Joss Whedon Made 'Much Ado' of Talented 'Avengers' Extra

By Amanda Bell

June 7, 2013 / 11:38 AM

It can happen to you! It really, really can!

"Much Ado About Nothing" star Jillian Morgese is now living proof that a young, burgeoning actress can totally be discovered in some random cafe one day, as they sometimes say.

Of course, in her case, it was during extras filming for a cafe scene in "The Avengers" which earned her top billing — albeit in indie price-age — for Joss Whedon's latest film.

As detailed by BuzzFeed, Morgese served as a simple scene extra on Whedon's big superhero actioner, instructed simply to "look back at the destruction and give up on [her] life."

But as the saying goes, there are no small roles, and Morgese stepped up and capitalized on what screen-time she'd been given and took up her opportunities to chat up Whedon during his precious off-time.

That very precociousness paid off in the end because he later rang her up, asked her to perform a Shakespearean monologue of her choosing and then wrangled her in for his then-secret "Ado" project.

And just like that, the girl suddenly became a Hollywood someone among other Hollywood someones. Quick; someone cue the Disney "Dreams Do Come True" theme music! No?

Anyway, the film was shot at Whedon's home over the course of a couple weeks, and according to Morgese, the experience was exceptional. Heck, she even got to move in with him (easy now; he's happily married with two kiddos).

"For me, this begin my first big role in a movie, I just tried to be there as much as I could and just monitored Joss and all the actors, watching them work and learning from them. So I'd be there all the time," Morgese remembered. "And so Joss said, 'Do you just want to stay here, so you don't have to keep going back and forth?' And so I ended up about halfway just staying there and working."

Hey, it's not brown-nosing when you're that dang green.

Flash forward to present day, and Whedon is still acting as a pseudo-mentor to her, just a phone call away. Not too shabby for a first foray into showbiz ... and if Whedon's streak of re-using old cast favorites carries forward, this won't be the last we hear of Morgese either.