Sean Penn's Movie "Fair Game"

I got booked on this movie "Fair Game" by Desiree. The wardrobe instructions sounded straight forward from production, though ended up being confusing. This was the original posting:

WARDROBE:PLEASE NOTE, WARDROBE IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THIS SCENE- PLEASE READ THE WARDROBE INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE COSTUME DEPT.
Sc 165, 166, Forum in Seattle Summer / WEAR TO SET, BRING AN OPTION

Overall, this takes place in Seattle in the summer. We definitely don't want it to look like NYC N.D. people: Casual, outdoorsy, not black and dark like NYC. Softer colors and lighter neutrals. Light layers. Again, it's summer!!!!Protesters: casual and with character. Light layers. Not dark tones of clothing.Granola types: earthy, outdoorsy, hippie types. Not Woodstock feeling, but definitely with a crunchy vibe.----------


What in the world is a crunchy type anyways??

My friend on facebook thought it referred to people who eat granola and such. If you have one of those string-crochet bags that people bring to the store for environmental reasons... Okay so I packed up clothes that I thought was what they were looking for and headed to set.


Our call time was for 11 am to be at Lehman college. I left Queens around 10am and got on the number 4 train heading to the Bronx. On route to catch the train, I see a dime placed right in front of the subway doors where I entered.

This dime represents Linda, I'm sure of it. I recall Linda telling me that she would find these dimes all over in obscure places and that it meant her friend was thinking of her.I have been finding many of these dimes as of late.

The commute itself was rather quick. The train skips many stops on the express tracks then, it slows down a bit when it gets to the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Once it passes that, the next couple of stops are local stops. Then it goes out of the tunnel to the elevated tracks where you are outside again.



The reason I am mentioning this is because we passed by the 161st stop which is Yankees Stadium. Passing by this reminded me that this was the first time I am working on background since Linda's death and burial. I know she wanted to be cremated and have her ashes scattered on Yankee fields. Though she was buried with her favorite blanket of her favorite team. I knew this was going to be a difficult day.



Moving forward....



I get to the front entrance of Lehman College to this Armory like, majestic entrance. I walk along the path to get to the music building where we were directed to go to check in. When I got there, not too many people had arrived yet which was great because it meant plenty of seats to choose from. Luckily my friend Robyn was there already and she had a seat for me. I got to the table and I told my friend what happened to Linda. We saved a seat for her. I could feel her spirit was there with us. Still it wasn't the same. It never will be again. Sigh.



Slowly people were getting to holding and the once empty holding area was now getting so packed that people were scrambling for seats. When someone came by to take the chair that I saved for Linda, I told them " this seat is taken!"



It was the usual setup, though they had no breakfast set up, so I was starving by the time it was noon. We went to the crafty truck and all they had was fruit loops and stale coffee. So we had to wait it out for lunch, which wasn't until 4pm.



In the meantime, there was the much dreaded wardrobe line, which if Linda was there , I would have totally avoided this line. Though they were checking off numbers, so I had to go into the line. I brought my options, which was a pair of khaki cargo pants and a kind of hippie tops with a few flowers on it. The wardrobe looks at me and asks for my number.



I tell her my number and she says "This won't do at all!" Then I thought she was going to give me a complete wardrobe change. Instead she gives me a white hand knitted "Granny" sweater. It was ridiculous. I was really upset about getting this granny sweater. Do I look like a granny?? How insulting!! Well at least I only got the sweater and got to wear my own pants, which meant a quick change at the end of the day.



On with the scene..



We were directed to another building where the first scene of the day was set. The first scene was actually set for Ohio State University. The colors to reflect this was reds and hoodies and jeans for some and a faculty member look for others. So why in the world I got a "Granny Sweater" I have no ideal. What even sucked more was that it was getting really warm in that gymnasium that we were in. After a few hours sitting there, you start shvitzing.



At this point nothing is going on, we take seats on the bleachers and then the Ad takes a look at some of us and starts placing people to how he "sees" the scene. I got moved to the other side but still was on the first 2 rows which was great because I was in no mood to climb up to the top of that gym. Plus this would mean it would take longer to get back to holding to get to lunch.



