The Boston Herald


Real ‘Players’

Inside Track

Monday, January 17, 2005
by Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa

Only Bostonians needed to apply for a role in Road Rambler Films’ indie flick, “Street Players.”

A trio of locally bred guys - Drew Pearlman, Jim Spirakis and John Fitzgerald- were sooo committed to making their gritty mob flick authentic, they’ve blown off cheaper locales to shoot on the streets of the Hub.

“Drew Pearlman, the writer and director, had the vision,” producer John Fitzgerald told the Track. “He loves Boston. He couldn’t recreate Boston anywhere but Boston and that’s why he had to come home from California.”

Now, that's something you don't hear too often!

“We did use the accent,” Fitzgerald assured us. “Some of the actors came in and we said, ‘Can you talk normal? In your normal Boston voice?’ And then we would hire those people.”

Wic-ked pissah!

BTW, local businesses like High Output, Boston Camera and The Camera Company were so happy to help out the local lads, they kicked in an ultra-new Canon XL 2 camera with prime lenses for the cinematographer to use.

The low-budget flick’s crew, including former Boston Bruin bad boy Lyndon Byers who scored a role as Cowboy in the war-of-revenge film, shot at Santarpio’s in Eastie the other day. Which was good news for the project’s staaaaavin’artists!