I Love You, Man (2)
Last time, I was a waitress and then a hip and trendy bowling alley patron. This time, I was just a hip and trendy bar patron.
I parked in the lot next to the ocean—which was nifty because I don’t get to see the ocean every day and I was a little early. Even though it was really cold, listening to the surf while I sat in my car was nice.
Considering the bad time I’d had on my last show, my hopes weren’t high on this one, but when I got there, they’d had a whole enclosed trailer for us extras—climate controlled, too! We all had both chairs AND tables, too.
And they even made sure we got fed before heading to the wardrobe line. When I got there and it started to rain, they brought out tents for us so we wouldn’t get too wet. Now that’s an awful lot of icing on my cake and I hadn’t even gotten to the set yet.
When the costumer looked at me, she decided that I should change into a different outfit, but she wanted me to come back once I’d changed. When I came back, she looked me up and down and then got distracted so I thought I was done and headed over to the hair and makeup tents. About two minutes into having my makeup done, a PA came over and told me I had to go back to wardrobe.
All I could think of was: Uh-oh…
And sure enough, she wanted me to change again, but she said she “had something for me”.
All I could think of was: Uh-oh…again.
There were an awful lot of thin, short, low-cut sundresses being worn and I really didn’t want to get stuck freezing in one of those… in the rain, too, even though the shot took place indoors, we still had to walk a half block to get where we were going.
But then, the costumer brought out this totally awesome vintage jumpsuit. The kind of thing I’d normally wear. She was excited to have someone wear it. Granted, it really was small, but it fit me perfectly. I guess I was born in the wrong era. Lots of vintage stuff fits me waaaay better than contemporary.
Anyhow, so I was suited up and ready for work…
Which was nothing different from anything else I’ve done—a bunch of crossing through frame—however, the location was so small, there really wasn’t enough room for everyone and I ended up sandwiched between a pole, the script supervisor, the monitors and a camera dolly.
In other words, hell for an extra.
You don’t want to be in the way, but you are. You don’t want to be near monitorland, but you are. You don’t want to get run over by the camera dolly, but you might. You don’t want to get hit by the boom mic operator, but you might. And you especially don’t want to be in the way when the principal actors are trying to talk to the director, but you are.
And you’re bracing yourself the whole time for the gigantic chewing out…but it never came. In fact, they were all really nice and understanding about the close quarters. It was amazing.
Then again, I’d come off of a pretty bad show, so when someone was nice to me, it really stood out.
So, I spent the next eight or nine hours walking through frame, pretending I was drinking a martini—which was water with olives, but whatever. My feet did eventually get tired, but I looked great.
And due to my position stuffed in that impossible corner…let me just say that Paul Rudd has the kind of smile where when it happens (which is thankfully quite often), the whole world seems a happier place. Yeah, I…umm…well…I melted. I just couldn’t help it. He had that effect on me. What a great little gig.
Finally, we got to a change where instead of walking through frame, they had me seated…right behind the hero table. My back is to the action, but I’m betting when all is said and done, I’ll be in at least one frame of the movie. That’s always nice.
For the last few hours, Paul Rudd and Jason Siegel were just ad-libbing back and forth and good golly, there were a few times they were so hilarious that it was hard no to laugh. They were amazing. Amazing to experience their talents while joking in character. This was the first comedy I’ve done where it’s more than just the star (Will Farrell in Kicking & Screaming and Jim Carey in Yes Man) is doing the ad-libbing and I really enjoyed it. It broke the monotony.
The only problem with this shoot wasn’t even the fault of the shoot. About half way in—after we knew we’d likely be there until 2am—I learned I was booked on another show the following day…at 7:30am. Nice.
But then Paul Rudd smiled at me and everything was beautiful again. *sigh*