Boardwalk Empire shoot in Brooklyn Directed by Martin Scorcesse

This is the long awaited, over a month ago, booking for this HBO production, Boardwalk Empire to be directed by Martin Scorsese. I figured our call times would be super early. so it was no surprise when I got the official call times from Casting that it would be for 5:30am. Though there was a courtesy bus pickup in Manhattan over by Church and Chambers street. So the only problem would be to get to downtown area by 5am to catch the bus. Well I missed the bus.

Now I didn't miss the bus because I couldn't get up in the morning. In my still "Zombie-like" state, I got up and dragged myself out the door to the 4am subway, worst subway time. You have your regular rats during the day, but for some reason the 4am rats are extra special and hungry.

They are not afraid of you and will come right up to your bag if you even have a crumb left over from yesterday's cookie. These 4am rats are not dumb, they never waste their time with vegans knowing they are all skin and bones and either had one of those gross tasteless nature bars or organic bird seeds in their bag.

Yet as I am always on the defensive and prepared, I have my "whacking tool", and spray to get rid of these nasty demons. Little did I know at the time how the Rats would be such an integral focus on set later on that day.

Normally I wait for the train at that time for maybe 20 minutes tops before you see the lights shining through the dark tunnel. Thought 20 minutes went by. Then another 20 minutes. Then it was coming up to 1 hour. The clock was ticking and I kept looking at the time display. It was after 5am when the announcement came on saying that the trains are delayed due to flooding from the storm overnight.

I was thinking "great, this is just my luck"! I mean how many days prior have been storm free and the trains were running fine!" Figures the ONLY day that I have to get up for 4am, the subways have a huge delay. So this was the start of an already long day to come.

Finally the train comes, and I have to figure out a "plan B" to get there as the bus would leave by the time the "E" train would make it to the world trade area. I'm on the train at 46th stop and it is not moving. At least I'm on the train, I pondered. Ten minutes elapsed and on to Steinway street stop. There out of sheer coincidence, my friend Laura who just happens to be going to the same set as myself, sees me and joins me in this despair.

We were both in the same dilemma and figured the best route would be going to Time Square and catching the "Q" train to Church avenue in Brooklyn. The train came in about 5 minutes and since it was an express train, it only went to two stops in Manhattan and then over the bridge to Brooklyn. While over the bridge, I called up my friend to notify the PA that we would be self reporting now.

We made it to Church avenue and walked 4 blocks down and started seeing the film and crew trucks and walked to the church where holding was. We got there and signed in. There were not too many people there yet as the bus which we were supposed to get on, did not arrive yet.

I got my voucher and then headed to krafty. The catering company for this was TomKats. Not exactly the best catering for film and TV in my experience. It was the usual array with trays of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage wheels, lox, and freshly squeezed juice station. Brought a couple of plates back to holding to share with other as the non-union breakfast was crap. A couple of stale bagels and coffee cakes with NO coffee!

On to the next joyous part of the day which I was dreading..the costume. There was already a huge line-up outside where the wardrobe truck was parked. Already over 3o of us standing outside of the truck waiting to get our costumes. Meanwhile, the overcast, brooding skies were promising more showers for the remainder of the day.

And Rain it did. Down , down and down came the rains....

It truly was a mess. Getting the costumes, then going into holding for another line-up to get hair and make-up done. All of that took about 4 hours until we were brought to set. With the booming thunder and lighting and buckets of rain. It was raining so hard it felt like you were in a car wash. Yet the SHOW MUST GO ON!

The PA shouts out the announcement to get to set. Walking down the streets and huddling with the umbrellas, we made it to set. We get there and of course they are still not ready to place us. So many of us are still waiting outside in the rains. Well I took the initiative and walked in with the SAG group and placed my self in the scene.

The scene was a "Temperance" Town Hall meeting. The meeting was led by an very conservative Woman. We all gathered as concerned Women in a coalition against liquor and the evil Men who drink liquor. In fact there was a sign up on the stage that said "Lips that touch Liquor Shall NOT touch ours!" The Woman gets up on the podium and begins reciting a poem about the evils of Liquor. It went something like this : "Liar, thief Vicious brute! Snake by day and sleeps with prostitutes....Demon rum...Liquor, thy name is delirium!!!!!!" I don't have the entire poem word for word, though you get the point.

She finishes up her speech and we applaud uproariously in agreement of her campaign to stop the "evil" alcohol and corruption of Atlantic City. Then we end the applause and she quickly introduces treasurer of this foundation and money powerhouse of Atlantic City, Nucky Johnson who is played by Steve Buscemi.

We all adore him because he the funding behind all of this and comes across as a gentleman who respects Women and Women's causes. Meanwhile he is a crook and being very deceptive. To win over the Women he starts going into this story about heartache and cold winters without any food for his family and of his absent Father who drank too much. He finishes his story and we all begin applauding and cheering him on as if he is our savior for this cause.

The speech was great and entertaining for the first couple of times, though he did it over and over and over again. Martin Scorsese would come out from the back room and talk to Steve and say "That was great Steve, let's do it again!"

