UMLP... starring Hugh Grant‏

Hugh Grant

Don't you just love those ambiguous projects where you have no idea what you're getting involved in -you just go because... it's there (and it pays).  This was one of those excursions, albeit with a pleasant surprise.  Hugh Grant was the big star and from what some of the other extras were saying,

Marisa Tomei

Marisa Tomei was in it as well. The working title, "Untitled Mark Lawrence Project", was in honor of the director.

Marc Lawrence

Holding was at a new studio experience for me, SIR STAGE 37 on the west side of Manhattan near the Javits Center... in fact, the set WAS the Javits Center!  It was scouted to be an airplane terminal for both New York and LA!

I was just here the other week with my wife for the car show and now I was here to be in a Hugh Grant movie.  But no one told us what the movie was going to be about.  The best I could surmise from the two scenes that we had to wear dark and subsequent light clothings for, was that of a lonely traveler, Hugh, who was apparently some kind of a celebrity in his own right.  As he passes through the fake airport screening devices and collects his shoes, the airport guards all want to shake his hand!?  Unfortunately, I was not near enough to the dialogue to hear anything definitive.

Hugh was strictly business.  He didn't interact with any of us -only the director et al.  He kept his head down and seemed rather sad. His signature gestures of constantly running his fingers through the hair was missing. But the day went by quickly.  I met a few friends from previous gigs and helped a young Ukrainian girl with her first-time-as-an-extra experience.  She was relatively new in the US, had a green card for her ID and spoke English with a heavy accent.  I also met a tall middle-aged woman who was an "inventor" of an "immigrant control process" (an interesting juxtaposition with my Ukrainian friend) and held the patent which she'd been trying to hawk to government agencies for the past 12 years.  She ran out of ideas so I recommended that she take her "cause" to one of the NYC radio stations that holds an open forum for various types of political discussions.

Another woman was having problems with getting work after she joined the SAG-AFTRA union.  I've heard  of this before, from my more advanced extra-friends.  I suppose the cost of the extra pay for union members makes them somewhat less viable for regular work selection.  I could only advise her to complain to her casting agencies (maybe the squeaky wheel can get some oil... or work, in her case).  Unfortunately, this aspect of bg-work discourages me from wanting to eventually join up with the union. But I still need my 3rd waiver before I mull that over again!

The 2 scenes went quick and we were fed a regular warm lunch followed by deproping and a wrap-call! And, I might have another gig on Sunday to another one of those mysterious "project" titled shows: "The Untitled Columbia Pictures Project".  Ahhhh... the working life of an unaffiliated extra.