- Lauren Green, a Utah Jazz sideline reporter, stars in the movie 'HIM.'
- Green, originally from Albuquerque, auditioned for a role as a sports reporter.
- She was surprised by her substantial role and attended the Los Angeles premiere.
SALT LAKE CITY — Lauren Green thinks she might have caused a small stir at her apartment complex last month.
The Utah Jazz sideline reporter had just hit play on the trailer for the new Jordan Peele-produced sports-horror film "HIM" when she froze.
"Two seconds in, I hear my voice, and then see my face," Green said. "I'm pretty sure I annoyed every neighbor in my apartment complex. I sprinted down my little apartment; it was very surreal. It took a couple of days to come down from that adrenaline high. It was like, what is going on? This is insane!"
So how did a Jazz reporter end up on the big screen?
Green joined the Jazz broadcast last season by way of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she worked as a sports anchor.
The state is a hub for film and TV production — sometimes with more projects shooting there than in Hollywood. Netflix and NBCUniversal have invested heavily in the area, with both having major studios in Albuquerque.
And when a script calls for a local reporter, casting directors often call the local newsrooms.
"All of my coworkers had already been in tons of things," Green said.
So when a colleague heard about a production looking for a sports reporter, Green gave it a shot. Her audition was simple: deliver a mock report on the NFL combine and lob a question at a sports agent.
That all was pretty natural for Green. She got the part.
"I thought this was a straight-to-TV movie, which would have been cool within itself, but I had no idea how big this movie was," she said.
And she didn't realize how big her role would be either.
She was cast in the role of "local reporter" — a title that was reminiscent of her lone high school acting credit when she played "Teenage Girl No. 3" in her school's production of "The Crucible."
Green had one line during that play, and she thought she'd be lucky to have the same in "HIM." She figured she'd ask a question at a press conference or be on a TV broadcast in the background.
Then she got her script.
"It's like three pages!" Green said. "It's a whole dialogue between me and the main character played by Tyriq Withers. I have a whole scene in the movie, and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh!'"
Not a bad way to make your film debut.
Green had always flirted with the idea of acting, but her other passions came first. She was a star track and field athlete in high school — even earning a scholarship to run at Nevada — so there wasn't time to dive into the world of drama.
In college, she found a calling in front of a camera — just delivering real news, not rehearsed lines.
But acting never left her mind.
"I've always loved the idea (of acting), and I love the arts and creative fields, but I never thought it'd be something that I could tap into, especially not something this big," she said.
Which made her time on set feel surreal.
In April 2024, she had her own trailer. She got her makeup done alongside actors she admired. She heard "Action!" and delivered lines opposite Withers.
"Fun fact: The beginning of the trailer where Tyriq is just asking, 'Oh, where am I supposed to look?' That was completely off script because he's really good at just riffing," Green said. "I was like, 'You just look right at me.' And then they end up using that in the trailer — that was cool."
She had seen herself on countless sports broadcasts, but seeing herself in a movie trailer was different.
"I'm a movie buff. I love going to the theater and grabbing my popcorn. I like going by myself and really taking in movies. To see my face on something like that, it was crazy," she said.
Naturally, she went to a theater just to watch the trailer on the big screen — a little preview before this week's premiere.
On Wednesday, Green walked the red carpet — actually designed to look like football turf — at the famed TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
There wasn't any sprinting this time (and her neighbors didn't hear any commotion), but the excitement was the same.
So will there be more movies in her future?
"We'll see what happens," she said. "My goal in life is to just do as many things as possible. If I can be a sideline reporter and be in the sports world, which is a passion, but then also tap into this creative side, which is another passion — I just want to keep checking off as many boxes as possible. That's what's fulfilling to me."
For now, she's just happy one of those boxes involved running down her apartment hallway — and straight into a Hollywood premiere.
