Mulga, the town that time forgot in western Jefferson County, seems like the unlikeliest place in the world to run into movie star Kurt Russell.

Its main street along the railroad tracks features abandoned buildings and an overgrowth of vines. Most of the time, residents admit, it feels a little like a ghost town since most of the jobs in mining and steel mills went away after the town’s heyday in the 1950s and 1960s.

“The heyday was the mining days,” said Mulga Mayor Keith Varner, who was elected in 2017. “We had cafes out here, we had a grocery store out here, a drug store out here. The first mayor we ever had (Virgil Hogan) operated the barber shop. When he passed away, nobody opened another barber shop.”

The town incorporated in 1947 and had its own police department, which disbanded as population declined. “In the seventies, it started fading, and in the eighties it just kind of went away,” Varner said of the town’s vitality.

Yet there was Russell on Tuesday and Wednesday, striding through the Mulga Baptist Church parking lot, wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, and driving a Dodge Ram pickup truck on the seldom traveled streets that had never seen a traffic problem until this week when Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies blocked many of the streets leading into town. As Russell made his way into Mulga Baptist Church, random banty roosters strutted nearby in a yard.

Russell, who starred in “Escape from New York,” looked like he might be filming its sequel, “Escape from Mulga,” but it was actually “The Rivals of Amziah King,” an independent movie that Matthew McConaughey has been busily filming since about June 9 while road-tripping across central Alabama.

After filming driving scenes in Marshall County on Tuesday morning, Russell was in Mulga by Tuesday afternoon, driving a pickup truck on Birmingport Road, Mulga Loop Road and the usually quiet streets of Mulga.

A Burlington Northern train, given the movie name and logo of “Lamplighter Westsouthern,” was making multiple practice runs for a scene in which it would appear that Russell’s pickup truck was racing the train and didn’t win. A bloodied Russell walks away mostly unscathed and continues his escape from pursuers.

The pickup truck Russell was driving had two stunt doubles of its own that would take a beating on Wednesday along the railroad tracks, although the train never actually hit a vehicle. Some Mulga movie magic made that happen. The stunt double trucks were pulled by cables with a dummy in the cab for the scene.

While the movie crew came to Mulga mainly for the railroad stunt, the plan for filming expanded, Varner said.

“They kept liking what they were seeing, so it kept growing, so they ended up filming on (State Highway) 269,” Varner said. “It was all chase scenes. They were looking for a road-track parallel, and we had the perfect site for it.”

Russell’s stunt double was fascinated by Mulga’s vintage 1952 firetruck, which the town is trying to restore. It turns out the stunt double owns one like it, and he offered to help the mayor find an authentic fire extinguisher to fit in the empty brace where the original is missing.

Varner welcomed the assistance. He said the town wants to restore the fire truck for parades.

He said this week’s use as a movie set may be the highlight of notoriety in the town’s 74-year history, which was previously probably best known nationally for its resident Phyllis Perkins, or “Phyllis from Mulga,” a passionate Alabama fan who for years was a well-known and popular regular caller on The Paul Finebaum Show that airs on radio and on the SEC Network TV show. Perkins died earlier this year, on May 10.

“I think she would have liked it and thought it was good for Mulga,” said Charles Garrett, a Mulga resident who came out to watch filming and was a friend of Phyllis. “If she were out there, she would have probably been directing them and telling them how to do it.”

Phyllis’ son, Chris Perkins, said his mom was a fan of “Tango & Cash,” a movie Russell did with Sylvester Stallone, and “Forrest Gump,” for which Russell did the voice of Elvis Presley. She would have been glad to know Russell filmed in Mulga, he said.

“She would have been proud,” Perkins said, because she was proud of Mulga.

Some Mulga residents will be able to see their own homes in the movie when it’s released, probably in 2024. There was some slight inconvenience for residents.

“They put four families out of their homes, put them up in hotels, paid them, treated them really well,” Varner said. “They didn’t want the stunt to go bad and injure someone, so they didn’t want anybody there because the movie was going to be filming right in front of their property.”

Utility customers who were trying to pay their bills at the Town Hall were turned away by law enforcement, Varner said.

Mulga provides water and gas utility service to Mulga, Sylvan Springs, Maytown and part of western Birmingham, said Varner, who also is superintendent of Mulga Water and Gas.

Varner said that he, along with mayors of other municipalities in Jefferson County, provided packets to the Jefferson County Mayors’ Association with what their towns had to offer in the way of potential movie locations. That information is shared with filmmakers looking for locations.

“Who would have ever thought this would happen?” Varner said. He said one of the location scouts has already mentioned that he saw some sites in Mulga that would be perfect for another movie that may be filming in the area soon, he said.

What Mulga has to offer the movie industry is that it’s a real town that’s a historical throwback. “We’re just kind of stuck in time,” Varner said.

More on ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’:

Kurt Russell tears up Alabama dirt road as Matthew McConaughey movie films

Matthew McConaughey movie still shooting in Alabama despite Hollywood strikes: Here’s why

Matthew McConaughey brings smiles to patients at Children’s of Alabama: ‘So kind and personable’

Matthew McConaughey thrills fan while filming in Alabama: ‘He just seems like a good ol’ Texas boy’

Matthew McConaughey road-trips Alabama, drives fans to deeper respect for a movie star