RENFREW — Chuck Snyder never thought about appearing in a movie.

However, a quick stop at a casting call landed him plenty of screen time as an extra in the recently-released film “Promised Land.”

“It was just a chance thing,” said Snyder, 66, of Renfrew.

“Promised Land,” directed by Gus Van Sant, features Matt Damon as a representative of a natural gas company that wants to drill on farms in rural Pennsylvania.

The movie also stars John Krasinski, Frances McDormand and Hal Holbrook.

Krasinski plays an environmentalist who challenges Damon's beliefs of the safety of fracking for natural gas.

It was filmed mostly in Armstrong and Westmoreland counties, in places such as Worthington, Avonmore, Slate Lick, Apollo and Vandergrift. Filming began in April and finished in June.

In April, Snyder attended a casting call in Pittsburgh. He was in Pittsburgh for his granddaughter's birthday party, and he just decided to try it out.

He retired in July 2011 as an engineer from Spang and Co., and he decided that being involved with a movie could be fun to do with his newly found spare time.

“It's something I never really considered,” Snyder said.

He interviewed with casting agents for about 30 seconds. Then in early May he got a call and was asked if he still had his beard. He did.

“They said, 'Great, don't touch it,'” Snyder said. “Something about it they liked.”

He worked on the movie for six days in Apollo. He appeared in several scenes, including three scenes filmed in a diner.

In one scene, he and a few other people sat at a table with Krasinski. It was not a speaking role, but Snyder described it as a “laughing role.”

“He (Krasinski) was telling a joke, and we responded,” Snyder said.

In another scene that took place in the former Apollo High School, Snyder was seated next to Holbrook.

While Holbrook was moving to his seat before filming began, he tripped, and Snyder and another man caught him.

After the scene was shot, Holbrook gave Snyder some advice: “Don't get old.”

In another scene in the high school, the camera panned across an audience and stopped on him.

“I got a lot of exposure on that one,” Snyder said.

During his days on the set, Snyder had a chance to be near the stars. While filming in the diner, a man started chatting with him. Snyder did not recognize him, but he was later told that it was the director Van Sant.

After filming with Krasinski, the actor would talk to Snyder and other extras on a daily basis.

“Very friendly guy,” Snyder said. “Even remembered names.”

During his first day on the set, Snyder was standing in line waiting for breakfast. He stood near a man that he recognized but couldn't quite remember who it was.

“It was Matt Damon,” Snyder said.

The movie opened in limited release Dec. 28 and then went into wide release Jan. 4.

Snyder went to see the movie that day with a group of friends at the theater at the Pittsburgh Mills mall. He said that only about 25 to 30 people were in the theater.

“I was kind of disappointed in that I expected, being a local movie, that it would attract more attention,” Snyder said.

He said seeing himself on screen for the first time was “strange.” He particularly was surprised by the scene where the camera stopped at him.

“It kind of blew me away,” he said.