While most college students were headed home to visit family or taking a trip on their spring break, 20-year-old Jake Waters of Ringgold was making a life-long dream come true by acting in his first major motion picture.

The new Warner Bros. film “Trouble with the Curve” stars Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, and the legendary Clint Eastwood as an aging baseball scout for the Atlanta Braves whose vision problems prompt his daughter (Adams) to accompany him on possibly his last recruiting trip.

The film was shot partly in Atlanta earlier this year, which opened the door for Waters, who answered a mass casting call.

“It was all pretty surreal actually, and it all happened pretty fast,” Waters said. “I got a mass email about the movie, with a breakdown of the extras they were looking for. I sent the casting director some headshots and the short resume that I have on a Friday. Then they notified me on Sunday that they were wanting to use me, so I drove down to Atlanta and started shooting on Monday.”

Although Waters doesn't have a speaking part in the film, he can be seen as a very convincing office assistant in a couple of different scenes.

“It's kind of funny really,” Waters said laughing. “It kind of lost me for minute when I saw the film. I mean, there are all these big stars in the movie and then I see myself walk across the screen...it's like wow, that's different.”

Waters, who graduated from The professional actor's training program at Chattanooga State in May 2011, says that all the skills he learned leading up to the film really helped prepare him for the role, and also seemed to impress those on the set.

“The director (Robert Lorenz) kept putting me in shots and kept using my name, which I thought was really cool,” Waters said. “Here I am on my first movie and this big Hollywood director is taking the time to learn my name and call me by it when I was probably the least experienced person there...it was pretty cool.”

Waters says that when he arrived on the set, he was a little worried after his initial meeting with Lorenz.

“He pointed out that my hair wasn't as red as it was in my headshots,” Waters said. “I was kinda scared for a minute, but then he said it was okay and they started using me.”

Although the finished product of seeing himself on screen was something he'll never forget, Waters says that whole filmmaking experience is what he'll remember most about his first of hopefully many shoots.

“I just soaked it up that day,” Waters said. “It was the first day of filming, they fed us all-you-can-eat steak and lobster during lunch, and I got to meet and hear stories from the other extras who had done some work in other big films. There was one lady who has done some stand-in work for Cameron Diaz, another guy said he was in “The Hunger Games.” It was just a really great experience.

Although he's only 20 years old, Waters is no stranger to acting, as he has done a lot of theater work in Dalton, Ringgold, and Chattanooga, Tenn.,

In fact, for the past eight years, Waters has worked on his craft playing multiple characters as a regular cast member in Vaudeville Cafe's Murder Mystery Dinner Shows in Chattanooga.

“Jake first came to Vaudeville as a young shy boy wanting to help out, and now he could run the place on his own,” said owner Chris Hampton. “He has virtually done every important spot in our theatre — major acting roles, waiting tables, running the box office, bartending and marketing. It's not just that he executes these duties, but he does them well and with great fervor.”

With his first film under his belt, and a lifetime of ambition in front of him, Waters says that all he wants is to continue doing what makes him happy.

“Ultimately, I would just love to be able to make my living acting, that's all,” Waters said. “The goal isn't fame, and it's not even about money. I just want to produce work I can be proud of and keep on doing what I love.”