SLU Goes Hollywood
For a few weeks in the fall of 2023, Hollywood came to Saint Louis University.
Filming for the movie On Fire, which tells the story of SLU alum John O’Leary (CSB ’99), took place at several campus locations in November and early December. The film is slated for a 2025 release.
O’Leary was 9 years old in 1987 when he was so badly burned in an accident that doctors gave him less than a 1% chance of survival. He shared his journey to recovery in the 2016 bestseller On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life, which is the basis for the film.
“I’m a Midwest kid, a SLU grad, so this whole thing is shocking,” O’Leary said. “The fact that there’s a movie about it is remarkable.”
Members of the SLU community got an up-close look at the making of a movie both in front of the camera as extras and behind the scenes by shadowing the director and crew.
Production crews spent seven days filming on campus using outdoor locations near the Chaifetz School of Business and Lipic Clock Tower Plaza, as well as indoors at Chaifetz Arena, the former YWCA building on the West Pine Mall (now owned by SLU) and Salus Center.
The film stars Joel Courtney as O’Leary; Masey McLain as his wife, Beth (Hittler) O’Leary (DCHS ’01); John Corbett as his father, Denny (Law ’68); Stephanie Szostak as his mother, Susan; William H. Macy as broadcaster Jack Buck; and James McCracken as young John O’Leary.
“I’ve always loved our campus,” O’Leary said. “I brought our director here to just meet with my family — that was it. We weren’t going to film in St. Louis, but we met with St. Louisans and then he toured SLU and asked, ‘What is this place?’ I told him it was where I went to college, and he said, ‘This place is stunning. It should be in the movie.’”
In a Salus Center hallway, O’Leary (left) talks with McCracken, whose bandages match
O’Leary’s following the 1987 fire.
