“Filming in the stadium was insane — in the place where the football players run onto the field,” Los Angeles-based actor Abigail Killmeier — also known as Abigail Fierce, songwriter-singer — says about filming Fantasy Football, in which she plays tough girl Margot, friend of the young lead character.
A Paramount+ original movie produced in conjunction with Nickelodeon, Fantasy Football premieres November 25 on Paramount+. The upbeat sports fantasy comedy is about a daughter named Callie (Marsai Martin), who learns she can control her Atlanta Falcons pro running back father’s moves on the field through her gaming console. Omari Hardwick plays her father, while Kelly Rowland plays her mother and Anton Cropper directs.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s vice president of private events, Natalee Anderson, who is in charge of all non-ticketed events, was in the zone as she and her team worked to accommodate the filming of Fantasy Football. While two other film productions have used the stadium as a shooting location, one being The Tomorrow War, Anderson says both previous productions simply utilized the venue’s wide-open, industrial-looking spaces. “You didn’t know it was Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the Atlanta Falcons,” she says, adding that Fantasy Football gave the stadium the chance to shine in its truest form.
Working on set at the stadium, Killmeier notes that the elite venue performed double duty. “The entire movie was shot on location. That was a fun change, no sound stages,” she notes — much of the filming in her home turf of Los Angeles happens on sound stages.
Anderson says the Fantasy Football production crew was on-site for 11 days total at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with the actual shoot happening on nine of those days and all 11 requiring extra time for the events staff. “We’d have people on site at 4 a.m., and, with crew and press, most days were 12 hours.”
A particularly challenging task for Anderson’s crew is scheduling when the stadium can be accessible for days at a time, as it was for Fantasy Football. But despite the tedious finessing around numerous other events — approximately 200 each year, including conventions, proms and a recent wrap party for the film Creed — the team makes it work. In fact, they planned for productions like this from the time the stadium opened five years ago. In the design of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, for instance, the venue’s suites were envisioned to serve as green rooms and accommodations for actors, directors, producers and crew. And the loading dock areas of the stadium are ideal for the setup of craft food services.
“[Film productions] have a ton of equipment, obviously, plus they’re building things on site,” Anderson says. “They have new requests each day, and we work with them to find what’s sufficient for their needs. We [have so many] nooks and crannies that can be utilized for so many things.”
The entrance area of Mercedes-Benz Stadium is also useful for film projects. Crews love the concourses and the industrial look, which can lend to various scenes. Even the relatively bare-bones stairwells and loading docks wind up as anchors for scenes. Anderson adds, “Our club spaces and suite areas — a lot of film production teams have mentioned how high-end they are.”
Security is top-notch at the stadium as well: “All our events use on-site entry and exit, but the movie also had security for actors.”
For Killmeier, Atlanta as a whole and the stadium in particular provided an amenity she appreciates as an actor: the food. “It was amazing in Atlanta,” she says. “The on-set catering was great—every day. In LA, a lot of the food is green juice and kale.”
On her time off from filming, Killmeier took jaunts around the city. A first-time visitor to Atlanta for Fantasy Football, she says she loved the beautiful greenery and the trees, which remind her of her childhood home in Louisville, Kentucky.
As far as how Fantasy Football made it to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the first place, Anderson says, “The [creators and crew] did four site visits, asking questions like, ‘Can we make it happen?’ We were listening to their vision and trying to see how we could maximize their dates. It was an awesome production to be a part of. This was a very unique thing for our team to see what a 20-hour workday looks like . . . and the way they transformed the stadium, it was really fun and special for us.”
When asked how the idea for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium initially came up, Anderson points out that her team is composed of several people with film backgrounds who have connections and are constantly networking. For Fantasy Football, though, “This one came to us through [another] internal connection — plus, we have the NFL involved as well.”
Anderson hopes this film signals a trend toward more movie production in the venue. “We’d love another film where we work with the whole team, and we’re a small part of their bigger production,” she says, noting that her team is already talking to crews and cast for several 2023 films.
Meanwhile, post-Fantasy Football filming, Killmeier is back in the studio recording as Abigail Fierce and has new songs soon to be released. Her impressive 100,000 followers on Spotify have soaked up more than three million streams and are undoubtedly waiting.
In terms of film projects, the Hulu Love, Victor series alum is just beginning work on a new project she’s excited about. And, while she was in Atlanta for the filming of Fantasy Football, she was also working on her new single, “Shallow Love.” Whether it’s through acting, singing or songwriting, Killmeier says she’s always ready to tell more stories.
And that’s a sentiment that resonates with the crew at Mercedes-Benz Stadium as well; they’re continually looking to help tell the stories of the entertainment industry.
“They don’t [necessarily] have to be sports films, either,” Anderson says. “All films are welcome.”
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Carol Badaracco Padgett is an Atlanta freelance writer who specializes in film and television coverage. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, her work has appeared in Oz Magazine and other publications.
