Boardwalk Empire on Staten Island

Softball invitation (from a hardball player)

The poster was scotch-taped to the side of the coffee maker under the blue crafty tent.  An inside tip to possibly see the crew of BE play softball at a remote baseball field in Brooklyn.  And on this cloudy Thursday in Staten Island I snapped a photo of it in hopes of going with my wife on the weekend. 

The anachronistic cellphone in the 1923's scene

Then suddenly we had to get back to Historic Richmond Town, which was being utilized by the HBO crew as the background to season-3's fourth episode... and I gulped down my coffee and crumb-cake to rush to the old Court House for the next scene.

Bobby Cannavale

Bobby Canavale had been recruited to be the new antagonist for Nucky's empire.  I was in a previous TV pilot with him called Mayor Of New York (which the director, Spike Lee couldn't sell). In BE, Bobby's character, "Gyp" Rosetti, had set the sheriff of the small town on fire and was now being "aquitted" by the local court.  Our direction was to exit the court house in "disbelief and fear" of the new gangster who has taken over the small "New Jersey town" and was now standing triumphantly on top of the court steps with his thugs.  (Unfortunately I was not in the following day's exciting scene where everyone gets machine gunned at the gas station down the block). 

Paired up with one of the ladies

We all crowded in the court house and Bobby was at one point behind me then in front of me... then on the front steps -depending on the director's whim.  We just scurried around him in abject disgust at his aquittal as the camera boom projected out horizontally at the man on the steps.  I might be seen for a frame or two...tbd.

Thugs

The weather was pretty moody and by late afternoon it started to rain.  I decided to hang out with the "thugs" on top of the steps and swap extras-stories.  One guy told us about being in SVU as a "guy who raped pregnant women" -Whoa... "mother rapers sitting right there next to me..." (that's a line out of Alice's Restaurant -which is kind of how I felt as the backstage show went on with the rain).

Stephen (aka Istvan) wearing 2 glasses

During our meal break we all sat in the local holding area on the court house's second floor, eating lots of delicious food.  The cheesecake with all the berries on top was my favorite!  I made friends with Stephen and we chatted it up about traveling and having a good time.  But our repast's jovial conviviality was somewhat interrupted by one of the young women at our table, who kept wailing into her cellphone at what we could only imagine was her "slave master".  The way she begged him not to hang up, and asking for repeated assurances not to leave her... and that she would be bringing home some food...  Although she tried to turn away from the rest of us around the table, there was no way she could think that we didn't hear her.  Nonetheless, she remained on the verge of tears; crying at times; leaving at times -but always within our earshot.  It was certainly more real than our acting today!

When daylight ended, we were released and I whipped out my trusty GPS to get me through Staten Island's foggy rain.  It worked!  Before I knew it, I was on some highway -right in the thick of traffic.  My GPS repeatedly echoing the dreaded word: RECALCULATING.

ELEMENTARY my dear Lucy

Yet another version of the Sherlock Holmes / John Watson relationship!? Hmmm... not so elementary -there is complexity afoot. Between Lucy Liu's first-ever depiction of Watson being a female and Johnny Lee Miller (of Eli Stone and Dexter fame) as a rather diminutive Sherlock... I don't know... I can't really say.

On my way to holding, my wife called me to let me know that a deathly ill cousin (about to be placed on hospice care) whom we've been visiting in the hospital for the past week, had come out of her high-fever coma-like deterioration and is sitting up and talking normally. When you hear news like this... it just makes everything else have a blissfull aura. And with that happy attitude I continued on to find "holding".

Our holding area was in St. Agnes on New York City's East 43rd Street, where about a hundred or so of us extras arrived at 7:00 PM and were processed to be subway travelers for this pilot shoot. From what one of the crew told me, this was the only episode being shot and then it's pitch-and-sell time to CBS. Sudden flashes of Spike Lee's MONY, my first TV pilot participation, came into memory. That particular pilot never made it to the boob tube... let's hope this one fares better.

We were placed in Grand Central Station's subway shuttle (S train) platform for about 4 hours. The director on the set was a man in a ND-grey shirt named Michael Cuesta (Homeland).

Our direction was to act like typical New Yorkers going for the train as Lucy Liu and Johnny Lee Miller were passing in front of us, preceded by a cadre of steady-cam assistants. I was paired up with a stunning looking young lady and our banter between takes made the hours very bearable. Our dash into the train was routine but unpredictable as to just how much nano-second screentime we'd be getting on this simple scene's final cut.

No food for the extras tonight... only a bottle of welcome water while we were on set and in holding. An AFTRA agent told us that this would not happen if we were in the union. He also told us that AFTRA and SAG were coming to a resolution on merging and that the voting results were being counted this Friday. I said I'd wait to join them... aha, yeah... check's in the Saturday mail.

I was somewhat hungry for a snack when they released us at midnight. Nothing seemed to attract my appetite -it was as though I really didn't need food. So I bought a simple tea and a croissant at Penn Station while letting my stiff body slide into the relative comfort of a metal chair in this multi-food shop. Suddenly the thought of a recovering cousin came back to memory and I was feeling great again.

Court scenes of Blue Bloods and Damages

Ironically, it was almost the same court-scene scenario for both episodes. I did Damages (last episode of season 5) on Friday of a week ago, and Blue Bloods (season 2) on just this past Friday. One court was in Queens and the latter in the Bronx, but they both depicted the opening statements of a serious court trial.

