Henry Poole Is Here

I left way early. It was Friday, so I’d assumed there’d be a lot of traffic, but since my call time was 2PM, that was the sweet spot when there’s almost zero traffic from my place all the way to downtown LA. Whoops! Oh well. I drove as slow as I could and still ended up 45 minutes early. But not so early that nothing was set up when I got there. That happens sometimes. But not this time.

After finding the Little Girls’ room on the honey wagon, I settled in to the holding area, ie. catering in this case, and tried to enjoy the stinky, urine smell that seems to be everywhere in downtown LA. Thankfully, there was a nice breeze. Once me and the few other extras moved away from the brick wall on one side, the air was a little easier to breathe.

Because I don’t work too often, I don’t generally see people I know, but this time was different. A buddy of mine, Aaron, was working, so I knew I’d be talking to him the entire length of the gig. Not bad. He’s a hoot and a hottie…

I was supposed to be a ‘young professional pedestrian’. So, I was wearing some business clothes, but of course, they weren’t quite business enough. Then, it was part of the look of the scene that they wanted only dark gray suits, but all I had were beige and a dark green one that they really didn’t want to put me in, but there was nothing else on the truck that was small enough to fit me (a growing and very annoying problem because nobody makes business clothes for kids, so consequently I can’t buy new business stuff, I have to either get custom clothes or wear ones that are a few years old from thrift stores.), so I did end up in my dark green suit, but they gave me some different shoes to wear. No big deal.

As I went back to holding, that’s when I saw him…Luke Wilson. OMG, I’d never really thought he was hot before, but good golly gracious me, I’ve changed my mind about him! I didn’t freak out or anything. He was in the black SUV, ready to go to the set. And he’s hot.

I continued to holding and was asked what car I had and if the production could use it in the next scene. Sure. But they wanted me to move it from the lot I’d parked in, to the one they were going to shoot in. Not really a big deal…

Except that the half-block walk to get my car while wearing wardrobe’s shoes–no socks–had created a tiny, bleeding blister on my left heel. Oh joy. As soon as I got in my car, I put my socks and shoes back on, moved the car and then carried wardrobe’s shoes back to base camp and asked for the Medic so I could get a few band-aids. I didn’t care that I’d gotten a blister, it was more that I hadn’t worked yet and it was going to be my job to do a bunch of walking–which meant, yeah, OUUUUWWWWCH for the blister I already had plus a strong likelihood for new ones.

During the car-moving expedition, the rest of the extras were herded up and taken to the set to work. Me and the other car guy (coincidentally Aaron) were held back in case they needed us separately. So, of course, we got caught up on the last year or so since we’d seen each other. That was nice.

Then, it was time to break for lunch. Yum. I was starving for some reason, so lunch tasted that much better. For the record, ‘lunch’ just means the meal break we get in the middle of the day’s shooting. I’ve eaten ‘lunch’ at midnight before… This time, lunch was some time a little past 4.

After lunch, one of the costumers had been sitting behind Aaron and I. She leaned over and asked if we possibly had any other non-business clothes with us because the look of the scene had changed from business to downscale or at least casual. Well, I had nothing non-business, but I did have a look that was more toward casual. So, back to my car I went, changed and then headed to the wardrobe trailer to give back the shoes–Yay!–and they gave me a really cute sweater to cover my too-businessy shirt. Great.

We were all changed and then herded one building over on the sidewalk, to the set. Luke Wilson was going to be looking in the window of a pawn shop. I never did learn what he was looking at, but whatever the moment was, he was very, very, very sad. Just looking at him, I felt his pain. It was awesome.

Background pinball was the game of the evening. Start in a line at one side and wait for the PA to cue you to walk across to the other side. Get back in line and wait to be cued to go back through. Sometimes, with a partner, but I always ended up by myself. Whenever that happens, I walk through slowly once and then come back fast or vice-versa to change it up. Yeah, I’m still wearing the same clothes, but hopefully the finish product won’t look like I’m aimlessly going back and forth if both of my crosses end up in it.

Well, roundabout the third take or so, Luke walked right in my path. It was either run into him or cross between him and the camera. I had to make an executive decision. I chose to cross between him and the camera. I didn’t get yelled at for it, but we were all instructed not to do that on the next take. I don’t think I was the only one who made the same choice.

He did it again and I missed him by about a quarter inch. I really enjoyed being that close to him. Can you tell my opinion of him changed? I dunno… I’ve just got this thing for Luke Wilson now! He’s freakin’ hot now! I wanted to jump him!

Anyway, the next few takes, our paths didn’t cross quite the same so I missed that closeness. Eventually, we were told that if he comes close to us, go ahead and run into him, but keep going. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear that until it was too late. Darnit. What I wouldn’t’ve given to be able to run into him!!!!!

