SALT - Angelina Jolie Feature Film 3-21-09

(from 3-21-09)

Made it to the second and final Saturday for the taping of "SALT", the Angelina Jolie feature film where she portrays a double agent.

Tom Cruise was originally picked to do the role, though it was given to Jolie, because Cruise was too "short" and a "Closet gay".

The good thing about it being our second time on this set for this scene, was that we knew what we needed to wear and where we would be situated. Also the holding area was going to be the Marriot again.

Our call-in time to check the voice messaging system with the details was for 8pm. Now you would think that the message would be shorter than last week, as the majority of us were going to be there. Save for the young Lady who got rolled away in the ambulance. Somehow I don't think she had been invited back.


Still the message should have been maximum of 5 minutes long, instead it was a grueling 15 minutes. Being the fact that the message was released before 9pm, meant wasting cell phone minutes. Almost as long as last weeks message, I managed to knit a sweater, run the marathon, flew to the moon and back, got a root canal, and roasted a turkey before the punchline, of WHAT TIME TO REPORT WAS!!!! WOW, that really wiped me out.


Onwards.. March my fellow background artists to the call of early call time MADNESS! Actually 6am was far better than 5:30 a.m. from last week. Still it was a mess and people were wrapped around the stairs, again from the night before, just to get checked in.


Eventually as the line petered down, we somewhat resumed the same general location of the seats which we were sitting in the previous Saturday. Just as we were getting acclimated and finishing up breakfast, the PA came into the blew her trumpets signifying it was time to gather everyone up and head to set! Trumpets blaring:"EVERYONE OUT OF THIS ROOM!!...NOW!!



Quickly we went back to our spots that we were in the previous Saturday. Mine of course was the bathroom lounge at the Waldorf Astoria. Truly gives the "Bathroom experience" new meaning. Just made you feel a little more "Special" than using regular bathrooms.

On to the scene:

We went outside to our original positions by the doors of the Waldorf to soon be directed and follow the swarm of people to the other side of the street, opposite of St. Bartholomew's church. They had all the background on that side to fill in as many bodies as they could to make it about 5 deep. From the sidewalks all the way back to the buildings on that block.

So we are So sandwiched in and there is no way out. I was kind of pissed because I wanted to get in the front row and thought I was in a bad position. Later as the scene progressed, my fellow background Friends and I soon found out that we were actually standing on "prime real estate" of the stars.The scene had has huddling as close as we could on this block. Though with over 700 background a New York block on Park Avenue becomes a small piece of land.

In fact we were SO sandwiched in at this point. It felt like being in Times Square subway platform with the capacity of reaching it's limit and if you were to "stuff" more people on that platform you would surely fall off the edge and into the tracks and be slaughtered by the third rail in seconds.


Well at least we were amongst friends here. Secretly, I was hoping that a cute guy would rub against me ;)

Thought that didn't happen. What did happen was that I got "Touched by an ANGEL-ina!" That's right. In the scene we are ALL standing there and pretending to be watching this funeral procession. Suddenly this Woman with Raven Black hair, scurries in front of us. I was like "How rude is that?"

Before I had a chance to really get angry, I saw that it was an ANGEL-ina that touched me. Yes that's right I got touched by her. My other friend got stepped on by her. Most of us got "Brushed" by her when she went past us.

I managed to get a picture of my friend Laurie demonstrating where she got "brushed" by Angelina on her coat sleeve. "Never to be washed again!" , she declared. Because being "touched by Angelina means we have been touched by Brad!" Oh my!

At that point the rest of the day, and the fact that it was chilly on Park Avenue and got we NO food, and it was a walk-away lunch did not matter. We were touched, stepped on, and brushed by a million dollars.. WOW , it felt good.

Feel even better if it(million dollars) were in my pocket...

Sigh :(

Back to One !

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Rescue ME - "Lesbian Fighting scene" Day Two

(from 3-18-09)

I woke up literally at 7:10am with a call time of 7:30 am! Luckily I didn't have the "beast" of all hangovers from St. Patricks day celebrations the night before. I actually surprised because I had my fill of "Green beer". Perhaps it was all the Cornish beef and cabbage that I consumed which must have soaked up most of the alcohol.