Bridget Moynahan is a stunning tall lady with great legs... but her countenance is a combination of sad and aloof. Her lines were direct and well delivered in contrast with Damages' Glenn Close and Rose Byrne -who blew their lines countless times. A very important lesson for us extras to see the pros make repeated mistakes and yet continue with their performances as best they can.
During the shoot of Damages, it was obvious that neither Glenn nor Rose had their hearts in their performance. Perhaps they were tired, or perhaps it was time to wind the show down. They lost a lot of viewers when they switched channels from FX to Direct TV -myslef included (since my cable provider doesn't have it)!

So, by contrast, Blue Bloods did a very good job of keeping the court gallery engaged and alert to the shenanigans of the defendants. I particularly liked the director, James Whimore Jr.

He's the son of the late James Whitmore, whom I remember with wonderful memories of the acting work he'd done on TV in "Judd For The Defense"... of course he became a prolific actor on stage and screen as well -he was also a US Marine in World War II. And now his son is here -directing us in his own style: loud, brash, crabby, overbearing -but always in a friendly manner....

In the back of the courtroom some of us had trouble believing that he was the son, but an iPhone with access to the internet was immediately enlisted to verify his imdb status as well as his genetics. Other topics in the back of the courtroom were about porn-bloopers... which all but made us crackup in a plethora of comical discussions. Luckily our direction was to make noise at certain times of the "court proceedings" -and needless to say, we timed our boysterous behaviour accordingly. (pssst... "the real show always takes place backstage")

The holding area was a great hall in the Bronx County Court's rotunda area. We had to be metal-detected and searched to be able to enter it. But once inside, we were treated to good food and some inspirational quotes and paintings of the court's founding fathers that surrounded us during our repast. One quote in particular impressed me the most:

THE GLORY OF AMERICA IS THAT SHE IS A GREAT SPIRITUAL CONCEPTION AND IN THE SPIRIT OF HER INSTITUTIONS DWELLS NOT ONLY HER DISTINCTION BUT HER POWER - THE ONE THING THAT THE WORLD CANNOT PERMANENTLY RESIST IS THE MORAL FORCE OF GREAT TRIUMPHANT CONVICTIONS

After we were released, at 1:30 AM in the Bronx, a small band of leery travelers gathered -planning the "possibly dangerous" walk to the subway a few blocks down from the Grand Concourse. So about 7 of us tribaled our resources and walked the dark streets. Only one incident with a demostrative amorous couple (humping under the streetlight while laughing at us) were encoutered, but we circumnavigated their playfull attitude and quickly descended to the subway platform. The rest of the trip went without incident and we all chatted up a storm that made the ride to 34th Street relatively quick. Unfortunately, at this time the LIRR trains to home are few and far in between. This allowed me forty minutes to observe the early St. Patricks Day drunks stumbling and keeling over onto the stations sturdy columns -many of them were young women. Young disgusting-when-drunk women... judgmentally sad. Guess that too is part of "HER INSTITUTIONS".

Reflection: You don't have to be a drunk to get home at 3:30 AM.

A 1920s Realism on the set of Boardwalk Empire

Working on the set created for Boardwalk Empire
Very impressive! The set that was created for this show was simply AMAZING... so true to life. It actually made you feel like you were transported back in time and you had to creatively interact with all of the manufactured reality in order to contribute to the show's success.

Season #3 kicked off with this episode -the idea was to establish new relationships and character definitions before the plot begins to thicken. The role of Richard Harrow, the half-faced man, is played by Jack Huston (yes... related to all the Hustons -John, Angelica, etc.).

Jack Huston as Richard Harrow
In this scene he is target shooting at a carnival (which was another set located down the steps from the boardwalk). He is bonding with a little boy who is the son of his good friend (one of the most popular characters killed in the season-finale episode of last season). The scene had to be reshot numerous times -one reason being was that the little boy was constantly blocking his face with the many toys he had to hold. Later I found out that the little boy was a twin. They use twins a lot I was told, because of the child-labor laws. There is a restriction clause on how long they can be worked -and so twins or even triplets are hired for childrens' roles.

I got lucky, because after standing in the distance, one of the AD's decided to bring me up front and put me directly behind Jack, along with some other mix of extras, and the direction was to look on in amazement as his sharpshooting skills miff the patience of the booth's barker. The barker asks Jack to leave before all his toy inventory is depleted. Being a veteran of WWI, where Richard was a sniper -his shooting skills are, of course, an unfair advantage. But Richard moves on unperturbed with his young companion and melds into the crowd along the carnival's central-planked avenue -busy on both sides with other barkers, and a LIVE ELEPHANT.

This was a wonderful surprise... to be one of the mulling crowds' member and to saunter a few feet past a live elephant. In holding we were pre-warned by the PA's "not to touch the elephant"! But there was some trepidation due to the chilly weather this day. It seems that the animal rights clause in the elephant's contract did not allow it to work if the temperature fell below a certain degree. Luckilly for us the sunny day warmed up a bit -not too much... just a bit and the elephant was allowed to "act". (Kids and elephants have great union contracts.) In fact the PA's were handing out "chemical hand-warmers" to us in order to prevent shivering. For me, it was my toes in my thin 1920's shoes that started to numb, but my jumping up and down between takes brought the circulation's warmth back.

