When she was 7, Arletta Knight Fink announced to customers in her dad's Cordell cafe that she wanted to be in the movies. More than 60 years later, she made good on that pledge in the same town where the dream began.

Fink was given a speaking role in the film "The Killer Inside Me," which was shot this past summer in parts of Oklahoma, including Cordell, where Fink delivered her lines.

She arrived on the scene June 16 to play her role as a courthouse extra. After walking up and down the courthouse steps for a scene, the director, Michael Winterbottom, pulled her aside and asked her to play a bigger role in the production.

Fink was asked to play a secretary. Winterbottom wanted to show a softer side of Lou Ford, a Texas sheriff harboring dark, sociopathic urges. He had Casey Affleck, who played Ford, compliment Fink on her sweater and bring her candy -- each take contained a slightly different story and each story was made up on the spot.

"It was total ad-lib," Fink said.

The on-the-spot ad-libbing earned Fink the distinction of being eligible for membership in the Screen Actors Guild. Fink described this achievement as "over the top wonderful."

To keep her nerves calm between takes, Fink typed on the 1950s typewriter that had been set up as a prop. However, the typing didn't quite calm all of her nerves. She admitted to a couple of gaffes during the filming.

One mistake, she said, stemmed from the attractiveness of her acting partner, Affleck. She said one scene he came in the room and kind of gazed at her for a moment before delivering his line. She became startled, forgot to listen to him and couldn't respond to what he said. Afterward, Fink jokingly scolded him for being too mesmerizing.

Her second slip-up occurred after Affleck complimented her necklace. She instinctively clutched the jewelry, forgetting that her microphone was also tucked away near the necklace and smothered the sound.

During the filming of her scene, Winterbottom decided Fink's character needed a name. After pondering different possibilities, Winterbottom decided he liked Fink's real name the best. Therefore, the character became known as Arletta.

"It would be way over the top if they used one of the takes where he called me by my name," Fink said.

Right now, however, Fink is anxiously waiting to see if her scene will make it into the movie at all. There is a possibility that it could have ended up on the cutting room floor.

A life interrupted

Fink has known all her life that she wanted to be an entertainer.

"That's all I ever wanted to do -- be on the stage or on the screen," she said.

Growing up, she frequently participated in local talent contests, performing humorous monologues, twirling fire batons or singing. Her desire continued into college at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford where she majored in speech, only because a drama degree was not offered.

It was at this point in life that her dreams got interrupted. She fell in love, got married and became a mother to two daughters. After graduating she became a stay-at-home mother. She fed her desire for performance by joining the singing group Sweet Adelines, in which she participated until opening a business.

When her girls graduated from high school, Fink decided she needed something else to fill her time.

"I thought I was going to die of empty-nest syndrome," she said.

She decided to return to school and began pursuing a master's and doctorate degree in communications from the University of Oklahoma. She taught as a graduate teaching assistant before taking a job with the Instructional Development Program, which worked with faculty to improve their teaching.

Although Fink was enjoying the diversity of her work, a part of her, a part she feared was dying, still harbored the longing for performance.

"I had set it aside and felt that I had lost that," she said. "I was really sad. It was incredibly sad."

Back in business

To keep the dream alive, Fink retired early in 2002 to pursue acting. She hired an agent and found herself performing on several television commercials, her most memorable being one for Blue Cross Blue Shield. During this time she also was able to work with arts students at the Quartz Mountain Lodge in Lone Wolf.

It was through her connection with casting director Chris Freihofer, who Fink had worked with during a Sooner Theatre performance of "Moon over Buffalo," that Fink nabbed a spot as an extra for "The Killer Inside Me." She's hoping this movie will catapult her career.

"I always tell them, if you need a part for a little old lady, remember me," Fink said.

She's not afraid to shoot for the stars. If anything, achieving this goal has taught her the importance of hoping.

"You need dreams, even when you're older," she said. "Dreams are still important."

Aaron Wright 366-3533 pop@normantranscript.com