TOm Cruise, Sandra BullOCk, JaCk NiChOlsOn

and Matthew MCCOnaugheY. David “MuddY”

Waters ’93 has wOrked with all thOse stars

withOut getting star-struCk.

After working in the movie business for more than a decade, Waters is used to mingling with Hollywood’s elite. As an assistant director, he has worked behind the scenes on films such as “Miss Congeniality,” “About Schmidt,” “Mission: Impossible III” and last year’s hit, “We Are Marshall.” He’s known as “Muddy” on the set, a nickname he acquired in middle school after famed jazz guitarist Muddy Waters.

Yet Waters never dreamed of making it big in Hollywood. In fact, it wasn’t until he discovered video editing in Elon’s commu-nications program that he considered a career in films. Shooting, editing and producing his own projects provided the perfect outlet for his creativity.

“David was probably one of the most talented people, if not the most talented person, to come through our program at that time,” says Gerald Gibson, assistant professor of communications.

“He could do it all. He had a great eye for shooting, he knew how to edit, he had a strong on-camera presence and could write and perform music for his productions.”

Friends say Waters is successful because he is naturally friendly and at ease with people.

“He can walk up to an actor or a guy selling papers on the street, and if it’s his job, convince them what they need to do and when they need to do it, and make sure they do it,” says Jeff Horn ’98, who worked as production assistant on a few films with Waters and now owns a telecommunications company near Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Breaking into the businessWaters was born in Greensboro, N.C., and raised in Mansfield, Mass. After graduating from Elon with a degree in communications, he moved to Wilmington, N.C., one of the region’s filmmaking hotspots. After a year of unsuccessfully trying to break into the movie industry, he left Wilmington and moved to Greensboro, where he worked as a videographer, filming homes for sale for a cable television show.

Unfulfilled by that work, Waters returned to Wilmington to give movies a second shot. In 1996, he began his career in feature films, working as a non-union prop assistant and set dresser. Next, he worked as a set production assistant on “The Jackal,” “Species II,”

“I Still Know What You Did Last Summer,” “Virus” and “The Insider.” In 1998, he headed to Los Angeles, where he has been ever since.

Waters logged the required 600 days working as an on-set production assistant before joining the Directors Guild of America in 2000. Today, he is a second assistant director and recently qualified as a first assistant director, which is one step below director.

Waters produces a daily call sheet that is handed out at the end of each day’s shooting, detailing the next day’s work for the cast and crew. He also helps the director and first assistant director run the set and is the liaison between actors and their agents and managers.

“In prepping for a movie, when actors are hired, like Matthew Fox, I would call him directly and introduce myself, tell him we’re shooting, when it starts, bring him in for a fitting, and hair and makeup tests,” says Waters. “Basically, every day I deal directly with the actors, agents and managers.”

For Waters, it’s the industry’s lack of convention that he finds appealing.

By Julie ChapmanThat’s aDavid “Muddy” Waters ’93 makes his mark in Hollywood

14 MAGAZINE OF ELON

“It’s 15-hour days, and that can be grueling,” he says. “It’s not glamorous at all, and you deal with a lot of tough people. But it’s also fun and rewarding at the end, after all that work, to sit in the theater and look up and see it all put together. That makes it worthwhile.”

One of his most memorable experiences occurred on the set of “Hidalgo” starring Viggo Mortensen. Working on such a vast, complex epic was excellent training for Waters.

“We had to shoot in South Dakota when it was below zero with snowstorms, and then we shot when it was hot on the plains of California,” he says. “We had tons of animals in that movie, too. It taught me a lot because there was so much going on at once.”

Waters enjoyed working with Mortensen, who he describes as “a great actor and a nice guy.” He also enjoyed working with Al Pacino while filming “The Insider.”

“It was fun to work with Al Pacino because he’s such a professional,” Waters says. “It’s great to see him just turn it on. He’ll be talking to somebody and then we’re rolling and he’ll just turn around and be the character.”

Waters has worked alongside many big-name stars who instantly command attention and respect of everyone on the set.

“There are a couple of actors I’ve worked with who walk into a room and everybody knows they’re there without even looking, like Jack Nicholson or Tom Cruise,” Waters says. “You know you’re working with a big celebrity when they walk on the set and the entire crew shuts up. Usually it’s pretty hard to keep an entire film crew quiet.”

Making ‘We Are Marshall’One of the most touching films Waters has worked on was “We Are Marshall,” which chronicles the plane crash that killed 75 players and coaches on Marshall University’s 1970 football team. The film required years of preparation to ensure that the event was portrayed accurately.

“Movies have two taglines,” explains Waters. “They can either be a true story or they can be based on a true story. Most movies are based on a true story, but ‘Marshall’ actually says ‘a true story’ in the opening credits. That means it has to be as factually correct as possible, and the families involved usually have to approve it.”

Waters says that despite some initial apprehension, residents of the town of Huntington, W.Va., where Marshall is located, embraced the film, which was released last year.

“Everybody in the town had some connection to the tragedy, and all the townspeople were in the movie at some point as extras,” Waters says. “We used real football players from Marshall. It was great to incorporate real people in the movie.”

The most recent films released with Waters in the credits are “Georgia Rule,” starring Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan and Felicity Huffman, and “Blonde Ambition,” starring Jessica Simpson, Luke Wilson and Willie Nelson.

Honing his skills at ElonHorn, who was a fellow Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity member with Waters, says the film industry is a perfect fit for Waters.

“It’s a lot of people who are just like him,” Horn says. “They’re creative, motivated and do not like the normal work grind. They couldn’t do a nine-to-five job if they were forced at gunpoint.”

On campus, Waters was a founding member of Lambda Chi Alpha and was in charge of the organization’s philanthropic events. One of the most memorable events was “Rent A Brother,” in which fraternity members were auctioned off to perform various services.

“Muddy and I were purchased by the Phi Mus,” recalls Horn of the Elon sorority. “We had to dress up in long, white, flowing skirts and clean their houses. We had such a good time Elon made it policy never to have that happen again. It was good humiliation for charity!”

In addition to a sense of humor, Waters was known for his talents as a piano player. While editing video projects on campus, he would set up his synthesizer and compose music to fit his productions.

Elon opened its state-of-the-art School of Communications and added a film concentration to the communications program after Waters graduated. Yet Waters credits his alma mater with preparing him to succeed in a challenging, constantly changing industry.

“When I first went to Elon, I was kind of shy,” Waters says. “There were a lot of activities at Elon. There was a great Greek system, and I did a lot of intramurals. It really helped bring me out socially and helped me understand how to work with people.”

Personable, artistic and driven, Waters is humbled –– and surprised –– by his success.

“My film career has been such a whirlwind that I haven’t had a chance to sit back and look at it,” he says. “It is pretty crazy that someone who didn’t go to film school, knew nothing about movies and had no real connections in the industry is now in Los Angeles working on studio feature films. The three things I know that helped me get where I am are luck, tenacity –– and my credit cards.”

(l-r) David “Muddy” Waters, and Waters with assistant director Rich Cowan, director Joseph Nichol, known as “McG,” and assistant director Hillary Schwartz on the set of the movie “We Are Marshall.”

ph

oto

s C

ou

rt

es

y D

av

iD w

at

er

s ’9

3

MAGAZINE OF ELON 15