At another scene, we were instructed to interact with the "tall man" and the "fat lady". So we imitated her hula-dance and stretched to shake hands with the tall fellow. The poor fat-lady was also very cold between takes and had to have a long coat put on her (I believe her contract clause may have stipulated it) ... unfortunately, no one cared for the tall man (seems there are no unions for tall-men)!? I felt bad for him. But we all persevered and the day ended only when the sun went down. This is a kind of signature use of light for Boardwalk Empire -natural lighting and a tenacious crave for detailed authenticity -which was part of what earned them the Emmy Award this year.

I have to note that the food was varied, plentifull and excellent. Everyone was treated well and it was one of the few times that the privileged union/non-union lineup didn't bother me. I also met up with my friend Marilyn, whom I haven't seen on set in ages. I snapped a few photos in holding of our period get-ups.
And then an unusual event occured where we were asked to lineup in the front of the holding area. It seems that a city film crew from the mayor's office was doing a documentary of sorts on the Boardwalk Empire costumes and set for REEL JOBS.gov -for which we all had to sign a separate release to use our image. I believe there's a special clause in the agreement for us extras which only allows a kind of "exploitation":

"...(c) the right to exhibit, distribute, transmit and/or otherwise exploit such reproductions containing my voice and/or appearance, edited or altered as you may see fit, in any and all media now or hereafter known throughout the universe in perpetuity, and in advertising and publicity in connection therewith... "

In other words... we don't get anything extra for the extra. Sometimes I wish I was an elephant... or a kid... or a "fat-lady"!

Law and Order... finally!

Mariska Hargitay and Danny Pinto

FINALLY!

I've been trying to get on this gig for the longest time... I mean EVERYBODY's been on it but me. I've had to endure so many conversations about it from my fellow extras. And now my ambition has been realized (Yabba-Dabba-Doo).

It was a late morning call time at JFK's terminal #4 and I decided to self-report via LIRR and AirTrain combo -since I lived relatively close to the set. But as it turned out, it would have been cheaper for me to go into the city and take the specially rented shuttle bus ($19.95 vs. the $$25 I spent for the double-train joy-ride). Be that as it may... it was all worth it to get on the show.

My wardrobe passed muster at the first check this time and I settled in for the wait to be called to set. My table started to get lively when the bus arrived from the city and the cast of characters quickly got friendly with one another. The girl next to me was a former Radio City Hall rockette; the young guy across the table from me was a sketch artist... and a bit innocent (we had to explain the difference between a "hipster" and a "metrosexual" to him). He was very talkative -which was a good thing, and practically interviewed everyone around the table. Next to him was a middle aged guy who was a screenwriter and had made forays into producing a TV pilot... unfortunately, it didn't go anywhere -but he was good natured and took it in stride. On my other side sat a young girl with a heavy french accent. She spent a lot of time on the phone in perfect francais conversations. She was reading a book about acting and we got into a method vs. experimental theater conversation. And suddenly we were called to the set on the 4th floor.

A couple of us were selected to be business types crossing the path of a fleeing felon. He bolts as soon as Mariska Hargitay and her sidekick, Danny Pinto question him from behind the name-holding chaufer line. They chase him down in the airport and a confrontation ensues. Needless to say, we all get jostled in some way or another from the running principals. Loved it!

Director Peter Leto

Mariska was very friendly with us... she joked around and was definitely a decisive voice in how the scenes should progress. After all, she'd done hundreds of episodes and knew what worked and what didn't. The director, Peter Leto was very good in the debates with the cameramen. He knew what was needed and expressed it creatively to us thrugh his assistants. I was impressed with the way the large airport space was managed and utilized for the short shoot.

My partner in this scene was a former PR person who left the industry for a while but realized just how much she was re-enjoying it again and was getting ready to get back into it. She had a friend on the crew who explained the scene to us. I asked if there were any cameo stars in this episode and she mentioned that Chloe Sevegny was downstairs in her trailer -but unfortunately not in this scene. ZUT ALORS! Chloe is one of my favorite actresses and I was thoroughly disappointed at not being able to catch a glimpse of her. EH BIEN... that's how life is scripted.

Meanwhile, our blocking was soooo good that most of us were wraped early and sent home at 3:30 PM... still daylight!!! WOW! That hasn't happened to me for a while. Even the checkout went pretty quick. Great shoot...great experience...

Epilogue 1: Aired on 4/18/2012 - a very quick chase scene!
Oh... whooosh... suddenly I remembered that I had been conducting some pretty confident interviews in the past month in hopes of getting back into the "paying-job" genre of my working life. But quite frankly I don't know which way that decision will go by the powers that be. And so I'm self-reflecting, realizing that I'm on pins and needles about it. I'll find out by month's end whether I get the "big gig" or if I continue to be a regular extra this summer (perhaps on Person Of Interest)...sic.


Epilogue 2: Afer 5 interviews, I didn't get the real-world job... bummer.

SHAT happens! (as his T-shirt proclaims)

William Shatner exits the Music Box Theater

We watched as the 80 year old actor, known to most of us as Captain Kirk, exited the Music Box Theater near Shubert Alley to thunderous applause and cheers. His one-man show, "SHATNER'S WORLD -We just live in it..." is running for a limited engagement and we just had to see him in person -at least once in his lifetime!

