My agent must have gotten inspired by the title of this movie because the "coordination bug" really bit her for this gig. She arranged for groups of people to travel together in car-pools to Oakville, Connecticut. The movie company couldn't get any locals so we would be given the "coveted WAIVER" if we showed up. And it would have been pulled off flawlessly had it not been for THE STORM FROM HELL!!!
I was paired up with Pete as the driver, who lived in the next town over from me. We agreed to meet at 6:15 AM for the 9:15 AM call time. Sounded pretty fair... planning 3 hours for a 2 hour drive... yet our plans still went awry (or AW-REE, as my wife likes to pronounce it).
When I arrived at Pete's house, it was a gentle rain that drizzled upon my bare noggin as I switched to his car. A short wait and Pete was ready to pick up another passanger in nearby Inwood. But as we began to get on the main roads the sky opened up and the rain was now pouring down making visibility almost non-existent as Pete answered his cell phone. It was our agent... "Could you pick up one more passanger in Astoria???"... The rain was now a deluge as we turned onto the highway, Pete fiddling with the phone and the car swirving a bit here and there as his attention was being distracted at the thought of having to go out of our way.
The water on the highway was now at curb level as Pete "calmly" explained the delaying situation to our persistent agent, and eventually she relented so that we could continue on our way to pick up our scheduled 3rd passanger nearby. It was still dark and the oncoming storm made it even darker as we searched for the house number. After a few missed turns we found it and Pete, still dressed in his shorts and T-shirt, got out with an umbrella to help Donna into the car. It was a 2 door sports car so that negotiating the narrow door-space in the torrential rain delayed her entry and prolonged Pete's unscheduled soaking -his large stature requiring that the driver's seat be readjusted after Donna's ingress, thereby extending his exposure to the elements. The unbrella was useless now. The storm was raging, lightning, thunder and tremendously wild winds were the fare for the next hour or so. The radio was warning abut possible TORNADOS right in the area where we were traveling -the south shore of Long Island!!! (Later we learned that an official tornado, with strength EF-2, did touch down in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn at 6:30 AM... uprooting treets, roofs, CARS, etc.).
But who cared. We wanted those WAIVERS! Donna had one already but Pete and I were going for our first one. Three waivers will get you into SAG... which meant we would earn SAG money (almost twice the usual amount as for non-SAG extras). And we were going to show up for this gig -no matter what kind of weather slowed us down. But slow us, it did. We arrived at 11:15 AM... 5 hours driving and 2 hours late.
Luckily, they were understanding and the PA's treated us with consolation... we wouldn't be penalized for the "tardyness". Our arrival time would still show as 9:15 AM. Thak you PA's!
At noon we were called to set at the TAFT school. It was a pretty large, well manicured campus for a boarding school. A nice place to simulate a "college atmosphere". On the set there were "toga party" type pledges scattered all over the area. We, the older looking types, were to be "faculty". But for now, the faculty types were told to wait by a tree while Martin Lawrence and Raven, dressed in red gym clothes were screeching a golf-cart to the school's entrance... TG far away from us. Vincent Pastore also has a role in this movie -but he wasn't around. The scene was repeated for a long time... we were never called to be on camera and told to return to holding.
As it turned out, the production of that scene was running way too long and we, "the faculty", would not be used today. The announcement was "Call your agent to see if you will be needed tomorrow?!" We didn't care... we all had plans anyway. But as it turned out we were finished... not used for the scene... and we got our coveted waivers.
The trip home... in the calm dawn... was a lot faster.
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