So I got to Steiner Studios a bit early and streaked right past the guard gate (there was no one in it) to what I thought would be toward building #7 but the numbers stopped at #6 toward the far end of the lot. Puzzled, I got out of the car and asked for directions. I was told that it was an "airplane-hanger-like" building -almost next to the guard house! Oooops! In my zeal to get fitted first, I flew past the half-cylindrical structure that was at the very front of the studio lot.I reparked the car closer and walked over to the strange building's front with the understated door on it's right side. Entering it was even more perplexing. I was now in a small darkened vestibule with three doors -then took a guess at opening one of them. It opened onto a wide expanse of a Krell-like arrangement of clothing racks. Period clothing... from the 1920's.
A woman behind the makeshift table assemblages noted that I was early and that I could sit and wait. I made myself comfortable and just gazed around at the vast amount of clothes all arranged in painstakingly categorized nomenclatures. A man reviewed my name and gave me some papers to fill out. I quickly got that out of the way and settled in to doing my crossword puzzle from AM NewYork (they're soooo easy -even an extra could do it).It wasn't long before an attractive young woman (with a tiny twinkly diamond-like something stuck to her nostril flap) asked me to follow her into a neatly curtained fitting area, where her coleague would size me up with her measuring tape. For the next hour I was trying on various combinations of her choices of wool pants, shirt, tie, vest sweater, shoes and a fedora hat. All of which was to be reviewed by the "supervisor-fitter lady" -who wasn't satisfied with the results at all. In fact she just about took over and began a fitting process that took me from a shabby looking lowlife "dandy" to that of a better dressed middle-class worker wearing a hamburg. I liked her style -she knew how to dress a man up!
Walking around the area in my 1920's wardrobe got a few smiles from the locals (which I took in with great satisfaction). I needed that feeling because it's been a rather dry few months since my last gig -and in between that period I got laid off from my four-year old real-life job. And so I realized just how much I love being an extra exactly for this reason.
Filming of season #3 won't start until the latter part of February, but I don't mind. Like the stars and creators of this show who were awared with the Golden Globe awards, I look forward to another "renewed" season.
