Oct 4, 2006 6:21 pm US/Central
CTA Bus Driver Stars With Will Ferrell In Movie
'Stranger Than Fiction' Featured At Chicago Film Festival
by Alita Guillen
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The Chicago Film Festival kicks off Thursday, and one movie features a local rising star who has no acting experience.
As CBS 2's Alita Guillen reports, a CTA bus driver has a speaking role along side Hollywood elite.
Driving a CTA bus through Chicago's West Side is no glamorous job, unless you are Denise Hughes, who just happens to be doing it on the big screen. Hughes is acting with Will Ferrell in Hollywood's "Stranger Than Fiction."
"I got a trailer with my name on it. I'm on my cell phone… I walk in and I'm almost in tears," Hughes said.
Hughes first heard about the auditions through a poster at work. She went twice before being called in a third time -- that's when she had to act out a scene with director Marc Forster. He cued her and she was on.
"I grabbed the wheel that wasn't really there. I said, 'Oh Jesus.' I put the bus in park. I jumped up, I talk to my passengers who really weren't there," Hughes said.
And later that day she got the call.
"They said you got the part, I started screaming. I said I've got to calm down, I got my windows open," Hughes said.
It turns out her audition wasn't far from her movie role.
"It follows me looking for different jobs, trying out different things. And once I do get the job as a bus operator, that's it right there. I hit Will Ferrell -- oops," she said.
The taping took 6 weeks. She got to work along side Ferrell, who she describes as quiet.
"Dustin Hoffman was really nice, he's a flirt. Emma Thompson, like my next door neighbor. Queen Latifah, we were buddies," Hughes said.
As far as it changing her, other than gaining 10 pounds due to good set food, she says she is still the same -- sort of.
"I was able to purchase my first home and furnish it. It was good," she said.
Hughes has not seen the movie. She actually was going to take her mother, who was excited about her daughter's role. Unfortunately, she passed away about a month ago.
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