A Butler woman managed to get herself a walk-on part and her car a drive-by part in a movie being filmed in Western Pennsylvania.

But filmgoers will have to wait until the Nov. 13 release of CBS Films’ “Let It Snow” to see if Leanne Heaton and her Mercedes made the movie’s final cut.

Heaton, co-owner of RHGL Inc., a land development company in Lyndora, said she read that the movie was casting extras, “or a background actor, they prefer that rather than extra” and went to an open casting call in Pittsburgh.

“It was Nancy Mosser Casting,” Heaton said. “I’m semi-officially signed on with them now.”

“I happened to be picked to work,” she said, which is why she found herself at 6:30 a.m. Jan. 26 checking into a movie base camp in Millvale for a day of filming.

“They have to approve your clothing as a background actor. You have to bring your own clothes,” said Heaton.

It seemed the movie company also approved of her car.

“I volunteered. They were looking for people who had cars and were willing to drive,” said Heaton.

She said the movie was shooting a scene inside Pamela’s P & G Diner.

“It was Alan Arkin and Amanda Seyfried as the waitress. Arkin is the grandfather of this extended family in the movie,” said Heaton. “The grandfather was lonely and would go to the diner twice a day, and he struck up a friendship with this girl.”

The production needed pedestrians and car traffic in the street outside the restaurant.

Heaton was one of the background drivers making loop after loop past the diner.

“I was driving an inherited gold/tan Mercedes sedan. It was kind of inconspicuous because of the color. There were eight to 10 of us driving,” said Heaton. “We took turns making a turn past this diner. I probably made about 20 circuits that day.”

Still, driving an endless loop over 12 hours was better than being one of the background actors picked to walk up and down the street, she said.

“The pedestrians were out there freezing,” she said.

She said the background actors’ day went from 6:30 a.m. to nearly 7 p.m. when they called a wrap on filming.

This might have meant the end of Heaton’s cinematic exposure until she learned “Let It Snow” also would be filming at Butler Memorial Hospital.

“When I learned they were filming in Butler,” Heaton said, “I begged my way into it.”

“I pleaded with the company, being very assertive. The more I argued the more resistance I was getting from the young man on the phone,” she said.

Eventually her persistence won her a spot as one of the background actors used during the hospital filming which lasted from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4.

“I was only there the second, third and fourth,” said Heaton.

“We recalled about 100 extras for the hospital shooting,” said Katie Shenot, casting director for Nancy Mosser Casting based in Lawrenceville.

Shenot said filming will continue around Western Pennsylvania until the end of March.

“I’m probably going to be in two scenes,” Heaton said. “The first is by the Christmas tree in the lobby where the two teens kiss for the first time. I’m carrying a coffee cup.”

“The second will have Jane Squibb, the actress from ‘Nebraska,’ in it. I’m carrying a couple of envelopes,” she said.

Heaton added she might also be present as a shadow walking past a frosted window.

“They were in the lobby a good bit,” said Jana Panther, hospital director of public relations.

“They filmed in the Cummings Coffee area and the gift shop area of the tower lobby,” said Panther, who added the hospital brought in extra staff to help visitors navigate any obstacles presented by the filming.

“No area of filming had any chance to impinge on patient care. We were very careful about that,” she added.

Hospital staff could be getting blase about movie stars and filmmaking. “Let It Snow” is the second movie since November to use the hospital as a backdrop.

“Concussion” starring Will Smith shot in the hospital lab in November, Panther said.

She would not comment on whether the hospital received payment from either of the two film companies.

For Heaton the long days proved to be “fun, boring, interesting and exhausting.”

She and the other background actors were paid minimum wage plus time and a half for overtime for their efforts.

Still, Heaton said, “It was big fun for me. One day I was sitting in the lunchroom reading and John Goodman walked by and said ‘Hi.’”