The show is a couple of hours of rambling... we didn't really care what he was talking about... it was just great to see him do his "Shatner-style" of story telling complete with his one-of-a-kind delivery replete with halting emphases (yes, the multiple version of emphasis).

Bill's mini-catharsis was entertaining for the most part, at times we nodded off but found ourselves paying attention to his various forms of homage to some major stars that he performed with (noticably absent was his stint with Angie Dickinson -wink, wink).

He didn't give any autographs and from what we heard through the crowd was that if you paid $275 a person, you could get a backstage tour from him. They didn't call Shatner "The Negotiator" for nothing! So after a moment or so of waving to the nighttime crowd, he entered his black Mercedes and as far as we were concerned... boldly went where no star has shone before.

Live long and prosper Bill!

Gala for A Gifted Man

...a.k.a. Patrick Wilson playing the part of Dr. Michael Holt -in this shooting of the last episode of the season (I remember him as Nite Owl 2 in the WATCHMEN movie). The scene is a gala affair taking place at the Roosevelt Hotel. The same hotel I spent 2 weekends as background for Man On A Ledge, which my wife and I went to see yesterday in the movies and loved it (even though the critics panned it -never trust any critics!).

But getting back to the topic at hand, the call time for the CBS production was at 8:30 AM today (the day of the Giant's parade down the Canyon Of Heros on the other side of town) -still, everyone showed up on time to get their wardrobe and makeup checked. The women got the best of the deal -yet again the most attractive of the 50 or so extras needed for this fete. Our holding area was inside a ballroom at the hotel, where we were not allowed to bring any food (yeah, right)!? I snuck in a bagel and lox with cream cheeze -which I wolfed down to avert the evil decree of being discovered with food and getting ejected. Luckily our PA, Bernard, was a friendly and tolerant guy. He was professional and focused mainly on the directorial part of the job.

After consulting with the ladies at my table for the best choice of ties, the dark brown was overwhelmingly selected. Unfortunately, my wardrobe check failed the tie test and the wardrobe supervisor decided to temporarily trade my voucher for what I thought to be a very non-descript piece of "shmatta". Be that as it may, I acquiesced to the requirements of the scene (what do I know anyway?). After that there wasn't much to do other than chat it up with my table mates. The conversation flowed around vitamins, politics and agents; I got a few "how to get more gigs" tips out of these encounters. It was a friendly group and getting familiar with each other's backgrounds made the waiting time fascinating and informative.

There were two scenes: one was milling around outside the balroom while Patrick and company chatted with some of the awarded-guests-of-honor, and the second scene dealt with sitting around the dinner tables while watching one of the speakers faint. I was one of the people picked to suddenly stand up in shock at the unexpected show-stopper (my only hope of being seen in the final cut).

EPILOGUE: Yes, that's me in the circle again (behind the plant)!? The season finale aired 3/2/2012

It all went well as David Platt, the director, darted between the cameras and the actors to get just the right effect.

Director David Platt

The shoot went on for us until almost 7:00 PM and then we were released. It was a great relief to exchange my voucher back for the ND-tie. I turned my cell back on, collected my phone messages and saw that a real-life job interview was being set up for me. In a way I was elated and in another way I was a bit sad. And then reality set in: I have bills to pay!

I quickly bade good night to my fellow table buddies, got my voucher ok'd -got my coat on and raced down the stairs only to come face to face with the star, Patrick, himself. I spontaneously smiled and said "take care" - he spontaneously reciprocated "you too"... and in a few moments I was out in the Manhattan night air. Walking up the block, I was kicking myself for not asking him if the show was being renewed.................. or, if he was making another WATCHMEN movie!

Participants in The Revolution

Finally got my wife to join me in one of my extras gigs. We were part of the audience in a new daytime TV show, THE REVOLUTION. Got to the Chelsea Studios in the early morning and waited in the studio's driveway with all the other audience guests for an hour or so to be let in.

While we were waiting, I let one of the PAs know that we were part of "Christine's people"!
-"O.K. -Come with me, and stand against the other wall" and soon all the other people, standing against the original wall were ushered in first!? Oh boy... did I do something wrong? Were we just cannon fodder now?

As it turned out, there were other "Christine people" joining us and we too were soon allowed to pass through the "metal detecting" security check to the basement holding area. Here we "decompressed" from our long wait and were entertained by the funny "warm up guy". And soon the entire crowd was taken to a huge service elevator which crawled up a few flights and eventually opened to let us file out in orderly fashion to the studio set.

More warm-up funny stuff and eventually the show started. There were four people who made up a pannel of "tipsters": house-builder Ty Pennington, fashion runway expert Tim Gunn, ob-gyn physician Jennifer Ashton, advice expert Tiffanie Davis and personal trainer to celebrities Harley Pasternak. They started the show with some gross discussion about "buggers", eventually transitioning to interviewing a celebrity, Monica Potter, and finally concluding with providing support to an obese mother.

Our direction was to clap enthusiastically on cue with "happy-happy-joy-joy-having-fun" expressions. Extra shoots of these clapping/smiling sessions were needed after the show ended, and suddenly my wife realized how staged all the audience reactions must be for other shows as well. She now enjoys these shows with a new understanding (i.e. you never know what the audience is really reacting to... real situations or fake prompts).

Ahhh... education about media-manipulation; it's soooo refreshing to see it dawn on others.

