Well... sort of. It was actually a movie-trailer with the working title of "SMALL TIMERS" that was being made by the director, Ken Waddell, and I was cast as one of the gamblers in some key scenes. When we arrived, there was a LOT of green screens and green floors all over the place. This however, was not in recognition of Greenpoint, Brooklyn where the studio was located, but rather in preparation for computer graphic details that were going to be filled into 99% of the background upon completion of the film... or video tape... or whatever the high-definition media that was in vogue at the moment. There wasn't even a clapboard being used anymore since both the sound and the visual tracks would be electronically embedded (in synchronous mode) within the HD "stuff". Wow... I'm so glad to be able to blend in and understand geek-talk.
First off, we had to get fitted in the costume department, where Anika and Angela picked out our 1940-ish period clothes. They had the right sized jacket but my trousers would have to be... ahem...enlarged. I was way out of their 36-inch range! And since they really weren't equipped to "rip-and-sew", I had to improvise by "sucking it up", which needless to say, created a very substantial problem for me: BREATHING! So I decided to compromise by sucking it in during the actual movie shoots and later keeping my pants' zippper half-way down during the long breaks. This made me somewhat self-conscious since there were little kids running around on the set and I didn't want to get tagged with an "expose". My zoot-suit jacket would cover the "faux-pas" but I was constantly checking my fly to make sure the zipper was locked in! As the fitting progressed, it was apparent that my black tee-shirt would not do and I had to put on a newly-opened white tank-top-T; brown wing-tip shoes and a droopy bow-tie (which Anika tied perfectly -for the second time in her life). Then came "the hat"! It was severely crumpled and the brim wouldn't stay sharp. Instead, it kept curling up (like Ed Norton's plumber-hat in The Honeymooners). Anika told me to "work it" during the course of waiting around -and it would eventulally conform to the necessary "wiseguy" shape.
With fitting now completed, we had to go over to makeup. It's always a strange feeling to have a pretty girl gently and professionally apply cosmetics to your face so that you can look "tough" by accentuating your every wrinkle and topping it off by scrawling deep-dark-lines around your eye sockets - only to finish it off by powdering your nose to reduce the "shine". The reduced-shine-proceedure would be repeated a few times throughout the shoot per the director's orders -depending on how often he spotted you on the camera's monitor. Perfection... is not an accident!
Now that we were all prepped, it was time to wait around while the set was being built, repaired, modified and repaired again. And it is during this period that you get to know your fellow actors and stagehands. A lot of chatting takes place and names and numbers are exchanged for networking purposes. After all, you never know when one of them may refer you to a good gig. While chatting, I noticed that one of the actors looked very much like Leonard Nimoy, or Martin Landau, or John Cassavetes -and when I told him so, he was elated. In fact, he had been on one of the Star Trek movie sets (Nemesis) playing an alien on the ship's deck. How "kewl" is that?
I also chatted with the child-actors and one of their parents. They were all SAG and one of the mothers told me that they had an agent who got them regular jobs above the $500 mark. Hmmm... getting real pay.... I'd like that. However, you had to join the union and pay a hefty sum. Hmmm... I'm not into hefty sums of payment just yet.
Child actors are great. They are sooooooooo precocious and easy to talk to. I'm always amazed at their ability to learn lines at a moment's notice and speak them perfectly on cue -EVERY TIME! To me, that is a natural talent that we grownups will always be amazed at. A show in itself. The mother also explained that her young son liked it better in this open studio environment where everyone gets to talk to everyone else, rather than being cooped up in a trailer. The boy was in a recent movie shoot, "The Good Shephard" with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie where he had to spend most of his time in a trailer -bored to death. I guess it's not always so great to get the "star treatment". It seems to isolate you from the real people and prevents an actor from regaining their natural humility -an essential baseline for character development.
During the final sceene we were sitting at the "speak-easy" tables yaking away with our "dates" -all of whom were pretty women dolled up to be even prettier. For me there's an occasional sense of "unresolved regret" whenever I carry on a friendly conversation that you know will be terminated by the director's loud shout of "CUT!". It's as though I've lost a chance at making a new friend. Then again, that's my own fault -isn't it?
When the shoot is over, there is a sense of a rush to get back into our "own custumes", shake hands with each other and the director... and stand in line to get our pay! This is the usual routine for extras.
Feature actors (those with lines to say), however, have to fill out an invoice and wait for the check in the mail. But then again, they get paid twice as much. Hmmmmm... maybe it's time to get myself an agent?!
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