Many an actress would give anything to hang out with George Clooney.

Kansas Citian Meagan Flynn has done it. Literally.

For the new film “Up in the Air” (opening today), Flynn spent a day with Clooney, the two of them dangling in harnesses in front of a green screen for a fantasy flying sequence that subsequently was trimmed from the final print.

“I think it was in the film until pretty late in the game,” Flynn said. “I heard it was still there for some festival screenings this fall, but evidently they had to cut it to shorten the movie.”

No matter. Flynn, playing a flight attendant, still shares two scenes with Clooney, who plays a smug hatchet man delivering layoff news to workers around the country.

Flynn’s local acting colleagues Erin McGrane and Cari Mohr were lucky, too.

Mohr has a few on-screen moments as an airline purser (a chief flight attendant), a job she sort of stole from her actor husband.

And McGrane has a key scene as Clooney’s former squeeze.

“Everybody wants to know if George Clooney is like he seems,” McGrane said. “The answer is yes. He’s genial, gracious, warm, open and drop-dead handsome.”

The auditions

The journey of three local actresses to a major motion picture — a film nominated for six Golden Globes and being touted for Oscars — began early last spring with phone calls from the Kansas City talent agency where all are clients.

“When we decided to make the movie in the Midwest, I wanted to be as authentic as possible,” said Jason Reitman, the film’s director. “I love the idea of local talent, and we found a lot of great actors in Detroit, St. Louis and Kansas City. I loved Meagan’s work as the flight attendant. And Erin actually stole her job from a fairly prominent L.A. actress. They were great.”

Initially the actresses read lines from the script in front of a video camera. Those tapes went off to Reitman’s production office in St. Louis.

A couple of weeks later, Flynn and McGrane shared a car ride to St. Louis, where they had been summoned for a live audition.

The actresses, who are friends and co-stars of the Internet serial “The Unreal Housewives of Kansas City,” were relieved to learn that they were up for different parts.

The auditions took place in an industrial office park taken over by the film production company. In the room were St. Louis casting director Joni Tackett and an unidentified man behind the video camera.

“Joni introduces this guy as Jason and he starts feeding me lines,” McGrane recalled. “I was thinking, ‘Wow, this is the best reader I’ve ever had. And he’s running the camera, too!’ I’m realizing that he’s actually directing me.”

It wasn’t until she had dinner afterward with Flynn that McGrane learned that the man behind the camera was Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of “Juno.”

Once Reitman made up his mind, the women’s audition tapes were sent to Hollywood for final approval by the studio.

Soon they were on the set.

A house divided?

Initially the filmmakers envisioned a man in the purser role. Mohr’s husband, actor Paul Burmaster, was one of those who auditioned for the part.

“I was up for three different parts, none of them the one I ended up with,” Mohr said. “I’d actually given up on hearing from them when they called me and announced that they wanted me to send in a tape as the purser.”

Her husband, she said, has been a good sport about losing a role to his wife, although “he can’t help tossing out the friendly jab on occasion.”

Mohr was particularly thrilled to learn that she would share a shot with actor Sam Elliott, who plays a veteran airline pilot.

“I’m a huge Sam Elliott fan,” she said. “He’s exactly the good-old-boy gentleman you expect him to be. I kept stepping on his foot and apologizing and he told me not to worry about it — ‘We’ll work it out.’

“You assume with a big Hollywood film that the stars will be in their suites and the local actors will sit in the corner. It wasn’t like that at all. Nobody treated us like we were second class.

“I introduced myself to George as Cari and he said, ‘Hi. I’m George.’

“And I’m thinking, ‘Well, duh.’ ”

Flying high

Flynn knew early in the process that she’d be playing a flight attendant. But she was surprised to learn she would spend time suspended in midair for a scene.

Out of the blue one day, she got a call from a member of the production crew who asked, “By the way, are you good at heights?”

Flynn shot in both a mockup of a jetliner and in the real thing at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. The flying sequence ate up parts of two days.

“They had a wonderful stunt coordinator who fitted me with the original harness, which had to be worn under my attendant’s uniform,” Flynn said. “But it was not very comfortable, and he ordered a more comfortable, lighter-weight harness. I worked with George’s stunt double to rehearse the scene.”

Flynn said she was hoisted into the air only when the cameras were rolling.

“Then they brought us down. We were hanging by our hips, and to keep steady required a real workout with your stomach muscles. I’m glad I do yoga.”

Once up in the air with Clooney, Flynn said, she was determined not to ask to come down no matter how badly the harness pinched.

“I figured if George could do it, I could do it.”

Work and play

McGrane’s scene in the bare Omaha apartment of Clooney’s character — Ryan Bingham — was the first one shot in the entire production.

The script called for her character to enter the apartment, ostensibly to drop off mail.

But McGrane’s character, who lives in the same building, also mentions that she’s seeing someone else.

Clooney’s Bingham barely reacts. As far as he’s concerned, girlfriends are easy come, easy go.

McGrane’s total screen time? Maybe 40 seconds.

“There wasn’t much rehearsal because Jason likes to keep things fresh,” McGrane said. “So we shot the scene a number of different ways, ranging from light romantic comedy to something with a bit more bite. The take they picked for the final film was pretty serious. We did some much funnier versions.”

McGrane was preparing to drive back to Kansas City after a day’s work when she got a text message from Clooney inviting her to join him and other crew members for dinner at a swank hotel.

“I walk into this luxurious lobby and realize I was just wearing street clothes. My sweater has a hole in the shoulder. My Target coat is covered in my cat’s white hair. And there’s a button hanging loose.

“The concierge walks over, asks if I’m there for dinner. I say I’m meeting the Clooney party.

“And he says, ‘Are you sure?’

“I almost threw up. Then he laughs and says, ‘No they’re waiting for you.’

“I later learned that George is a terrible practical joker. I’ll bet he put the concierge up to it.”

McGrane pronounced the dinner “fantastic,” with Clooney entertaining nearly the entire restaurant.

“He’s the center of every room, every conversation,” she said. “And a much bigger goofball than I thought he’d be. He’s the guy you want to come to every party you throw from here on out.”

To reach Robert W. Butler, call 816-234-4760 or send e-mail to bbutler@kcstar.com.