It must have been exhausting for the actors, but even the background were dying. I was in one of the first five rows and I had on that heavy wool coat on. On top of it the coat was disintegrating and every time I would applaud, particles of the fur on the coat were coming loose and fluffing into my mouth and all over the place scattering the particles of fur. I was gagging every time and trying not to sneeze through out "That Speech"

To add to the misery, there was no air in that church as they had to shut down all venting systems to avoid any sound. Sitting there may sound like it was easy, but it was getting difficult. Our butts were getting sore, the costumes were totally uncomfortable and we all began fading and falling asleep down to our laps

It was really bad. Finally there was a break and I saw Steve Buscemi outside. You could tell he was really sick of "That Speech" and just wanted the day to end as bad as we did. Shortly after, Lunch was called. I was looking forward to it and was expecting a good lunch as it was an HBO production with Marty directing it.

Well I was wrong..Should have known with TomKats as the catering company, it wouldn't be that good. Sure enough it was an awful meal. There was only one salad bowl with wilted leaves and a pitcher of ranch dressing and no other selection. I though maybe there would be better selection down the table. Not so much. There were only 2 trays one with spaghetti and meatballs and the other was some vegetarian slop.

My dog gets better spaghetti and meatballs sauce than that! Yuck. Even the cakes/deserts were horrible.They had these "Quick Bake" do it your self frosting which crumbled as soon as you picked it up. It's the kind of cakes your 8 year old makes for a school bake sale. It was absolute garbage. First time ever on that set that I actually threw out the food!

Soon after the unsatisfying meal, the bullhorn/PA comes out to get back to one. So we head back to set. It's the same thing all over again where the "Temperance Woman" comes up first on the podium and delivers her speech.

Back to Steve Buscemi, and he begins his Speech though this time he improvs it and changes the words a bit to instead of "beating them with a stick", he goes on saying.."and then I took a brick and smashed the brains out of the them!" Much needed laughter.

Stay tuned to HBO and the release of "Boardwalk Empire" coming soon for what "That Speech was all about! "That Speech was brilliant and Steve Buscemi delivered it magnificently! Though I am not allowed to reveal it in it's entirety as I am under some contract, though I'm not sure what it is.

You see I am still non-union and I only got paid minimum wage to sit in that hall with a corset for 17 hours. Part of my internal organs have been bruised permanently as a result, yet I can't sue as I'm still a non-union nobody. I also can't post entirely my experience on this set. So much for freedom of speech.

The irony of this all is that the scene depicts Women during the Temperance movement where they just got the right to vote. Yet here we here in the year 2009, and not much has changed.

It seems to me that in this country "other" ethnic groups have more privileges and get paid

more if they speak of their grievances and scream out that they have been prejudiced against.

I apologize for this venting session as I had to re-do my blog as some people were not happy with my original piece. The point is that we should have been paid Union wages for our efforts. Enough said..moving along...

..... Back to sitting and sweating and itching until no body could take it anymore and we were wrapped! Finally back to the wardrobe truck to get out of the costumes. In fact I was stripping out of the costume and unzipping as I was walking towards the truck.

Back to get our voucher signed. Back to Church Avenue. Back on the Q train.

Back to one!

Bored To Death Boxing Scene Day 2

I got home before midnight from the long day on "Bored to Death" and was exhausted. I still had to stay up long enough to hear the call times for "Day 2". I was relieved to hear that the call times for "Day 2" was a little better for 9:45 am.

The great thing about getting a 2-day booking is that you have already gone through hair and make-up the day before and don't have to go through that again, especially when it's a continuity scene. Also you don't have to carry a suitcase full of clothes and only need to bring what you wore the day before.

So I set out to Brooklyn one more time and got to the holding area. This time there were not too many tables available. Luckily my friend Robyn saved me a seat, though it was all the way in the back where the chairs and space was SO tight that even the thinnest person had toSqueZZe by. This was really annoying and on top of it, you have inconsiderate people who put their bags on the chairs.

Around 10am the PA was screaming out to get ready and that we would be going on set in about ten minutes. An hour later, we are all called to take our original positions where we sat the day before. Slowly we get to set and the crew and everything is already set up. I walk around to the side of the ring and my seat is being occupied by TedDanson himself. The PA shouts out "Everyone take your seats and BE quiet!" I gesture to the PA and tell him"I am not going to tell TedDanson to get out of my seat!"

Eventually the Second AD comes by, acknowledges the situation and ask Ted to take his first position. Today was the BIG fight with Ted and the Boss from the other team. I took my seat where Ted had just warmed it up for me. His first position was right in front of me with him standing by the side of the boxing ring waiting to get into the ring to box.

There is a scene in the boxing ring before he gets into his fight scene. So Ted is Standing there for hours...that is Ted Danson and his psoriasis! He had the psoriasis all over the back of his legs. It wasn't horrible looking and probably not that noticeable from afar, but up close it was not lovely.

