Some dyed their hair red, some pencilled in a few extra freckles. New York's Irish community turned out en masse over the last two days for roles in Martin Scorsese's new Irish American gangster movie.
On Monday, casting agents turned away hundreds of people who lined the block outside Rory Dolan's bar in Yonkers for a bit part in The Departed, a thriller about south Boston Irish criminals and corrupt cops which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson.
Many of the extras are to be used for a funeral parlour scene and a police graduation ceremony and the casting agents want people who look like "Irish wiseguys, state troopers, police cadets, detectives, barflys and neighbourhood types".
Some, like Pádraig Tully, originally from Dublin and now working in construction in New York, had come to the auditions "just for a laugh". With red hair and freckles, he seems destined for Hollywood glory, as does his sister, Josephine, whose height and Irish blue eyes have already caught the attention of one of the casting crew.
Others, like actress Megan Daly, have touched up their dyed red hair for the day. She has been an extra before, in the opening scene of last year's Stepford Wives. "If I don't get this, I guess I'm more Stepford wife than Irish gangster," she says wistfully.
As the queue stretched an entire block and waiting time crept past 90 minutes, the organisers announced that they had reached their freckle quota for the day and that nobody else was to be let into the bar.
Some of the crowd outside began to protest. A man from the casting agency went around with a plastic bag into which hopefuls could leave their photo and details.
Some men shouted obscenities at Colin Broderick from Tyrone, who is making a documentary about the Irish community. Some women stepped forward and told them to calm down, he's not with the casting agents.
For those still left in the queue inside Rory Dolan's, the line is still snaking around the bar. The Tullys are first in line for the casting room but there has been no movement for more than half an hour. A woman steps up the door and starts banging and knocking on it. She is joined by an eight-year-old girl.
Eventually, one of the bar staff opens the locked door and peers inside. There is nobody there. "That's why it's called The Departed," said one of the crowd. The laughter is muted by tiredness.
For the lucky ones who got an audition, the thrill was immense. "It was worth the wait," said Michael Kelly, a medical student whose parents are from Cork.
"This is the Irish Goodfellas," he said. "I came all the way over from Philadelphia with my buddies for this. It's a piece of history. To be in a Martin Scorsese movie, it's something that all our dreams are made of."