I was asked to stand behind Jack at the last moment and got some screen-time
Two days ago I was finishing up an overnight shoot on the Greenpoint set for the last episode of season 3 -so seeing myself was kind of a full circle closure for me. It's really gratifying to know that my eight appearances over the past seven months have somehow contributed to an exciting production.
The lights of "Atlantic City's boardwalk" during tonight's shoot
Although this scene was relatively "calm": a dour Nucky Thomson walking alone on the Boardwalk, pausing occasionally at the railing in a kind of self-reflecting mood, while the rest of us extras provide a populous effect in his wake. The only time we saw Steve Buscemi crack a smile was when the director, Tim Van Patten gave him some funny comments near the Chop Suey part of the set.
What made this shoot interesting was the consequential banter among us extras. In the holding area, one of the guys was making fun of the other guy's fake mustache (he had to keep his fingers pressing down on it in order for it not to fly off during our conversation). Later on, a heavy accented person provided some un-political commentary about the upcoming election that caused the guy next to me to stand up and leave. When we lined up for obtaining our props, I was given a heavy pick-ax which brought immediate guffaws from the film crew when I appeared on the set and very quickly a replacement walking cane was provided for me instead of the dangerous and out-of-context prop.
On the set with my new prop
The incident with the malapropriate tool provided me with a number of conversations from several of the people around me, one of whom became my female partner in the upcoming "walk-on-the-boardwalk" scenes. The two of us had a lot of fun chatting it up as well as faking conversations when "background action" was called. We swapped actor experience stories as she told me about her cosmetics commercial gig and I told her about my blog. She was one of the most pleasant people I've had the pleasure of meeting.
My partner-in-crime for the night
Toward 4 in the morning we saw the character of Chalky White being set up for a scene... but most of us were wrapped a half hour later, so we never got to see him in action. At this late hour we could live with that and were happy to leave 1923 behind so we could check out and get back into our 21st century street clothes. Funny thing about changing into our usual duds... it was hard to recognize each other... somehow the magic dust disappears. Oh well, perhaps gossip from the hairdressers will come true and there will be a 4th season to continue the funtacy. I hope so. I really got to like working on this set, visiting the Steiner Studios, working with the actors, the fuss over the period clothing (the clothing designers must have given me a million wedgies to get my pants to stay up), being treated to decent food... and those short haircuts -the fact that I haven't had to pay for one all this year... LOVED IT!
Poster in Steiner Studios' haircutting room
1 comment:
That was so nice of you to mention me. Thank you. I love your blog and since you mentioned me I love it a lot!!!!!!!!!
I will continue to read it. Hope to see you soon on other shoots.
Judi Galluccio
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