Fit for a walk in the Boardwalk Empire

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.

Pan Am in the Bowery Ballroom

What better place to shoot a Paris nightclub scene than on Delancey Street in downtown Manhattan... in the Bowery. The location scouts are so imaginative.

My suit-fitting session at Steiner Studios was very productive a few days ago when I got measured for a 1963 outfit: suit with open shirt -pants worn high. Very drab -a perfect fit for an ND background extra.
Steiner Studios are very well kept. They are clean, curteous and very professional there. More so than at my regular day-job. I was immensely impressed. It was also great to be back in my old college neighborhood... Pratt was not far away from here... but I decided this was not the time to visit. I had been an alumni guest there with my wife a few years ago -but memory lane would have to wait, there were other memories coming up.

Holding was at the historical St. Patrick's Old Catherdal on Mulberry Street. I read up on it a bit -as I like to know more and more about NYC's historical places (an extra benefit from this line of work). My preparation came in handy later during our discussions while walking to the set along it's long "protective" brick wall. I also recognized that this was the neighborhood that I had come to for my "Italian film debut" at the end of last year.

We all collected our altered clothings from the wardrobe department and changed behind a makeshift set of labariynthine arras setups. We all had to be styled with a 1963 haircut so we lined up for the looooong wait. But the chit chat made it bearable as our respective turns would eventually come up. My hair had to be done twice.

The first time it only got pasted down... and then as I passed by the head-hairstylist guy, he flagged me down and clipped a few more strands from the back of my duck-ass curls. When he finished with me I looked like an old time Brylcreem ad.
The women looked the best. They all got twinkly evening gowns with high waists and expressed decolletage -complemented by pageboy flip hairdos that were topped off with a pillbox hat! Did they really look like this in Paris 1963... I guess they must have since there were old magazine clips of 1963 people scotch-taped to the walls for reference.

We were taken to the set about 5 blocks away at the Bowery Ballroom -where another makeshift holding area awaited us. This time it was the basement bar -a welcome refuge for us after the very bright sunny walk through the hot summer day. In the basement it was dark and cool. We continued the chat as some of us got sporadically called to set upstairs. I got antsy after a few hours of sitting and not being called -and decided to walk up the steps that opened up to a two tiered dance club -complete with camera crew, directors and a bevy of extras. It was wonderful. But with the hours flying by and many of us not having been called up to set... well, I was having my doubts as to whether or not they were going to use all of us or not. So I accepted my probable fate and moseyed down to the basement to sit out the rest of the afternoon in Pan Am oblivion.

This proved to be a gross misconception on my egotistic part. Because soon after, we were all summoned to "center stage" and spread around the top floor's nightclub scenario. I was placed with one of the women near the bar area, where Colette, one of the "Pan Am stewardesses", played by Karine Vanasse is having a drink with a friend. Oh goody, at least I caught a glimpse of one of the stewardesses. At another part of a scene, I was placed at the bar itself and told to fraternize with the bartender and the guests around me -while smoking a cigarette. I don't smoke... but these were herbal cigarettes and we were not supposed to bring them near our faces or inhale -only for the effect of the 1963 predilection for smoking... everywhere! So I lit one up... then another... and another...and another... and Oh yeah, it was high-school memory time. The young bartender and I were bantering back and forth as the next scene was being set up. Between the scenes, we could take a break by going outside... into the brightness of reality that was Delancey Street. Many years ago, when I first came to this country with my parents, we would go shopping in this neghborhood. Clothes, shoes, tablecloths... all were bought the usual way: bartering. That world disappeared... this was now a shieky-trendy nabe on the fringes of the ever-expanding Chinatown -where young people would come to louder and louder exhibitions of rock-band euphoria... all the while smoking real cigarettes...et al.

A different pretty starlet, this time a blonde, with an English gentleman was now next to me. They chatted with us a bit (thereby releasing us from the "don't speak to the stars" restrictions). I mentioned my trip to England, to Lynne and Ouspensky's grave and the vicar there...etc. The Englishman picked up on the thread, but then the director (man with glasses... I assume it was Thomas Schlamme) called out "camera's rolling...and BACKGROUND!"
The pretty starlet turned out to be Anabelle Wallis -who was playing the part of Bridget -presently having an altercation with two men. There is some secret document being passed between the characters. But all the while, I just keep drinking my wine (cranberry juice) then chatting en francais with the barkeep, and later still with an African-American patron and oogling a girl having a drink a few seats away from me. That, basically was my silently-mimed moment of glory on this set.

[Flash-forward: The resulting scene was actually in episode #2 (aired on 10/2/2011) -and, as shown below (from a photo off my tv screen) -I barely got my profile into a quick shot with Bridget and her frantic pilot boyfriend chasing after a spy in the nightclub.]



While they were "checking the gates", I told Anabelle she did a great job with the script and descended to the dance floor. There must have been better than a half a dozzen scenes that we were all in. My odds of being seen on camera in this early episode have increased -though there are never any guarantees.
During one of the "wait for ACTION!" to be called moments, a rather stunning girl was placed in front of me. I saw the similarity in her face to one of my favorite actresses of the past, and asked her if anyone ever told her she looked like Ava Gardner.

