My First SAG Waiver!!!!!

(originally from April 30th, 2008)

Well it FINAllY happened for me, I got my first waiver yesterday on a film shoot out in New Haven, Connecticut!!!!

It's true when they say "life is what happens when you are making plans" because I was on the set of Pelham 123 expecting to have a hellish night being trapped in Grand Central terminal all night long for the HIJack scene they were getting ready to shoot.

Then praise St. Agnes, the church where holding was, because my prayers were answered. All of a sudden, a girlfriend of mine gave me a call while I was in holding and asked "What are you doing tomorrow?" I replied, I am going to be held hostage at Grand Central station!" and you???

She then told me about this opportunity and I was not going to let this go. She submitted my name to Grant Wilfley Casting. Seconds later I got a call from them and was booked on this movie “Everybody's fine” starring Robert Deniro. Without knowing how I was going to work out the logistics of getting there, I told her "YES, I'll do it!"

I ditched the Pelham set. Got on the train where they were shooting the scene and kept going back to Queens to get my clothes for the next day. It turned out that the call time was at the sharp early call time of 6am. This meant that I had to be on the move and get to Newark NJ Penn station where my Friend was going to pick me up to drive to Connecticut.

I left Queens at 1am, thinking that would be enough time to get to Newark...I was highly mistaken. When I got to the Path train stop, a train was there about to pull out and I raced to get on it. Unfortunately I have never used the Path train before and didn’t realize that the machine doesn’t take an unlimited metro card.

So I had to go to the Metro card kiosk and buy a $10 dollar card. By the time I did that, the train pulled out. My mouth dropped knowing that now there was NO way I would make it to Newark Penn station by 3am.

I called up my friend who was to pick me up, and she said she couldn’t wait because she had two other people to pick up. My heart was racing, my palms were sweaty and I was panicking at this point. I thought my trip was going to end right there. Then I was thinking to myself, “I already sacrificed a paying gig for this and in NO WAY am I going to lose this opportunity!!” I am on a SAG WAIVER MISSION FROM GOD!!!!!

I went to the nearest ATM machine, and withdrew some money. Thankfully I just got my tax return refund in my checking. I went back out to 34th St, and hailed a cab to Connecticut!!!

Yes this was a costly venture, though WELL worth it!!

Since it was really early in the morning, the commute turned out not to be that bad. It was a little scary though on the I95 Interstate with all the trucks racing really fast past you and shaking the car up a bit.

I got there at the ripe early morning time of 4:30 am. When I got there nobody was there, save for the catering truck that just pulled in the driveway to set up his station.
Eventually a guy came to open up the door where the holding area was. I grabbed myself a set inside and waited for the day to begin.

Hours later, people started coming in. We were checked in the wardrobe line and shortly after went to set. The scene was held at the Union Station around the corner and we were cast to be commuters going to Chicago via Amtrak.

In the scene Robert Deniro is talking to his Daughter as she is 10 years old. We had to walk past them over and over and over again. Once they “Checked the Gate” on that, we thought we were finished though, we had to do the entire same scene over and over again with his Daughter now in her present age as a grown-up adult, played by Kate Beckinsale.

It was an extremely long and tiresome day, though knowing that we were getting SAG wages for this made a huge world of difference. It was nice to know that we were getting paid for lunch penalties, wardrobe, overtime, etc. Put it to you this way, it would take 3 days on a Non-union set to make what I did on that one day.

It was such an incredible feeling that I finally got the one waiver that puts me on that map. I waited SO long for this and I am SO happy that all my hard work has finally paid off. Even though I still need 2 more waivers, I have one now as opposed to having zero.
Just when I was really going to “pack it on” and give this all up, I get blessed with this opportunity.

Now I am hungry more then ever before to pursue this path. Just when I thought this dream was dead, it has revived. My SAG WAIVER MISSSION from God is here. Two MORE to go!!!!!