Finally they are ready to shoot. Sean Penn comes out and walks onto the platform they had set up in the middle of the room where he could say his speech. A few of us were shouting out "Hey Spicolli" referring to his character on "Fast Times at Ridgemont high! Though that character he did back in the 80's where he orders pizza in the classroom was like a lifetime ago compared to the seriousness of this character. Here he portrays Joe Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame, who was brought into the media after a CIA leak and scandal.



He grabs the microphone and begins his speech. He speaks in the microphone and there is clearly too much feedback and the sound engineer has to take care of that problem. Though this was not the only problem of the day with sound.



As Sean got into character and was reciting his speech.."How many of you know the sixteen words of the state of the union address?" One person raises their hand. Then he continues in character..."How many of you know my wife's name?" Several people slowly raise their hands. He continues..."How can you know one and not the other???" ....he continues then before he can the number 4 train runs outside on the elevated tacks right by the school and it interrupts his speech, the director yells "CUT!"



Back to one..Reset! Sean starts his speech again, and the number 4 train yet again passes by and disturbs his speech, "CUT!" yell the director. This goes on for several times and every time you can see Sean getting even more angry with each passing train. Finally Sean breaks out of character and shouts out to all of us "locations is Fired!"



They took so many takes that they would have to cut and paste in editing. Time to move on as we still had another scene to do. We already had lunch and it was a decent array of salads, chicken and beef. It was okay. Average catering. Though the best part had to have been the brownies and Oreo cookie crumb cake.



On to the next scene...



The next scene was in the wardrobe description which was all about the "Crunchy granola types". I still had my ugly "Granny sweater" on. Ugh! Our second set was in this huge school auditorium. Big enough to have a Broadway play or an orchestra up on that stage. Probably seated about a thousand, I would guess.



This scene was set in Seattle Washington. It was a rally scene and there were over 500 background which included actual students of Lehman who participated for free to be in this movie. Sean Penn was up on the stage sitting at a table with 4 other diplomats all there for this cause.



This scene was actually at the conclusion of this Seattle conference where Sean is wrapping up his speech. At this point it has been established that his speech has all of us heated up. So as he is in conclusion of his speech we are all ranting, raving, with a roaring applause to his words and what he has to say.



As it was a conclusion, we had to get up from our seats and leave as people do after a rally of this nature. Some of us were directed up to the stage to shake hands with "Joe Wilson. Others were directed to exit the auditorium and keep walking out the door. Just as some of us made it to the door, the director shouts out "CUT! Back to One!" This went on for take after take after take. Up the stairs, heading to the doors and then "CUT!" It got to a point where I had enough.

I have to say that I was sitting there alone with nobody that I knew. Everyone else was sitting in the front or in a different section. I was the only "old" person sitting in this section with all these young vibrant kids who are hip and in fashion and I am there wearing this "granny sweater"! I really felt out of place. Truly I was missing Linda because I just know we would have skipped out of this scene or at least had some fun with it. Being alone there was just such an awful feeling.

Finally I couldn't take anymore and on the next round of walking up the stairs to leave the auditorium, I kept on walking. Initially I was just going to use the bathroom, though I ended up staying behind as I knew I wouldn't be missed and no one probably would miss me.

In the bathroom I met up with my friend Joyce. I haven't seen her in SO long. In fact she was one of the first background person that became my friend when I started this crazy lifestyle. We met on the Robin Williams movie "August Rush" back in 2004. We both decided to stay behind and wait it out as the call for "It's a wrap" was near approaching.

It was funny because this is something Linda would have done with me for sure. What was strange about this was that while I was feeling awkward in that auditorium, I could swear I saw Linda sitting on Sean Penn's knee!

So Joyce and I sat it out and sure enough they called "It's a wrap". Soon droves of background people were storming out of the auditorium to run to holding to get checked out. I of course was the first one to return that ugly "Granny sweater" and got signed out first too.

Joyce got stuck in the wardrobe line. Not as fast as Linda..nobody will ever be! Still it was nice to have her there. It was as if Linda didn't want me to be alone and sent her to me in a way. I don't know. Maybe I'm speculating.

After I singed out. I gave my usual "High Five" to the A-team, even though one team member is out. Still she was there. I felt it. I left the set and raced alone and raced back to the subway, back to catch the 4 train. Passing Yankee Stadium. Back to Queens.

Back to One!