TAKING CHANCE with Kevin Bacon

A sad story to be played out on HBO, based on the real life of a 19 year old Marine who gave his life in 2004 Iraq, so that his fellow Marines could all survive. His body, as prescribed by the Marines' tradition, is accompanied back home to Dubois, Wyoming to his family -never left alone during the entire trip. Kevin Bacon plays the accompanying Marine... Lt. Col. Michael Strobl.

The director, Ross Katz, got up to the gym's microphone and explained the story to us in heart-wrenching words. It was very emotional and the hundreds of extras listening were all appreciative of the director's efforts to address us in this way.

It was an early morning call to a sleeping New Jersey town's high school gym, but it was also an early afternoon release. One of the quickest sessions I've ever attended. The scene was relatively simple:

• the grieving family enters the gym and walks slowly to their seats


• we stand up in respect


• the high ranking Marine asks us to sit and begins to deliver the intro to the eulogy
  

We had to be sufficiently somber as the multiple cameras did their work while the scene was on...

In between takes however, we were attempting to be jolly... couldn't be helped... The guy next to me had a huge beard and it was his first time as an extra. His innocent questions and my wiseguy responses were a diabolical mix. Add to that the zaftig "reading woman" on my other side whose informational jibes were unexpectedly comical... well, we just needed the boost between the downer takes.

I was in the second row as Kevin Bacon walked around being one of the "funeral goers" and would occasionally get tips from the "real Marine" advisor on the set. His appearance reminded me of his role in "A Few Good Men" as the naval prosecuting attorney: stiff back, crew cut, no-nonsense attitude. And like other actors I've seen for the first time, he was shorter and skinnier than I had imagined from the screen. The only time I noticed him perk up was after one of the "check the gates" calls -he walked by and gave a wink & smile to the girl in front of me, who, I figured was somehow well known by the crew people who kept coming up to her earlier in the shoot session. I didn't recognize her to be one of the actors. Oh well -have to wait for the movie to come out, I guess.

The zaftig woman mentioned that Tom Wopat was playing one of the mourning family members and after looking at his Dukes of Hazard photos, I believed her... although, he was sporting a scroungy beard for this role.

The brown-bagged lunches we eventually received had consisted of a mushy ham and cheese sandwich with an apple and a bag of potato chips... I gave it away to one of the hungry PA's. I just didn't feel like eating anything after the morose atmosphere. I really didn't expect it to affect me this way -so I guess I must have acted pretty good in this one.