Following the morning and early afternoon shoots on the East Washington Avenue steps of the Wisconsin Capitol, the cast and crew of Public Enemies packed up and made their way to the State Street side of the building for the second major sequence on Monday. As was the case with the previous shoot, this scene featured Billy Crudup as FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and Christian Bale as agent Melvin Purvis in Washington, D.C., the latter tasked with leading the fight against the crime wave rolling over the Midwest in heart of the Great Depression.
This scene featured a Depression-era photo op, in which Hoover presents a squad of junior G-Men with their own honorary badges in front of their parents and reporters. Take after take, the crew shot Hoover and Purvis exiting the Capitol, at which point the agency director turns and proceeds to the line of children and their ceremonial deputizing. Once again, director Michael Mann was on top of everything.
Numerous spectators watched the scene from the bottom of the State Street steps, along with others on the sidewalks at that corner of the Capitol Square. So too, did various residents of the 100 Wisconsin Avenue condos, their decks providing a birds-eye view. Some of the best views, though, were once again found inside the Capitol, in this case the Wisconsin Assembly chambers in the West Wing.
View photos of the cast and crew of Public Enemies at work on the scene in front of State Street at the Wisconsin Capitol in the gallery above.