I scraped myself out of bed, crawled to the bathroom, splashed some water on my face, put some deodorant on and mad my way out the door to the holding area which was in Sunnyside Queens. If the sign-in was where the set was, I would have been right on time.


It's amazing how fast you can get yourself moving, especially when it involves a paycheck. Also being the fact that I was SO angry and voiced my grievance publicly, getting there late would NOT be cool. So I strolled into the holding area, and nonchalantly checked and signed in.

Like I said I felt a little "dizzy" and looked like I just crawled out of a grave with my unkempt hair and dark circles under my eyes. Please, if anyone has pictures of that horror, please delete!



So I am thinking to myself "after I sign in, all I have to do is get on that bus, and crash!" Justifying my night of debauchery.."This is owed to me, I have paid my dues, Dammit!" Thinking that I was going to have a nice deep siesta, of course didn't happen.



What ruined it for me was "Stupid/pretty People" on the bus. One in particular, you know the type.."Gossip Girl", just got out of her Mother's womb, yet she already has nine waivers, and claims she was featured on an Ashton Kuthcer film. She is skinny, great skin, dresses sexy in a cute way and ALL the guys fear her.



I am really trying to ignore this "fresh young nubile" though there is nothing else going on and you are tuning in because you are amazed and wondering how "Stupid/pretty people" even exist?? The answer is all they do is smile, wink and the world is their oyster.



Thankfully Lunch was soon on the agenda, because I was really no into the "Dumbing down of America" anymore, and which she clearly represented. Lord help us!! The next generation is in DEEP trouble! With the help of a really great spread of food, my focus and anger quickly was geared on my Tupperware and packing food to take home for my roommate and me.



So I managed to get some good food packed up and many people follow suit. You figure you may as well. At the end of the day, this food is thrown out. In a way we are doing them a favor. We were called to get back on the bus, and back to the set location.


I really thought I would be able to go back home and drop off the food again and put it in my fridge, but to my shock, we were actually ALL called to come and be part of the scene. I have to say, I was really excited to be a part of the scene that was coming up.


The scene involved many stunt background for this huge fighting scene on the side of the boxing ring. This was So big that we actually got a speech from the stunts coordinator guy to tell us to "be careful" as there would be a lot of activity going on. He goes on telling us "these are 'stunt professionals' so don't be in the way of their work as you won't be getting an upgrade for hurting yourself!"


Very well put. The scene itself was really exciting to watch. This was on the side of where the boxing match was going on. This scene the two rival groups ready to rumble. One group was representing the "Butch Lesbians, and the other side were the gangsta guys.

I had my own group called the Canadian/Asian Persuasion:

In the scene,gun fires sound, and a high scale fight ensues. Punching, kicking, slamming bodies into the cab cars. Thumping, crashing, and over all chaos. It was cool. The choreography kind of reminded me of "West Side Story" where the "Sharks" and the "Jets" set the stage for that historic fight scene.

Our role in this was to be the on-lookers as we very carefully wedged ourselves in between the cab cars not to get to close to the stunt people. It was So real though, and very exciting. After a few takes, we went "Back to one" on the boxing ring side where the Lesbian boxer is using the male boxer as a punching bag!

They go around the entire ring exchanging blows to one another as were are surrounding them as background shadows. As they are going around the ring, they get to the corner of the ring and both of them stop their jabs and look to their side where this "rumble" is taken place.

This is how it all ties in together. You don't know how they got into the boxing ring together, but you get the impression that the female boxer was the leader of her "Butch" group and the male boxer was leader of the other group. You assume they are in the ring to end the battle between the two groups, and this was the purpose of the boxing match. They end thier fighting as the bigger rumble starts as a result.

The rest I guess you will have to tune into the FX channel to watch "Rescue Me". Well worth it!

Back to one.

A.

Rescue ME- "Lesbian Fighting scene" Day One

(from 3-17-09)
I was booked on the set of "Rescue Me" by Barbara McNamara casting for a 2-day shoot. The original casting was for "Butch" types. When I submitted to this I sent a picture of myself that I had of myself when I did a gig for biker commercial last year, where I was wearing a leather vest and a slutty, revealing top.

