Be Cool (2)

The following is from an email sent the day after the shoot:

I was on Be Cool again last night… Remember how last time I saw The Rock, he was rather flamboyant? Well, this time, he was sooooooo the other end of the spectrum and literally beating the stuffing out of a dummy with Vince Vaughn.

I didn’t actually get to see them destroying the dummy, I only heard all the grunting, short lines and echoing punches and kicks.

Then, when I was finally allowed around the corner, there was this poor mutilated dummy laying in a huge pile of its stuffing. I mean, with The Rock beating it up plus Vince, yikes! Vince is actually about an inch or so taller than The Rock, too. Big men…I felt real sorry for the dummy!

I also hope Vince doesn’t think I’m stalking him. I’ve worked on his last three movies: Starsky & Hutch, Anchorman, and now Be Cool…

Remembering back to that night shoot, this email left out a bunch of stuff.

The scene was a swing dance bit inside a club in downtown LA. I don’t know if I got any camera time, and sincerely doubt it, but nonetheless it was fun to see all the swing dancers doing their thing and at least acting like they were having a good time.

I was booked with my Mustang fastback which they’d parked in the background of the scene with the dummy. By the way, in the finished product, it’ll look like Vince and The Rock are killing a guy and putting him in the trunk of their car…rather than a dummy.

Anyhow, that was the night that spoiled me for trusting production people with my car. I was instructed to spend the night in holding after the swing dance part while they used the cars in the parking lot. Fine with me, but I got a little bored so I went out to watch the scene and saw the bit with the dummy.

It was cold that night, so I didn’t stay. Next time I went out there, my car had been moved. No big deal…except that they’d put it hanging out of the driveway, front wheels on the sidewalk, window down, keys in the ignition.

Now this car may just be a car to most people, but to me, she’s my baby. I’d been lovingly pouring time, money and lots of blood sweat and tears into this car since 1993…my dream car essentially…and they’d left her hanging out like that for anyone to easily steal if they’d been so inclined. And I would have been downright inconsolable if that had happened. To me, the car is not at all replaceable.

At that point, I locked my door and took the key. Thankfully, the AD was on my side. He totally understood my frustration and truthfully I wasn’t being a bitch, even though I was perfectly justified. Never once did I raise my voice or say anything mean. I wrote out my cell phone number and told them to call me from holding if they needed to move my car because I was certainly not going to leave my keys with them again.

The next time the car was to be moved was when I signed out. And honestly, I am grateful for the experience because I have had to explain to other productions why I am not willing to leave my keys with anyone. And because of that, they’re usually okay as long as I don’t stray too far from my car.

Had it not been for the car incident, the shoot would’ve been great. I mean, maybe four hours walking through a swing dance club and then ten hours bored, noodling around on my pda in holding is not a bad shoot at all.

Plus, seeing Vince and The Rock again…yum yum yum…

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