A & E

Cheri Petrini-Hayden knows what it's like to be frightened and to be shot at, and she has a bullet that was lodged in her purse to prove it.

The incident happened in Pittsburgh, when a bank robbery turned into a hostage situation and she was caught in crossfire between the bad guys and the police.

Fortunately for Petrini-Hayden, the bullets weren't real and neither was the bank robbery. She and her husband, Dan Hayden, who live in Hempfield, near Jeannette, were extras in the new TV series "The Kill Point" that was filmed this spring in the city. It currently is airing on Spike TV.

"A lot of people ask me if it was hard to act scared," she said. "But the special effects are so realistic that you are actually frightened. You can feel everyone else's intensity around you. This is serious, and the actors' minds are in it and you get such a gut reaction that you really feel afraid."

The series stars Emmy Award-winner John Leguizamo as a veteran soldier turned bank robber, and Golden Globe-nominee Donnie Wahlberg, formerly of the music group New Kids on the Block, as the cop who negotiates to free the hostages.

The Haydens made Hollywood connections when they were in Los Angeles for the 2007 Oscar awards, where Petrini-Hayden's jewelry, The Backlace, was included in the nominees' gift bags.

"We did a lot of other media events when we were out there, and someone mentioned that there was going to be this filming in Pittsburgh," she said.

Although Petrini-Hayden urged her husband to get into the cast as an extra, she initially hesitated about doing it herself.

"I'm kind of shy," she said. "The last time I did anything in front of anyone was in second grade, and I was completely terrified and froze."

She signed up to be a bank teller but, she said, they wanted someone more mature looking. So Petrini-Hayden, 32, took on multiple roles in the intense drama.

The series begins with Pittsburgh skylines and cityscapes, then zeroes in on Market Square, alternating between the robbers en route to the bank and the people inside the building. Petrini-Hayden is one of the customers who run out of the bank.

In a later scene in the first episode, she's dressed differently and is walking a dog along the street. Then she's talking to reporters in the background when the cop and the lead robber confront each other on the sidewalk. She does not speak in those or any other appearances in the episodes.

Dan Hayden, 33, stands in as actor Frank Grillo's body double (Mr. Piggy in the series) and has a speaking role as a Pittsburgh police officer. Look for him wearing a ball cap. In his day job, he is a juvenile probation officer for Westmoreland County, and yes, he said, some of the kids he works with said they would be watching the series to see him.

"Everything (playing a cop) was familiar to me because I'm also an instructor in control tactics training," he said.

Hayden is in several main scenes, and in one he interacts with Wahlberg.

Working on the set is not the only connection that the couple has had with the former singer. Back in her teen years, Petrini-Hayden was president of the local fan club for New Kids on the Block.

Then this year, she was "amazed" at how accessible Wahlberg was to his fans on the movie set and when the couple saw him at the Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh during the filming.

Petrini-Hayden was particularly moved when the star spent 20 minutes at the cafe talking to her handicapped friend.

"It just blows your mind how kind and wonderful he is," she said.

Everyone, she added, was "so normal and friendly" and became like family during the long hours of rehearsal and filming.

While they were in town, three of the actors agreed to attend a fundraising croquet match at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, to benefit the Greensburg YMCA. They were Geoffrey Cantor, who plays the bank manager and has been in the TV show "Law and Order," and hostages Jennifer Ferrin ("As The World Turns") and 16-year-old Ethan Rosenfeld, who has worked in live theater since he was 5.

"It was really exciting to work with all these people," Hayden said. "It was incredible to watch how they put everything together. I would absolutely do it again, and I'd like to audition for a full role in another film."

The Haydens weren't on the set every day, but when they were, they had to get up at 3 a.m. for the 5 a.m. cast calls. Then there were endless hours of waiting, rehearsals and scenes that had to be shot repeatedly. Many more hours were spent just watching how it all came together with fake blood, shattering glass and all the special effects that look so real.

Petrini-Hayden was thrilled to have the opportunity to be in a TV series, and even more thrilled that she and her husband got paid.

"I thought it was volunteer work, and I was happy to just be doing it as a volunteer," she said.

The couple used their earnings to buy outdoor furniture and to install a deck on their home.

"So in addition to the fake bullet that went into my purse, I have even bigger souvenirs to remind me of the movie," Petrini-Hayden said. "Every time I look at our deck, I think how we worked to get it."

* "Kill Point" airs at 9 p.m. Sundays on the Spike network.

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News