Really not my style, though of course I am not going to refuse a gig that pays. Also being that fact that this was "Rescue Me", and a Dennis Leary production, I knew that the food was going to be amazing!

I got the information and call times and was delighted to find out that this was going to be in Long Island City area, in Queens, which means walking distance for me! Finally something close by for me to get too. However the holding area was actually in Sunnyside Queens;the set was in L.I.C.

Actually I should rephrase that, the holding area where we were to brunch and lunch in was located over by the reform church in Sunnsyside. Our "holding" area for the entire rest of the day was on a bus.

We were stationed in Long Island City right off of Northern Blvd and 49th streets by Newtown road. I live on 49th st between 30 and 31st avenues, which was three blocks away from where the set was.

The actual set was indoors in this once functional mechanics garage. It was dirty, dusty, musty, oily and greasy with garbage on the sides, a couple of broken down old taxis, some on a lift, some just on the side. In the middle of the space, which was to be the centerpiece of the show, was of course the boxing ring.

The story line was how this "Lesbian Boxer" gets into the rink with a male boxer. We don't exactly know what occurred before this, though you get the impression that the male boxer was challenged by the female boxer to engage in this fight.

This premise made for an exciting day and this is one of the few times that I was actually eager to get on set. AS soon as we got off the bus, we wanted to be part of the action and got the "good folding chair VIP seats" in the center stage to view the fight.

So we sat their watched about ten minutes of the Lesbian fighting the male boxer and getting some good jabs in, as we the"Butch gals" cheered on for her. That was it! We were told to go back to the bus! At the time I was thinking that they would call us back shortly, so we should hang closely by.

Well would you believe that we ended up sitting on that bus for longer than anticipated. You can imagine how I felt considering ALL this time went by and I was staring down the road with the fact that I could be home in ten minutes! Yet I kept thinking to myself, as you always do, "Well What if they need us for the scene?" Yes.."What If" six hours later. Figures my luck the minute I cross the road, we will be called back, though that NEVER happened.

To make matters even worse, while we were sitting in the back of the bus and engaging in some decent conversation, and relaxing, a foul smell suddenly was being released from the bathroom of the bus. Yes that's right, someone did a number "2"!! Can you believe that??

First of all that is rude, and I personally would be mortified of embarrassment to even consider to do a "Number 2" on a confined space like a bus. So the person opens the door and starts laughing, to my surprise it was a female that produced this odor.

The smell was SO bad that we quickly evacuated off the bus. Luckily it was a really nice spring like day and we could hang outside. After several hours, and many bottles of febreeze, we went back into the bus, to get even more disturbing news.

We get a call from Barbra McNamara's casting office to tell us that since we were in the first scene for the "establishing shot" that they will not be needing us back tomorrow. I was like "HOLD EVERYTHING," getting angry, "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!"

I tried to be as diplomatic and calm as I possibly could, though I was really pissed. I mean I booked this and confirmed two weeks ago, and let go a day to work on "SALT" for this, to be told that because I DID my job, I am going to be punished for it. UN-believable!!!


After I vented severely, Lunch was called. The buses drove us back to the reform church where an amazing spread of food awaited us. I was still beyond angry, but I thought at least they have great food and I can stock up and bring some food home in the Tupperware I brought.

At least the food did not let us down, There was an array of salads, which included hot peppers with olives and wax bean salad which I really like. Then the main course has buffet servings of roasted potatoes, rice, Salmon, and beef sliced fresh from the slab of beef by the chef himself. The deserts were okay and they had banana cake and some cherry rhubarb pie.

I admit that the lunch made me feel better, but still I was not happy. For one thing I can't afford to lose a day of money. So we get back on the bus and my phone rings. It's Barbra McNamara casting's office. I was like "oh great, maybe it's Barbra herself calling because I was a little to rough on her employee. Answering the phone, I was preparing a "I'm sorry speech". To my surprise, it was the other employee calling me and basically told me that "Some of us were back on", and very secretly "Don't advertise this to anyone!"

I hung up the phone and did not say a word. We got back to the set location and the bus parked. With the "new" knowledge that we were not going to be used for the rest of the day, I quickly got my food in the Tupperware, and headed home, 3 blocks away, to put the food in the fridge.

