Homeless to Hollywood

By Karen Madrigal, Chronic Pain Social Worker, Pain Clinic, VA Lebanon Health Care System

Friday, May 23, 2025

Imagine getting a chance to be an extra in a movie, when suddenly, the director asks to speak to your agent to cast you in a leading role!

It sounds like a dream, but it’s exactly what happened to Army Veteran Eric Reeder, whose talent and charisma were noticed by writer and director Bo Brinkman during the filming of Gettysburg 1863. Eric was selected to play the part of the revered Pennsylvanian, Thaddeus Stevens, a principled reformer of the nineteenth century. According to the National Endowment for the Humanities, Thaddeus Stevens was an ardent abolitionist and the only member at the Pennsylvania Convention of 1837 to vote against amendments designed to exclude black people from voting.