Members of the Singing Men of Ohio sang on campus Tuesday for a project starring Betsy Brandt from ‘Breaking Bad’.
As Betsy Brandt from AMC's “Breaking Bad” walked along the Athens bricks Tuesday for filming, members of the Singing Men of Ohio joined in pitch to capture the essence of Ohio University.
“They’re really trying to put something in the movie that let the viewers know they were here in Athens and OU in general,” said Christopher Johnson, a junior studying international business and a member of SMO. “They contacted the Singing Men of Ohio and asked if some people wanted to sing in the movie.”
Teddy Thieken, a member of SMO, said the experience was a little weird because the members were not told any details about the potential plot or what was taking place in the scene.
“They said, ‘Stand in a circle. Sing songs and when we say action, you just go,’ ” Thieken, a senior studying middle childhood development, said. “It was kind of bizarre because they were walking around with these giant cameras, and we weren’t allowed to look at them.”
Johnson said the filming was for a movie called “Claire in Pieces,” but reports by DeadlineandVariety said Brandt’s current project is a TV show called “Life in Pieces” on CBS.
The group’s president was contacted about the project and asked any members in the area to come sing, said Nicholas McKibben, a senior studying sociology-criminology and a member of SMO.
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About six or seven members from SMO came to OU to sing for the project, Johnson said.
“I thought it would be cool to be in a movie so that’s why I showed up,” McKibben added.
The SMO members sang OU’s alma mater and fight song and snapped their fingers to the beat near College Gate, Johnson said.
At the request of workers on set, the members learned “Oh! Susanna” on the spot, he added
“Some songs are written for the Singing Men of Ohio. We have the performance rights to those but we don’t have the recording rights to those,” Johnson said.
Even though the group never sang the piece before, Thieken said it sounded better than the other pieces group had been singing.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get to get a picture with Betsy,” McKibben said. “She had to leave. She was only there for about 30 minutes. She left right after she got done with one of the takes.”
But the members talked to Brandt briefly and she said that they “made her day,” McKibben said.
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