Page 46 - MyCottleville Magazine Jan/Feb 2017

Local Celebrity Starring Lindsay Harmon
Lindsay Harmon has had cocktails with the cast of “Chicago PD.” She’s shared a movie set with Shailene Wood- ley, Theo James and Naomi Watts. And she has had wine with Matt Damon. Harmon doesn’t typically hobnob with the rich and famous. But the local artist, animal lover and trained meteorologist is an up and coming actor who’s worked as an extra in several lms and television series and is now landing speaking roles in local projects.
Known as actor Zera Lynd, a stage name she formulated using her ma- ternal grandmother’s rst name and a takeoff on her own rst name, Harmon started her career in 1998 after she was invited to work as an extra in “The Informant” alongside superstar Matt Damon.
She said it was just a uke that she got the call to play an extra in what would become her rst movie credit after competing in the Miss Missouri pageant. “I was just a girl drinking wine and having a salad in the mov- ie,” Harmon said. “So I got 45 seconds of face time, then 30 seconds of the back of my head sitting near Matt Damon,” she said of her role in the 2009 biographical-comedy-crime lm directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns that was lmed at Lambert-St. Louis Interna- tional Airport.
Harmon dreamed of being an actor as a child. “I wanted to do this when I was young, but you always needed parental permission. My parents didn’t have the time to drive me around to all of the auditions. So when I was 21, I started looking around on my own.”
Harmon soon got work as an extra, which only motivated her further. “It de nitely piqued my interest. When you are an extra, people don’t necessarily see you. People are watching the main characters. We just help make the scene. So you don’t do it for fame. You do it because you enjoy it,” Harmon said. While working as an extra can be rewarding, Harmon would always prefer to play a character.
She recently nished lming her role as “Sophie” in “Begin Again,” a feature lm being produced locally by Vicki Kellerman-Doerr. She has worked in horror lms with local director, Richard Hamilton and his production compa- ny, Morbid Curiosity. She also plays a police of cer in Lilton Stewart’s production of “Michaela.”
Part of her “demographic” that she shares with casting companies is, well, what many refer to nowadays as “resting bitch face.”
“‘Allegiant’ needed taller people that look angry,” Harmon said, referring to Robert Schwentke’s 2016 science ction adventure lm, “Divergent Series: Allegiant.” She said she got the role because of “my resting bitch face.” Harmon plays a part in the Factionless Army ght scene in that movie. “So now anytime they’re looking for a mean mug, I apply for that too,” she said.
By: Robin Seaton Jefferson
46 | MyCottleville Magazine