"Who?" was the sincere reply... as my jaw dropped in surprise to her lack of familiarity with one of the greats. And so I turned to the guy next to me who was keeled over on the table in a "lack of sleep stupor" and I asked him:
"You know who Ava Gardner is... don't you?"... I might as well have been in a vacuum. He replied that he didn't know her either -and keeled right back into his restfull position. So I turned to the stunning girl and tried to explain it without any success. And it was at this point that I finally accepted being an anachronism... or at least trapped in the Hollywood Twilight Zone. But I could work with that -after all, it's part of acting strange.

In fact, we worked from 7:30 AM to about 12:30 AM... long... longer than I'd expected. But then one of the other women said that she had worked for this show last week and she didn't get home until 8:00 AM the following morning. Guess I got lucky. I got home at 3:30 AM.

Budapest theater experiences

Some 55 years ago, I was in the 3rd grade -on a class trip to a puppet theater in Budapest... my birthplace. We were shown to our seats in a very orderly fashion... the show started and we were mesmerized by the story that was taking place on the puppet stage.

Suddenly... the lights went off and there was complete darkness. In fact it seemed like a very long time that we were in a kind of "will the play continue?" limbo.

And then a very startling moment took place. The theater's giant doors flew open -revealing a tremendous bright light that eventually subsided as our eyes got used to the change, revealing everyone in the streets running in everywhich way... and then the terse announcement: "All of you can go home..." -Just like that, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was under way -but none of us in the class knew that. All we knew was that a moment ago there was order -and now there was utter chaos. I knew where I was and I knew where I lived -and so I started toward my home. Luckily, my parents were somehow aware of what had been happening and were en route to intercept me... We all made it home -only to become refugees in the following weeks.

And now, in the present day -I am standing in front of these doors that flung open to a new life. Needless to say, I did not go to see a puppet show here again.

But my wife and I did go to see a show at the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theater. And interestingly enough, the musical we saw "A Nice Summer Day", deals with a teenager's dilema to escape from post-1956 Hungary or to "stay in the boat". The boy stays and he is heralded as a hero for doing so. As this was a very popularly accepted sentiment with the audience, who clapped for 20 straight minutes, I couldn't help but reflect on my own situation -wherein I didn't have a choice. But I was glad that my parents made the right choice -to leave the unstable future that communist Hungary would become.

One burning question remained for me after all these past years... one that kind of haunted me -perhaps even made me act strange... the question being: What would my life been like, had my family stayed in Budapest?". I had all sorts of phantasies, such as a champion gymnast (I was always very flexible), or a champion chess grandmaster (although I learned chess at 5, I had abandoned it until my college years... in Hungary my "talent" might have burgeoned -yeah... "burgeoned")... etc.

But my question was slowly answered from the various discussions I had with people in Hungary while touring now in 2011. The answer was not a pretty picture. Many people were arrested after 1956 and sent either to prison or to Siberia by the Russians and their "puppet" government in Hungary. Those who came back from prison were not treated as heroes... not commemorated until the iron curtain was eliminated in 1989.

So this was a very revolutionary reconnection for me... plenty of emotion-stirring experiences for me to draw on... for fututre gigs... albeit not in the Budapest theater.

NYC Celebrities

We went to see Robin Williams in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo -excellent acting work. Very charismatic. Also, it's clear that there's no end to Robin's generosity. A great human being all around.

David Beckham

I got this great snapshot of David Beckham after he gets interviewed outside ABC studios on Broadway.

Kiefer Sutherland

At another romp through New York City we decided to go snapping pics of actors et al. It's a simple formula: just hang out at the exit doors of Broadway shows (with all the autograph seekers) at the end of each show... and start clicking away with your digital zooming camera. Other places to hang out is in Times Square, near the ABC studios. Here are some of my latest photos of Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Noth, Chris Rock, Bobby Cannavale, Sam Champion, George Stephanopoulos, Jason Castro, Mario Andretti...

Chris Noth

Chris Noth was very friendly, occasionally grimacing a funny face when one of the people made a comment to him like, "Hey Mr. Big -is it really?". He'll never live down his Sex and the City role (what guy would want to?).

Chris Rock

Chris Rock posed with a couple of people -great attitude and very generous with his time. Everyone who wanted a photo or a signature eventually got it.

Bobby Cannavale

Bobby Cannavale continued to remain in character all throghout his signings: a kind of sad and dour effect. When he came near me, I asked him "Whatever happened to M.O.N.Y. that we were in -never picked up by NBC?" He immediately looked up and gave a sad acknowledgment of "Oh yeah..." and nodded as he passed on with his signing duties. So much for small talk!

Sam Champion and George Stephanopoulos of ABC's Good Morning America

Sam Champion was a lot more livelier than George. They were closing out the morning show on the day before the Royal Wedding in England in Times Square. Sam remained and posed with a couple of women after the signoff.

Constantine Maroulis

The Rock of Ages/American Idol-star was the friendliest when we got his attention. He constantly flashed the "rock-on" salute -popularized in the show. (I've always identified it with the "happy Hawaiian" hand gesture.)

Jason Castro at B.B. King's off Times Square

My wife and I went to see Jason and his band perform. We got front row tables and had a great time listening to his sound while munching on nachos with a couple of drinks.

Car raceing champion Mario Andretti

There he was with his IZOD promo and a 2-seater racing car in front of Macy's last week. I once got his autograph... more than 20 years ago (when his hair was still black), so it was a strange thrill to see him again in his graying stage of life -still in it, albeit from the business end.