I dropped the food off and headed back as I didn't want to get reprimanded. I got back and nothing changed. I could have gone shopping, seen a movie, knitted a sweater, in the time that we sat on the bus.

I was getting really "antsy" especially around 5pm when I was getting texts from my friend who was already at the local bar celebrating St. Patricks day. Then I thought to myself "Well Dennis Leary is Irish, he can't let us down on this day of all days!"

About an hour later, out P.A. came on the bus and said "All Non-Aftra is wrapped!" Alright Dennis! You Rock!!! I guess it was the "luck O' the Irish after all. I got signed out on the bus and immediately headed to the pub to join my friend.

All in a good days work.

Tomorrow, "Back to One".

A.

SALT- Angelina Jolie Feature Film ( 3-16-09)

Just when I thought I didn't get enough of "SALT" on Saturday, I got booked for Monday as well. The thing is that Central Casting was SO adamant in their posting that IF you worked on SALT at ALL on Saturday, YOU CAN NOT WORK IT DURING THE WEEK!!!! Well I guess things change, or they have NO idea what they are doing.

So I took the booking and had to cancel something else last minute just to do this. The call time wasn't bad which was announced on the voice messaging center as 7:15 am for my group. The other difference was that this time we were indoors and the entire day was taking place inside of the St. Bartholomew's church on 51st and Park.

Being inside plus you get to sit down, sounds like a treat; but not so much. We had to enter that church quietly and maintain the "Church mice" feel without a peep or we would be thrown out! So we got our positions and sat down in the pews.

The first 5 rows were filled with the dignitaries, military, and of course SAG people. The rest of us, Non-Saggers filled up the edge of the rows at the end or beginning of the rows, and the rest of the pews were filled sitting beside dummies! These Dummies got better treatment than we did!

I'm not even kidding! While I was sitting there, one of the hair and makeup people come by and walk by my row, and looks down the row examining. Then she leans over and I thought she was going to fix my "frizzy" hair. Instead she totally ignores me like I'm not even there and she fixes the Dummies hair and also give it a puff! I'm like "Wow, these must be SAG- dummies!

This dummy that I was sitting beside, was really life-like. Maybe I was hallucinating from lack of sleep, but I could swear that dummy touched me! Those dummies were creepy beyond belief. It was very "Twilight Zone". My friend Laurie was so tired that she even started making out with one of the dummies!

So while I am sitting there bored out of my mind, for hours on end you start talking to the dummy and I spent the rest of my time reading "Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth. In fact I could have read "War and Peace" and finished that novel from front to cover with how many hours we were trapped in there.

After hours of our butts aching from sitting in those church pews for hours, they advanced to the next scene which involved a choir. Let me tell you, this was the absolute best part of the entire day. The actual instruments were on playback, but the vocals were all live, and it was magical.

The song that this choir sang filled up every inch and crevice in that church and every sound was immaculate and Angelic. It made you feel sad, yet at peace. It was probably a version of some Requiem or "Mass of the dead". All sung in Latin, of course, gave you shivers up and down your spine.

It's amazing music can uplift a person. People who were nodding off and falling asleep, people who were counting the minutes to when we would wrap. Even that Woman that was making out with the dummy, halted.

All of a sudden were captured by the sweet "Arias" and dimension of sound that drew us in and woke up our senses. Everyone was touched by this. Some were so encapsulated by this and overwhelmed, that their eyes were welling up with tears and they had to leave the room. AH..the power of music.

Of course once the music ended, the background assumed their rightful positions which was of sleeping....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Back to one!

A.

SALT Angelina Jolie Feature Film

After two months of not getting ANY background work, finally the long awaited "Cattle Call" for background had arrived! This was for the booking on the feature film "SALT" starring Angelina Jolie! NO, Brad is not in this one, Sorry Girls!

I submitted to be cast on this movie numerous times on Casting Networks, never to get a reply. The only reason I even got this was because while we were on the "Hirosaki Theater Players", our friend Mike got the call from Central Casting, and we overheard him on the phone getting booked for this. So luckily we got in on the action and before you know it Mikes Iphone was passed along to seven of us sitting there in the theater and talked to Jamie at Central which got us all booked right there on the spot.

