Shawshank Redemption Extra Brad Mavis Is Here!

Brad Mavis talks about being on the set for the film Shawshank Redemtion. Hear the story of Rita and Hayworth. Also the upcoming Shawshank Redemtion 30th Year Anniversary. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
All right, for a lot ofyou, it may be one of your
favorite movies, especially because so muchof it was filmed in a part of
central Ohio and Mansfield in the reformatory. Shaw Shank Redemption such a classic.
It has been thirty years now andthere's going to be a big thirty year
anniversary Mikayla party. Wow. Iwas just saying, this was the movie

(00:26):
my senior year of high school.It was the movie because I think it
was filmed in ninety three, ninetythree. I graduated in ninety six,
and my guy friends loved it,and therefore I watched it a lot.
Well, we have one of thestars of the show of the movie,
well, a star in our owneyes, Brad Mavis is back in studio.
I met Brad years ago because wedid an anniversary celebration story with Shaw

(00:49):
Shank Redemption, and now here weare talking about it again and it's the
thirtieth anniversary. Time flies, Timeflies, who you know. When we
were making the film, we neverdreamed that it would get the following that
it did, and it's just beenreally rewarding to know that I was a
part of it, and I'm excitedabout the thirtieth anniversary coming up. It's

(01:11):
the ninth through the tenth. It'sthe second weekend of August, and they
have a lot of the main actresscoming back, the director, Frank darra
Boce, So it'll be exciting time. So tell me a little bit.
Since Mindy knows you and I don't, I'm just meeting you today, tell
me a little bit about how youare involved with the film. Well,
how much money you got paid?No, I just did well. At

(01:36):
the time, I was living inAkron and I would come back on the
weekends to help my parents. Theylived in Fredericktown up around Mansfield, and
my dad called me and said,they're getting ready to make a film and
they're looking for some people to bein it. Why don't you just stop
by on your way home and seeif you'd be interested. Well, I

(01:57):
did, and I got a greatresponse from the audition, if you want
to call it that. And abouta week later they called me and said,
would you be interested in being afeatured extra on the bus with Tim
Robbins? And would I be willingto get a lot of my hair cut
off? And there were a coupleof other things like would I be available

(02:19):
summer, and of course I saidyes, and from there it just took
off. I went and did allmy wardrobe fittings and got to meet everybody,
and it was the first time Ihad ever been involved with a big
film like that, and it wasall new to me, and I did
not know what I was doing atall, and it was just once everybody

(02:42):
found their group, it turned outto be a really great summer well,
and like you said, you hadno idea that this movie would become a
big hit as big as it wasand still is. People still love that
movie because it's such a dynamic story. So when you're making this and you're
seeing these big name actors, I'msure there's so many behind the scenes stories.

(03:05):
What was one of the neatest thingsthat you actually witnessed happening. There
is a scene in the movie thatpeople would be familiar with where one of
the villains, Bogs, is beingtaken away in an ambulance and he's been
beaten up by Clancy Brown, themain guard, and they wheel that part
was played by Mark Ralston, andthey wheel him out. Of course,

(03:28):
they don't have to put him inthe ambulance to carry on the scene,
but Anyway, when they're ready tofilm the ambulance taking off, it won't
start. And so what they didwas they got a bunch of the stage
hands and they pushed the ambulance outof frame, and then they got the
cameras rolling and they pushed the ambulanceso it just kind of rolled through the

(03:50):
frame. And so when you seethat scene in the film, it's not
there's no engine, there's no sign, it's just kind of gliding through the
Yeah, it was all man power. And that that's one of my favorite
little behind the scenes stories that peopledon't realize. I hope I'm not ruining

(04:14):
any movie magic. I think there'smovie magic in all those different movies.
If we only knew, If weonly knew, and then maybe what we
don't know is about this pup namedRita. So so I thought Rita was
a person when we were show prepping, but Rita was a dog. And
what was Rita's involvement on this set? How did what happened? Originally,
it's a Stephen King's story and it'scalled in the book Rita Hayworth and the

(04:36):
Shawshank Redemption. So that being said, we after the main filming of myself
and the other featured extras was done. They just let us stay on set
to be background for the rest ofthe summer. And we heard rumors of

