. The character was born.
AS: Describe your typical day on set; challenges, costume, make-up, etc. Any stories you’d care to share?
DT: It’s five in the morning and I’ve been up an hour downing coffee and taking a shower for the day. I’m in the car and off for the six a.m. call. I never miss a call. Stage or screen, I’m there ready to work. The first stop is to drop off the car at the parking lot for the extra’s. Here is the costume shop and the meeting hall we go to for breakfast, which they provide, and to get into gear. I called it gear because it was a huge part of my character. Once I had a quick breakfast, the call for costumes was given and we all got dressed and waited for the bus. Just the costumes where here at this spot. The rest of the gear was at the set at the other ranch.
The bus ride was fourty five minutes to an hours drive across a narrow winding road through country side west and north of Austin, Texas. Beautiful hills and covered in brush and trees. I enjoyed the trips on the bus, it always signalled the beginning and end of a shoot.
Once through security at the main set ranch, we passed by all the Main Headquarters buildings for this project. The winding road took us past the barns that held the horses and where the Wranglers worked. Lots of beef and horse in this movie.
Every building used as Bexar (San Antonio) were used for the processes. Equipment barn, the weapons safe, the make-up room, holding area, were all a part of the set in this 10 million dollars rebuilt city.
We got dropped off at the equipments barns, filed in lines through and equiped our gear. Then it was to the rifle safe to pick up and check out our muskets. Mine was a brown bess look alike that just felt right in my hands. Nice weapon.
Then it was make-up. The line moved fairly quickly through. Then it was off to holding to await orders for todays shoot. Some days it was wait, wait, wait and others it was hussle, cut, do it again. Every day was something new and just as exciting.
AS: During Travis’s speech, you and fellow actor Frank Matthews are seen upon the southwest battery. What were the emotions on set like that day?
DT: I remember Frank and I making a connection in the shooting of that scene. We started out in a long line with the Alamo behind us. The Production staff had a field day placing people all around the fort. Frank and I were sent to the South West wall ramp where many shots where taken.
Both Frank and I did the same thing each shot. Paid attention to the speaker and when he was done, turned to each other and mime talking, looking very concerned to each other. Honestly, I didn’t know where all the camera’s were and it wasn’t until much later that John Lee himself caught me on a break to tell me “‘Nice job, Dayne”.
I melted inside, the director knew my name…I gave him back a shakey “Thank you” and we moved on. It wasn’t until I saw the movie in the theaters that I realized what he meant. I was floored.
AS: I understand you were one of many extras whose death scene was shot on March 6th, the anniversary of the Alamo battle. What was it like?
DT: In the middle of the shooting, we moved to night hours for a while. The nights in Texas in the middle of April at this time were brisk and chilly. For a long while, we had dialog shots, setting shots, and battle shots and so forth from the middle of April into March. It wasn’t until March 6th that it really hit us all. There where huge speakers mounted on tall braces set in the fields of the North Wall and around the Alamo. The nights shooting was a huge set up for a massive scene. The battle of the Alamo. We rehearsed a few Mexican Army advances and did what we where told as usual. At 3a.m., the speakers went off with an authoritive voice announcing, “At three o’clock this morning in 1836, the Mexican army is awakened.”
The feeling in the air was eerie to say the least as I was stationed on the North Wall for most of my stay on the set. I looked back and to the men I had spent so much time with, then looked out over the wall and saw a sea of red vests of the Mexican Army. It took my breath away.
The speakered voice continued, “Thirteen days of nighttime bombing by the Mexican army and then it stopped and the Alamo fell fast asleep.” The tension mounted as we knew what was going on, but the real time announcements added so much more to the scene. “At five o’clock in the morning, the Mexican Army is in place, marching towards the sleeping fort. Advanced groups clearing the way to the wall. Suddenly a scream awakes each soul and the battle began.” The Mexican Army yelled their battle cry and the fight was on. Cut after cut making each scene diffrent and lingering. The North Wall fell and the Production Assistant asked us NOGs, “Who wants to die on the wall instead of the Barracks?” No one answered. We had all talked about our place in the barracks for our death scenes. Then, tt suddenly hit me, I had spent alot of time on that North Wall, most of our filming in fact. Why not me. So…I raised my hand and they shot my character on the North Wall in the movie.
We filmed to dawn and I had to watch all the NOGs retreat to the barracks for their last shot. Because I died on the wall, they couldn’t chance me being seen in the barracks, so I managed to get a cup of coffee and stood behind the directors tent and watched the playback. It was so fast, so final. Sent shivers down my spine. They played it back a few times and I stayed out of the way.
On the ride home, the bus was silent during our trip back to costume. We all had to pause that night. We had just done the Battle of The Alamo in real time. It looked as though it had an impact on every one of us. I drove home with the radio off and window down, thankful to be living in this day and age.
AS: We are coming up on the five year anniversary of the release of The Alamo. What was your immediate reaction to the film?
DT: I was very excited to see the film in theaters. If you remember, it was slated for Christmas of 2003, but from what I heard, the test audiance hated it and it was pushed back for editing. I sat there glued to the screen, trying not to jump up in my seat and shout “There I am!” madly pointing at the screen. I stayed in my seat and found myself lost in the story, lost in the characters, drawn into the film. I own a copy, not just because I’m in it, but because I truely believe it was a very realistic view of that event in our history.
AS: Since its 2004 release, what have you done since?
DT: I was in two other movies as an extra, but I was not visible in the final cuts. I also went on to do more dinner theatre with the wonderful woman that I married. We moved to a place where acting doesn’t make a living, but I am happy with my life here. Someday we’ll take a vacation to visit the Alamo with a much better understanding of the true meaning behind it all.