But the good news is that when this movie comes out, there’s a teeny, tiny chance one of my crosses might be in it. Or maybe an elbow or a knee or something. Anything, please. I soooo want Luke Wilson now!

They decided not to use my car after all and then decided not to use me, either, the rest of the shoot, so I was wrapped. Short day for me, but certainly a great one. The crew on this show was great, too. Especially the PA handling us extras. She told us the whole plot of the script plus the scenes we’d be shooting and where they fell into the story. And wasn’t afraid to theorize with us about how long we might be there.

I gotta say that this is one of those areas that scores major points with us extras. We like to know about the show, why we’re there, what we’re doing and approximately how long we’ll be there, even in terms of ‘you’re only here for these scenes, not these other ones’. We honestly don’t need to know, ‘you’ll get out of here around midnight.’ We understand how shooting goes. If we’re in the martini shot, then we know we’ll be on that set at least 12 hours and we’ll count through the other set-ups until that martini shot without lament.

Or at least I don’t lament. I block out about fourteen hours from call time as ‘unavailable’. If I get out early, I call myself ‘off the grid’ and either stop for a cup of tea, take the long way home, whatever I feel like doing with the extra time I unexpectedly have on my hands. It’s like a mini-vacation because I’m not expected to be anywhere. Although, half the time, I do just go straight home…

That’s what I did after this show, too. I got out around 8PM or so and just drove home. I did, however, take the 101 instead of the 5 just so I could drive through Hollywood. I hadn’t done that in awhile and it felt pretty good. I smiled all the way home.

And BTW–Luke Wilson is freakin’ hot!!!! I don’t even know what it is about him. He just shot up my hotness-meter somehow. I wasn’t expecting to come away from this shoot having an all-out thing for him, either. Strange, but nice… I love it when that happens.

Malcolm in the Middle

I don’t remember exactly which day this one happened on and unfortunately, I’m not somewhere that I can look it up. (I love modern technology and newfound mobility because of it!) However, when I do find it, I’ll move this to that date and all will be well. Until then, assume it’s late July or early August of 2004 or was it 2005? My Hollywood career is such a blur because I only get to work a day or two on tons of shows and it gets hard to keep a good mental timeline.

Newsflash: Jen just informed me that it was the first show of their last season. Episode 130. It aired September 30th, 2005. So, this must’ve taken place around July 30, 2005.

I was a stand-in on Malcolm in the Middle. It was the first episode of their last season. What tripped me out the most about this shoot was that I was standing in for Malcolm…yeah, Frankie Muniz. I couldn’t believe it, either.

It started off rather normal. I got to the location (this was the Burning Man episode and they were shooting pretty far out of town), got my voucher and headed to the set. The crew was awesome, introducing themselves to me, helping me along. They’d been doing the show forever and were already in tune with each other. I was playing catch-up. Plus, I’d only been a stand-in a few times prior. It’s a whole lot different than being an extra.

Of course, since I was standing in for the lead, I worked between every take. They’d set up the camera and show me where my mark was, do their lighting, get it all framed up and then I’d step out. Frankie stepped in, did the scene and we were on to the next. I got pretty good at being ahead of the game, but it was far from easy. I did receive a lot of coaching from the stand-in for the father. He was very helpful…very, very helpful and I hope I get to work with him again some day. I think he’d been on Malcolm since either the beginning or darn close to it and had been standing in for years before that, too.

I was on this show for two days. Both were hot, but also fun and I learned a lot.

I got to talking to Bobby Porter, the Stunt Coordinator on the show. He gave me his card after I told him about Driven to Distraction and how we might have a few questions about how specific stunts are done and even the ingredients for a typical Safety Meeting that is done before every stunt. I learned a lot of interesting stuff from him, too.

That’s mostly what this gig was about for me: learning.

At some point toward the end of the shoot, I found myself in a conversation with one of the guys in the Art Department. I don’t recall if he was a set decorator or just one of the set-up/take-down crew. It’s been too long to remember for sure what he did on the show, but the one thing he gave me was his email address because he’d taken a few action shots of me while I was standing in.

Since I was never on camera during the episode, all I have are these photographs of my time on Malcolm in the Middle.

These next two are from the latter part of the shoot and they’re one of the things I love about Hollywood: any frame taken out of context gets kinda funny sometimes! Pardon me while I toot my own horn…

The other girl with a horn was also a regular stand-in on the show. She was really nice and also helped me along.

Okay, now for the big, crazy shot. This one’s my favorite because it really illustrates what goes on during filming. I even got to go for a ride several times on that whole contraption!

Learning, learning, and more learning! All in a two day shoot on Malcolm in the Middle!