So of course you are thrilled to get a booking; any booking. Though when I got my "check-in #421", I knew this was a huge casting call and they were booking everyone and anyone that can breathe! Being the fact this was for a Saturday, it didn't interfere with regular work week, so I didn't think it would be that bad of a day.

The week went by and throughout I kept getting text messages and phone calls of so many people that I haven't heard from in ages that they were booked on this movie as well. I was actually looking forward to this, as it was not only a job, it was going to be more like a reunion for my friends in the background world which I have not seen for ages.

The much anticipated call times and location was to be released Friday afternoon by 3pm. Well that soon changed to 10pm at night with a 20 minute message telling us basically to wear black and be somber as it was going to be this mass funeral scene.

A month later when she finally got to the call times, you felt like replaying the entire message because you couldn't believe your ears when you heard that the call times were for 5:30am!!! Oh the Horror!

Yes this is correct..Repeat NOT an error....You waited ALL day long to get the call times and location just to be inundated by this massive description to what to wear for a funeral scene, just to be side swiped and left in shock and dismay. This meant that after you hung up the phone, and used up all your minutes just to hear this message, you had to quickly grab some black clothes, shower, shave, and try to get at least 2 hours sleep and make it on time! Unbelievable!

The holding area was over at the Marriott on Lexington between 48 and 49th streets. For myself this was a decent location to commute to, though being the fact it was a Saturday, the trains are at "turtle" speed and the "E-vil" train is swarming and reeking of the homeless parking their make-shift "bedroom in the corner of the train. The only good thing about that is there are plenty of seats to choose from if you don't mind not breathing.

I arrived to the lobby of the Marriott and immediately recognized over 20 people who I have not seen for ever! We quickly acknowledged each others presence and then were directed our designated floors. All reporters had the room on the bottom floor which seated about 200 and the rest of us Spectators/mourners went up to the second floor room which had the seating capacity of over a thousand.

The first part of the day consisted of lines. The first one of course was a huge line wrapping around the stairs to get checked in and to get our voucher. The second line up was of course to get food. The third was to get our wardrobe checked.

Now I really love this part, especially when this is for a funeral scene, exteriors, which means we will be wearing our coats. Yet, you have to go through this unnecessary line to get more "black" clothes, because your clothes were not "black" enough. This really made sense as we were to be stationed outdoors for the entire day wearing our coats where our clothes underneath would not even been seen at all.

I also love the fact that they were giving people costume jewelry to wear and had to hand in their vouchers for it. What a complete waste of time. For one thing, no one is going to see you and secondly to have to go through another line-up at the end of the day to return a pair of earrings is absurd. But you see wardrobe has to make it look like they are doing their job, so they will give these items out and call it a day meanwhile you are stuck with this piece of crap all day long and responsible for it.

...On to the scene of the day....

This was a huge production of a funeral scene. I mean this was massive. It was the type of production of a funeral that would be fit for a KING or some other royalty. Not a president, though. Presidents, especially when Bush jr. finally kicks the bucket will get an unceremonious ceremony involving a sack and some dirt for messing up this country so badly.

The entire stream of the funeral had a somber yet respectful approach to it. The funeral procession stretched from the front doors of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel,

to the doors of St. Bartholomew's. The procession itself was lavishly decorated with a band of marching bagpipe players, sailors, military, followed by police motor cycles, Police cars, and of course the hearse and the immediate family members following in limos behind the parade.

We were the spectators along the sidewalks of the streets and somberly looking on. This was to be the longest funeral procession of all time. For those of you who were around to see Princess Lady Diana's funeral know how many hours that procession lasted. I think this one beat the record. Every time the director shouted "Action", within seconds, "CUT"- "Back to one!" was yelled out. For us spectators it was easy to reset, though not so much with the marching band and the police cars, and the hearse, and limos ALL had to reverse back to their "ones".

Sounds easy, but not so much as a couple of times, the drivers nearly slammed into each other a couple of times while reversing too much. As for us "general" background, standing there for several hours became challenging in terms of the pin in our feet and the weather forecast which where we were standing, got directly into the winds which made it feel a lot colder than the actual temperature for the day.