(04:57):
a stray dog or a couple ofstraight dogs on the set, and the
crew was trying to catch them,so they didn't show up in the background.
And now all that's left of theprison is the big prison, but
at the time of the filming therewas a huge wall around it and multiple
buildings behind the prison, like thecafeteria and a chapel and woodworking shop and

(05:21):
anyway, the dogs had lots ofplaces to hide, but every now and
then we would see them. AndI had made a really close friend Joe
step He was also a featured extraon the bus and one of the people
that was chained to Tim Robbins whenyou see those scenes of Tim being let
into the prison. He befriended thetwo dogs and they would like sometimes crow

(05:45):
up around the wall to stay coolbecause the filming was going on this time
of year when it was ninety twohundred degrees out and he had befriended them,
and sometimes he'd see him and sometimeshe wouldn't. And then the end
of the film actually it was thelast day of the film. We were
turning in our wardrobe and one ofthe production assistants came up and told Joe,

(06:08):
the director wants to see you,and we thought, oh, what
did you do? He said,you're going to be the new lead.
Joe would have loved that. Joeloved that. But anyway, Joe kind
of trepidaciously went down to see whythey wanted him down on the set.

(06:29):
And when he went down, thedirector had one of the dogs for Joe.
There were two dogs, actually,Rita and then the male was named
Hayworth, Rita Hayworth, and somebodyon the crew took Hayworth. But the
director, I don't know how hehad time to notice, but had noticed
that Rita and Joe had grown closeover the summer. And so Joe came

(06:55):
back up to the wardrobe and herehe had this dog on a leash,
and I said, wow, whatare you going to do with that?
Because at the time he was stillgoing to Ohio State in an apartment where
he wasn't supposed to have a dog. But you know, they made it
work for a couple of years inthat apartment, and eventually Joe got a
place where he could have a dog, and they were together, I think
eight or nine years before Rita passedaway of natural causes. But it opened

(07:21):
my eyes to animal rescue and thegratitude of rescue dogs and really changed my
life, because that's kind of thedirection my life has taken now. I
think Joe changed your life a littlebit too, he did. You want
to tell everybody what happened with Joe. Joe and I became best friends.
We were both on the bus andhow we met was, you know,

(07:43):
we were all chained together with theseankle bracelets were on the bus, and
of course they would I think they'recalled shackles, I called them, which
I love it. I love myself, but go ahead, the shackles,
and of course they would release themain stars, but they would leave the
other eight of us all shackled together. But Joe had a handcuffed, so

(08:09):
he was able to release us toget a drink, whatever we needed to
do at the time. And sofrom there our friendship progressed and we both
had a interest in filmmaking, andwe were best friends for twenty two twenty
three years. Unfortunately, like somany, he developed cancer and it was

(08:33):
a battle that he couldn't beat andhe's missed by many, but his legacy
remains because the book that I wroteabout Rita, The Shawshank Dog, is
used a lot for rescue and fundraisingfor shelters and animal rescues, and so
really the legacy of Joe and Ritalive on by helping other homeless animals.

(08:56):
That's amazing. Let me read thisletter. This was November twenty ninth,
twenty nineteen to Brad. I can'tthank you enough for helping tell the story
of Joe and Rita, A touchingstory, beautifully told. The best thing
of all is it's true. Whata wonderful memory it brought back. I'm
delighted their story turned out so well. Best wishes and tell everybody who wrote

(09:20):
this letter. It's from Frank Daarbant, the director of the movie The sharl
Shank Redemption. And it meant agreat deal to me to know that he
was aware of his actions, thathe rescued a dog. But he would
have really have not known what happenedto that because after we were done filming

(09:41):
in Mansfield, they were off tothat location. I believe it's in Mexico
or something to film that beach scene, and so they didn't really stick around
and find out what happened to Ritaand Hayworth. But I'm hoping that well
An he knows now, but I'mhoping to get a chance to actually meeting
here in August when we need totake a break, but we want to

(10:03):
talk about that. Let's do thatbecause we need to talk about the celebration
and get people there. And I'mso sorry you didn't get to go on
that beach scene. This is whatmatters on six' ten at WTBN.
Imagine being an extra, just alittle extra in a movie that's being filmed

(10:24):
in Ohio, and then that moviegoes on to live for decades, like
three decades and is now one ofthe most popular classical movies. Taw Shank
Redemption. Well, Brad Mavis wasone of those extras. And now there's
a big thirtieth anniversary celebration in Mansfield. Brad tell us about it. It
is the second weekend of August.They are bringing a lot of the main

