DECATUR - Like so many others, Katana Baker was curious about the Steven Soderbergh-Matt Damon movie "The Informant" when the cast and crew came to film in Decatur in May.

She and her husband, Ryan Baker, decided to attend the casting call in hopes of becoming extras to quench their curiosity about the movie.

Both Bakers were called back to play a role in the production. Only, unlike her husband, Katana Baker's role was behind the scenes and called for more than one day of work.

A counselor at Johns Hill Magnet School, Katana Baker took her experience as a teacher and tutored a child actor who is in the movie. The film, which stars Damon as Mark Whitacre, is about the lysine price-fixing scandal at Decatur-based Archer Daniels Midland Co. in the early 1990s. Whitacre was as an informant for the FBI during that time.

Baker, who works part time at Johns Hill, got firsthand views of the movie behind the scenes as she tutored Lucas Carroll, who plays Whitacre's son Alexander in the movie. She was the child's teacher for nine eight-hour days during the cast and crew's time in Decatur.

"Any time he was on set, I went with him," she said. "Most of the time, I was at the Whitacre mansion. ¦ When they did the suicide scene in the garage, I was in the living room, and we could hear everything that went on.

"I (also) got to watch the makeup and hair people, and I saw the number of people that goes into making a film. It really was an amazing experience."

At the casting call, Baker said they filled out applications that asked for their name, height, weight and other physical characteristics.

The application also asked for any extra information a person would like to add, she said, so she wrote that she is a teacher and counselor for the Decatur School District.

"I was shocked," she said, when she received a phone call 10 days later asking her to tutor a child in the movie. "I was so happy. It was a chance of a lifetime."

She described Lucas as an "adorable, adoring, darling boy."

"This was his first movie," she said. Working with him, she learned that Lucas was from Michigan City, Ind., and has several brothers and sisters in commercials. Baker also met Lucas' mother, who also was behind the set.

Baker said she met "a whole world of people who were telling their stories." She found out a lot of the crew worked together on the "Ocean's" movie series, and the makeup artist recently worked on "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

And, of course, she met the stars: Damon, Scott Bakula, Melanie Lynskey and director Soderbergh.

"It was really neat to see everything from behind the scenes," she said. "Every night would be something different to tell my husband."

Her husband also had stories to tell. Ryan Baker played the nonspeaking role of a BMW car salesman in the production.

"It was something different to do in Decatur," Ryan Baker said of attending casting calls. "The chance to see how movies are made is intriguing to me.

"I think it was fun because we both got to share our stories. I just think I got a different perspective."

The husband and wife also appeared together in a courtroom scene. It became a family affair when one of their three children took part in a swimming pool scene at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel.

"She just got a check the other day," Ryan Baker said of their 4-year-old daughter, Emma. "She bought a helmet for her bike, and now she wants to buy a cow."

Ryan and Katana Baker, being part of the film, had to sign papers prohibiting them from requesting photos and autographs from the stars. They abided, but when they were invited to a cast party at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel, the rules did not apply.

The family took photos with Damon, Lucas and casting director Rich King.

Katana Baker keeps those photos, plus call sheets of filming details she received every day, as mementos of the time she spent on the set of "The Informant" in Decatur.

"My thing is I have so many memories," she said. "When you're an extra, you're there for one day at a certain place and time, and you're done. I got to see a lot."

Alicia Spates can be reached at aspates@herald-review.com or 421-6986.