Big Shots

You see the long Tales from Hollywood list of gigs I’ve been on, so it’s pretty safe to assume that I’ve had quite a variety of experiences…some of which I still have yet to write up!

But on this show, I had two firsts. The WGA was picketing across the street, making loud noises–whistling, yelling, bullhorn–so nothing could get filmed, even going so far as using mirrors to shine light in places it doesn’t belong–actor’s eyes included. We were on location for goodness sake. I’m all for getting writer’s paid, of course, but this just seemed stupid. Why not go somewhere that’ll get more attention than a dark street in downtown LA? I just didn’t get it.

Plus, we were shooting a script that had already been written. Under the contract signed at the time of purchase, won’t the script we were shooting still make the writers money? Why would they try to stop that from happening? I just didn’t get that either. I fully admit I don’t know all the details surrounding the strike, but there, in the trenches, halting production seemed stupid. And let’s not forget all the crew people who are going to be fighting for work, too. Not to mention extras like me… But hey, this isn’t my only talent, so if work dries up for awhile, I only hope it’s temporary because I do enjoy it and would miss it if it disappeared completely.

All right, enough about that and on to the other first…

A telephone call summoned me from my shower, informing me that the call time had been pushed one hour earlier. Well, I live pretty far from downtown LA during rush hour, so that meant I had to H-U-S-T-L-E to get ready and get out the door in order to even have a chance at making it to the set on time. I somehow got there with 10 minutes to spare.

There were only 4 of us on this particular part of the call. We all found each other at the catering tables at base camp. Oddly, no one from production did. We sat there for 3 hours until the production broke for lunch. No one came to look for us, no one called us to scream, “Where are you? You’re supposed to be on set right now!” Nothing. I’ve been on a few sets where we show up, get our vouchers and then sit for 6 hours, but this was a first. I’ve never been on a set for that long without having a voucher. Granted, I was only at base camp, but it was oddly disconcerting. I don’t even know how to describe the feeling. It was just plain eerie, odd, weird, all those kind of adjectives.

I mean, it wasn’t like I felt that I was in the wrong place. It was more that I sort of needed confirmation that I was in the right place, doing what I was supposed to be doing. As an extra, I get yelled at a lot for doing the wrong thing whether or not I was instructed what was considered right or wrong. Generally, it’s considered wrong to hang out at catering without a voucher. I guess that was the root of it. I didn’t want to get in trouble for being there even though I was supposed to be there. And only a voucher can confirm that I was supposed to be there.

After production broke for lunch, we were given our precious vouchers and told to go to wardrobe. I was a crazy psyche patient. I got squared away and then sent to the real holding which was down the street. That was another odd thing…usually, there’s other extras hanging around, so you know you’re in the right place. Well, we knew there were other extras on the call for the scenes before ours, but where the hell was holding? Once I was in the old bank building with the rest of the extras, I felt much better.

So did the other three of us. We all remarked about how weird it had been to not have vouchers and be separate from the rest of the call after having our call time pushed earlier. Anyway…

I sat in holding for a few more hours, I think, while they finished up on the street scene that I wasn’t part of. After that, I was summoned to the indoor psyche ward set. I was seated at a table with a game of dominoes laid out, but I chose to put one foot up in front of me and the other on the chair next to me. That foot on the chair may be the only bit of me to make it into the finished product if any of me makes it at all. From the moment I was placed near a bunch of lighting fixtures that definitely weren’t going to be in the shot, I knew today wasn’t my day for camera time.

No big deal. It’s just more fun to actually make it into the finished product when I’m playing odd characters like a recovering nymphomaniac in Domino, an alien in They Are Among Us or a dead nun in Angel. I get odd roles so infrequently that I really cherish them because they make for great conversation pieces later on. I’m pretty shy, but if I hear a conversation about Angel for instance, I’m not afraid to say, “I played a dead nun in the opening scene of the 100th episode of Angel.” And if people don’t believe me, I can whip out my iPhone and navigate to this site for visual proof.

Which reminds me, I still need to get screen captures from Domino…

Anyway (A Tale of tangents today for some reason!), I worked in the scene for an hour or so, but wasn’t in any of the turnarounds and ended up back in holding.

The highest point of this adventure was when I looked up from my dominoes between set-ups and my gaze met Dylan McDermott’s for a tiny smile. That was nice…really, really nice.

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