OK... so I'm a groupie!

A Late Quartet… a very very late quartet

Christopher Walken

Call time was 4:30 PM –they wrapped us at 5:AM the following morning. But the excruciating part was that they didn’t use most of us for the first 7 hours. We just sat in holding at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s lunch room area while the principals did their shtick in the theater section opposite the Egyptian papyrus drawings.

Philip Seymour Hoffman

I met up with a few of my background-buddies and camped out in the back of the non-SAG area. There were not enough chairs for everyone so we switched sitting and standing at opportune intervals. At times the banter flowed easily, at other times we were just gawking at the well dressed people and commenting on their attributes. Some of the young women had no problem with slinking in and out of their evening wear in front of a hundred people while still wearing their street clothes to cover any overexposure. Women are so clever… they know how to entertain us guys!

We had brown-paper bagged lunches at 9:00 PM, while the SAG-people had a hot catered meal. The familiar foment of the non-SAG masses began with a disgruntled murmur. So much so that our PA had to make a speech about this food/room-apartheid not being a class-distinction but rather a “fact of acting-life”. Yet another instance of “acting strange”! (Please note that I do not hate SAG people –I hate the class separation. Also, to be fair -for a SAG-point of view, please read Jennie's comments at the end of this blog entry).

The irony in all this was that we were all supposed to be dressed as high-style/upper-class patrons of the art, observing the performance of a highly successful string quartet. The quartet on the stage was composed of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener and Mark Ivanir. Yaron Zilberman was the director and Wallace Shawn had a part in the near-stage audience (the rest of us were far and fuzzy non-descript stage audiences).

Wally Shawn

But it was fun to watch the principals banter on the stage. Walken being the nuttiest with his usual “did my mind arrive yet” persona. A couple of giggles ensued when Hoffman tried too hard to play his viola and screeched a few sounds (none of them could really play –the music was all dubbed in the background). But the part that really irked me was that none of them showed any passion (didn’t even try to show how much the music was affecting them), in spite of their music coach… so where’s the acting!?. Mark Ivanir was the only one to pick up on how to move his fingers for a vibrato effect on his violin.

Mark Ivanir

Too bad their collective effort to show a top-class musical group in action, was really falling flat and it was obvious that none of them had any musical training. And Keener was constantly removing her shoes and rubbing her toes -even rolled down her stockings above her knees to the surprised guffaws of her fellow "musicians". Uptight with a bad fit, I’d guess.

Catherine Keener

The Takacs String Quartet (briefly referred to and badly mispronounced by Christopher Walken on stage) is most likely the group that this movie was modeled after. A short bio from their home page states: "The Takacs Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai and András Fejér, while all four were students. It first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982. Violinist Edward Dusinberre joined the Quartet in 1993 and violist Roger Tapping in 1995. Violist Geraldine Walther replaced Mr. Tapping in 2005. In 2001 the Takács Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit of the Knight’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary." Memento mori: In 1994, Ormai learned that he had incurable cancer -he died in 1995 at age 40. For his part, Christopher Walken plays the elder member of the quartet, who has developed Parkinsons Disease and who consequently in the middle of their playing, stands up and announces that he can't keep up with his members -then following it with the introduction of a replacement cello player. A little more banter with the audience as he throws a kiss to all and walks off stage right. Bravo! (Take 5...6...7...)

By 3:30 AM everyone in the audience was keeling over with sleep –and when the director said we could break for 5 minutes… well, the groans were just inescapable. And they were followed by “We don’t need 5 minutes –we need to go home!”. Apparently the powers that be eventually relented and by 5:00 AM some of us were in the street at 5th Avenue and 84th Street, hailing cabs, including me.

I thought that I could get home by catching a cab to Penn Station and hopping on a late-night train. Unfortunately I had just missed the 4:54 AM and had to wait over an hour before the next train was leaving toward my home’s destination. Needless to say I didn’t get any sleep. But it felt good to be home, say hello to my wife –change my clothes and leave for work. And I know I said this before… but now I mean it: NO MORE OVERNIGHT SHOOTS! (Really...)

Man On A Ledge on Madison Avenue

Elizabeth Banks and Sam Worthington (aka: The Avatar guy)

I should have known when my agent, Desiree, asked me if I was up to doing this stint for 2 weekends –that it was going to be something grueling. And it was… 5:AM calls, for which, I had to get up at 3:15 AM… or so I set my clock, and then promptly turned it off in my sleep-deprived delirium. Of course my wife –who happened to get up at 4:AM nudged me to remind me about this gig.

And then I realized... WHOAAA! ---- I'm gonna be late?!!!

Kyra Sedgwick, cop, ME-the one with the bright face- and Sam Worthington

And in 10 minutes I took my shower, dressed and was out the door and into my car. I was no longer deliberating on whether or not I should take a train from my home station. The drive from my house to the city on the empty roads was a marvel of delight! I was there and parked at our 45th street and 2nd Avenue holding area in under 40 minutes.

Why I rush to these early calls I’ll never know. The line was out the door and the hundreds of extras that were slated for this scene weren’t finished being processed for another hour. But a commitment is a commitment –and I stick by it.