(10:46):
actress back. There are many eventsfor the entire weekend. Tours, there's
a five k run, you cango on location tours, there's the prison.
There's many things going on. Sopeople who really love the movie and
they want to get a big tasteof the Shawshank experience should really go up
the Mansfield a second weekend of Augustand get involved. It looks like,

(11:09):
yeah, there's so many events thatare free, and I'm looking at the
ticketed versions as well. You cango to Shawshank Trail dot com to get
those tickets. So the Ohio StateReformatory one hundred seats for this thing at
four point thirty on the tenth aresold out at this point, but the
cast discussion that is happening is notsold out. That's on Friday the ninth

(11:33):
at four o'clock at the Renaissance Theater. And then there's a behind the scenes
and beyond panel that is sold out, Oh my gosh at ten am on
the eleventh, which is Sunday.Wow. And then there's a oh my
gosh, I'm looking at all ofthese tickets. There's a lot of stuff
that is sold out, but thereis some left. There's a background actors
panel. Are you on this panel'sand you're sold out? Really, you're

(11:58):
sold out for both of those.This has become quite popular. This thirtieth
weekend Reunion. I think people wantto get as close to it as possible,
you know, I mean, itreally was a cool movie. And
you also brought in your denim likeprison shirt with the number. What was
your number? You don't have thatmemorized. I've been on parole for so

(12:20):
long I've forgotten it. It isfor zero five niney four. It was
that funny that they let you keepthat though, well it was the original
I had one because I was supposedto be there over decades. I don't
know what it was, what crime. I committed that I was the center
shaw ship. But there was anorder style that we came in with,

(12:43):
and then as we transitioned into thelater years in the prison, this blue
shirt is what I wore and it'sseen some scenes. And how I came
about it was we became friends withthe wardrobe style list and on the last
I went in and I said,Hey, can I keep my shirt?
He's like, yeah, no problem. You don't know? Do you ask?

(13:05):
Right? No? I mean,what's the word is I going to
tell you? No? Right?The question? Glad? I asked,
all right, what are you lookingmost forward to about the weekend? I
made some friends during the film andI've been in touch with them. Mark
Ralston, the guy that played Bogs, we became close friends during the filming,

(13:26):
and because those guys were from Californiaand they were just kind of stuck
in a hotel in Mansfield where therewasn't a lot to do when they weren't
involved with the film, and Iwas able to to tell them where they
should maybe go eat and what theyshould go do, and anyway, I'd
reached out to him and looking forwardto seeing him when he comes back in

(13:48):
August. We're almost out of time, But I have to ask you,
was Tim Robbins nice? Was MorganFreeman nice? Morgan Freeman was over the
top nice. I love hearing thathe was so nice. Maybe seven years
old now, I just can't believethat, but go ahead, he was.
He made everybody feel comfortable and hewas always kind of, I don't
want to say, clowning around,but he provided an atmosphere where you didn't

(14:09):
feel nervous. Tim Robbins on theother hand, that's all you have to
say. Tim Robbins on the otherhand, to give him his you know
he had I think he was moreof an actor where he wanted to get
into the role about him, andyou know, when you're when you've supposedly

(14:30):
been accused of offering your wife andyou've got a life sentence in prison,
you need to be in a certainstate of mind for that. And I
think that was his technique. Sohe just didn't want to break character.
Yeah, I think that is itcharacter acting. I can't remember Daniel day
Lewis as that too, does notbreak character on set very much or at
all. Yeah. Well, andat the time, you know, it

(14:54):
was exciting because he was still marriedto Susans to Randon. Yeah, and
we we see her and it wasjust it was just every day was like
what what are we going to seeand what's going to happen? Well,
thanks for sharing these memories and thesemoments with all of our listeners, and
to everybody listening, thanks for theconversations today as we reflect back on yesterday's

(15:15):
horrific incident, the attempted assassination ofPresident Donald Trump and six' ten.
WTVN will continue to have more livecoverage beginning early tomorrow morning, Mikayla,
and we'll have it throughout the day. Any new developments you'll hear them right
here. This is the News andTalk station for Central Ohio and beyond,
so they will have everything covered.Mindy and I do thank you for the
conversation today and no matter what youdo this week, spend some time doing

(15:39):
what matters.