The only good thing about where I was positioned was that we were right by the front entrance of the Waldorf, where we went inside to seek refuge every time they said "CUT"! In fact we had our little room on the side, where the concierge actually put out chairs for us ladies to sit down on. That was really nice of the guy to do.

On the other side of the street a group of people crammed into a "Capital One bank" vestibule to seek refuge from the frosty air.Still those little spurts of running into the building everytime saved us somewhat, but not when they were rolling for longer takes.

Here is a brief synopsis about the film:

Angelina Jolie takes on her role a raven-haired femme fatale Evelyn A. Salt as she films her upcoming spy flick with costar Liev Schreiber in New York City on Saturday (March 14).

Salt is a CIA officer who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy. Liev plays Salt’s boss and friend on the Russian desk at the CIA. The film was originally developed with Tom Cruise in the lead role, centering on Edwin A. Salt.

Now you would think that with such big star names, would mean a BIG budget. Well yes it's a BIG budget an paycheck for the SAG players and the principal actors, though for NON-SAG, not so much.
The worst part of the day was standing outside for 9 hours and not getting any food or water save for a basket of Rugalach cookies and a box of Poland Spring for a thousand extras.

I grabbed a couple of waters and though, well "they are going to have some kind of lunch soon, so I can hold out until then!" Well I was right about one thing, we did get lunch. However, it was a WALK-AWAY lunch! Unbelievable. You tell me that with such a big name production, you couldn't give us at least a measly boxed lunch. You have got to be kidding! How cheap is that??

Here is a big name player, Angelina Jolie who is know for adopting and feeding starving children around the world, and yet us starving and sleep deprived extras get NOTHING!!! As Linda Rhodes, fellow background star put it ".."hey Ang- tell your African daughter there are starving people on Park Avenue!" This is actually Columbia Pictures fault for sure. It seems to me that the "bigger" the STAR power, the smaller the treatment is to the background extras.

I do realize that they don't have to give us any meal. I have been on bigger productions such as "I am Legend" starring Will Smith and the background count was 1500 people. Still we had a "army tent serving of slop as food which was horrible, though we at least got that much. In this case they should have mentioned this in the 25minute long message, than perhaps we would have come better prepared and not to deal with the chaos that later ensued.

After our "Walk-away lunch", we got back to our original "ones". OK great just another 5 hours to go!! Our wrap time was based on the fact that the sun goes down now at around 6:30pm. So it was the same thing that we were doing in the morning. This time however the vehicles moved inched closer to the church. Though every time they shouted out "CUT" they had to reverse even further back.

The difference between the morning and now was that there were so many more regular people and tourists by the Waldorf who wanted to see if they could get a glimpse of Angelina. This of course made it more difficult for the Pa's to try and stop traffic going by into the scene. On top of all the you had the paparazzi waiting to get the perfect shot.

Here is everyone trying to get as close as they can to this superstar, and who happens to be right beside her is "Crazy AL", the BEAST of BACKGROUND. This guy is such a menace. He is a loud mouth, looks like an oversized walrus, and is an absolute obnoxious miscreant. Yet he gets into the scene. Shoot me now! Who did he threaten to even get booked on this??? Moving on... Sigh ;(

I guess with all this going on, and the throngs of people getting thicker, some people get sick, just can't take anymore and shut down. In the midst of all this about 10 people away from me, and incident occurred where a young Lady had a mild seizure and physically dropped down, almost to the ground.

Luckily a friend of mine was there to catch her fall. Within seconds, the PA was called to hold people back and an ambulance came on set. Within seconds, they got her on the stretcher and rolled her into the ambulance. My friend Linda and I looked at each other and thought "Well that's one less non-union to sign out!

I thought "This is a good time to wrap!" Not so much. Within seconds, they continued the scene as if nothing had happened. About an hour after that, they yelled out our favorite words "It's a wrap!" Yippee!! All the pain and fatigue vanished as we ALL super-charged and scurried like mad dogs to get back to holding to sign out so we could go home.

What a long day it was..Back to One, next Saturday!

A.