Holding was a kind of an unfinished store with a second half-floor overlooking the 1st. It had exposed girders and lot’s of cement dust. But it was able to hold the large band of extras –many of whom (us non-SAG bg’s) were corralled to the cramped, untabled, darkened, second floor. This is such a bunch of hooeyfied discrimination. SAG gets to be in a spacious floor with tables and the rest of us get to cramp up in a cave-like dwelling. Reminded me of the beginning of 2001:A Space Odyssey –where the apes are huddling inside a cavern. First come, first served -I say!

Three madeup Hassids

One of the production assistants went around to ask if anyone wanted to be made up to be a Hassidic Jew!? Three old guys were "chosen" –and it took about an hour for the makeup experts to affix the appropriate facial hair to make them look authentic. Luckily there were 2 real-deal Hassids they could copy from. Other exotics were Sikhs and Moslems.
(Gosh… I hope it’s politically correct to call them “exotics” -since the rest of us were ND's?!)

We were finally called to set a little before 7:AM and placed in bunches along the four corners of Madison Avenue and 45th Street, near The Roosevelt Hotel. This is where “the ledge” was going to be… about 20 stories up. There was very little oversight for us bg's and we tended to wander over to wherever we wanted to -unless we were selected to do some "feature" work (but only the cute girls get picked for that)!

Michael Laurence

I wound up on one corner the first day doing the "crowd below does cheer and fist-pump" action for the man on the ledge. There was a taxi in front of us and the scuzzy-looking guy sitting on it looked familiar. I inched up to him and asked him if he was in the last season of DAMAGES. He was glad that I recognized him and we chatted for a minute or two. As it turned out, he was playing a scuzzy-looking guy again in this scene also. His name was Michael Laurence -an upcoming star.

Sam was our hero and confidently tethered through his clothing, as were the other ledge-walkers (cameramen, stunt dudes, other actors, etc.)... but it was still a scarry sight to see Sam sit on the corner ledge and dangle his feet while waving to the crowd below to react to him. 20 stories below, an airbag awaited any wardrobe-malfunction problems that might suddenly occur.

Man on a Ledge throws money to the extras

The "jump" was done in 4 takes: two for the stunt-double, who was raised about 30 feet above the bag via crane and cable; and two takes following with Sam doing a 10 foot backward-falling dive from the crane's ledge (sans tether). We were viewing this from our new places -next to an ambulance that was constantly on and sending carbon monoxide into our immediate area. We complained to the nearby PA to tell the ambulance driver to turn the motor off... he then called another PA with our complaint...who, in turn called another PA... until finally, the 4 th PA behind us came over to us and asked "What's the problem???". When we explained and showed him the exhaust we had to stand near, he shrugged his shoulder, spoke into his walkie-talkie and no one did anything. Since we were all getting a bit dizzy, we decided to take our safety into our own hands and joined another crowd -far away from the ambulance. No one noticed. As I said before, oversight on this set was very poor. Where are the union-reps when you need them?

Director Asger Leth

But we background extras are a hearty group and when we "smell" action coming up -we persevere! And action it was... as Kyra Sedgewick and Ed Harris came on the set. The director with the very understated persona was Asger Leth. He was friendly enough and even posed for the crowd toward the end of the day. Only the physical scenes seemed to animate him -as he went over to Ed and Sam to explain how he wanted the fight-movements to take place.

Sam Worthington fights with Ed Harris - ME at extreme right

The scene was Sam Worthington slugging Ed Harris while Kyra, as a newswoman, interviews him during his aggressive arrest by the army of cops. For some reason, Kyra kept laughing everytime after this scene ended. Ed Harris got the worst of it -as his clean beige suit got dirtier and dirtier on the back after each take. I was worried for Ed... he looked very skinny to start with. Maybe it was because of his age... or maybe it was to make him look more evil for the part he was playing... or maybe because of all the cigarettes he was smoking on set??? Nonetheless, the makeup department always fixed him up and he survived the dozzen or so rough takes.

At one point we were placed around Ed Harris' Mercedes and told to react to the fighting. Later we were taken away to the remotest parts of the set as tracks were laid down for the camera to shoot from "behind" us (albeit without us). An hour later we were taken back to the car, only to realize that a different set of people were already there. As we tried to insist that "we were here first" a fight almost broke out between two girls. One of them getting really nasty -cursing and ready to poke the other gal in the face. (As I always say: The real show takes place behind the scenes!) I blame this all on the crew who did not insist on having "continuity" in the scene. We were about 8 feet away from the principal characters -so our faces were definitely associated with the scene. But how will it look when all of a sudden you have different faces in the background a second or so later in the film. Very poor oversight on this set.

Though there was ONE good thing about the poor oversight... the paparazzo's were rampant -both internal to our set and externally (freelancers and tourists) . No one could control the incessant cell-phone cameras from sneaking photos of the stars and the scenes at just about every juncture... even during the takes. This resulted in me being able to find a couple of pretty good photos on the web... the very next day! (So, for us extras, the papparazzi is our friend.)

Our legs were killing us -we had to stand for most of the 10 hour sets over a couple of days of shooting. Ten minute breaks afforded us a few cups of coffe to stay awake form our sleep-deprived stupor. And lunch was a "boxed lunch" -for most of us who were non-SAG; the union guys got hot food downstairs while we had to watch them eat from our upstairs cave. But I chalked it up to practicing "humility" and hung with my fellow extras in communistic endurance... waiting for "the REVOLUTION"!