Trying to focus on something else, I moved on from his skinny legs and moved to his butt. He was that close to me. I know that if Linda was sitting with me, she would have gone up and grabbed his ass for sure! Really miss Linda, and just can't stop thinking about her and her spirit. Though I did feel her presence there, for sure.

Moving along..

On with Ted Danson's scene... It begins with him and his competitor in the boxing ring doing their dance and throwing jabs and punches and doing many prat falls. In the first round Ted is taking the lead and we are cheering and rooting for him. Over and over and over again. It was exhausting for the two actors for sure, though it was as equally exhausting having to stand up every time to root and cheer and holler in excitement.

In the next round Ted is getting really exhausted though he knocks his competitor down. Sits down in the corner to gt water and toweled down and returns to the ring to fight some more. Having the confidence and stamina, he goes into the next round all charged up. They begin their dance and jabs here and there. All of a sudden the other guy throws such a heavy punch that sends Ted down, down to the ground on the floor. The referee counts down and Ted is OUT! The fight is over. Done! However, we were far from done that day for taping the show.

Far from done indeed....

It was already 5pm from being in their for that scene when we were called to lunch. What a relief. Though I couldn't actually run to holding as I was still in those heels. Made it to holding to wait in the lunch line where there were already 50 people ahead of me. I felt like"I Linda was here, we would be in the front of the line!" Oh well I made the best of it. Though this catering service, "Henry's Catering" was so gourmet and SO good, that they kept coming out replenishing the trays of food. What food they had!

Everything from Mussels, Calamari Salad, spinach with strawberry salad, baked ziti, walnut cranberry stuffed chicken breasts, brisket, lasagna..I mean the list goes on. It was like a wedding banquet feast! Truly the best catering around. That crappy "TomKats" catering could take a lesson on how to make and serve food from Henry's catering for sure.

If all that food wasn't enough, the deserts were to die for. There were 4 different types of cheesecakes, chocolate cake, tarts, and my favorite of all time..crumbles Oreo cookie cake!YUMSTERS!!! I must have gained a few pounds just looking at it. I grabbed a small piece and it just melted. It was Orgasmic!

Well that "orgasm" was short lived as we were called back to set. I was hoping that we were half way done, well I was wrong. At that point only the people who were in the primary scene were asked back to set. The rest of us were being drained from the waiting around and waiting and more waiting back in holding. Mind you at times I rather be in holding than sit on set where you have to be quiet.

So while in holding people talk and either you get information that is valid or you just sit around talk about nothing. The only relevant bit of information was when this young Asian American girl was talking about her experiences on "Sorcerers Apprentice", that Nicolas Cage movie which IS cursed!

There was a scene in Canal Street and the scene was for some Chinese New Year. So of course they wanted Asians for this scene. Well the thing is the majority of the Chinese who live at Canal street are undocumented workers. On top of it, the ones who did get hired and had legal working papers brought their entire family to set to hoard all the food from catering. So in droves they were pilfering all the bananas, cakes, and bagels to take home. I mean Chinese don't eat bagels??

To make matters worse..hhehhehe...these Chinese who HAVE NEVER worked as background and could barely speak English..messed up the entire scene SO badly that they had to re-do the entire 4-night shoot ALL over again. Gee.. I guess that must cost money to do.

Yes..I am still angry over the fact that I DID not get the final call-back when I auditioned for this movie for the role of the Russian Woman. Though I have to admit, this bit of news made me feel better.

After that conversation, there were a few people that were asking me about what happened to Linda. So I had to re-live all that again to explain to people. Then I get some bizarre stories how this one person says she felt Linda's presence through her TV set... I was like I had enough and reallywanted to leave at this point.

But NO! There was much more torture to come...

Now everyone gets called back to set and of course we go just to stand outside in cocktail dresses and heels in the chilly winds. After an hour of that joy, we are asked to go inside. Of course they are not doing anything but blocking thescene.

Clearly we were not even needed, and the PA send us up to the dusty balcony upstairs as a holding area so we could be close by and be at their beckon call. I was getting really perturbed and noticed that several people had left already. I thought they may still need me as I was the group closest to the front.

Hours went by and know I was getting hungry as many of us were. My friend Simon and I stepped outside and saw there were over 100 boxes of pizza outside on the table. We approach the table and we are quickly halted.

Angry and frustrated, Simon and I started to walk back to holding, got changed, papers signed out and went to to catch the G train. IT was already 2am by the time I got home. Back to Queens,

Back To One

Fitting for Martin Scorcesse's new HBO production

I was on the set of the Samsung Commercial when I got the call to get booked for this. The Samsung shoot was one of those miserable sets where it's pouring rain, it's an exterior and yet they want you to run around in business suits, drop your umbrella, do crosses and pretend that it's not raining.


Out of the blue I get a call from Grant Wilfley Casting, one of the biggest casting houses in New York. The message said to call up and see if I could come for a fitting for the new "Martin Scorsese" HBO production, "Boardwalk Empire". She asked me if I could make it to Brooklyn the following day and what time slot I would like to go.

I told the girl at "Grant" that I would like to take the afternoon call time for the fitting. My time was for 3pm to get to York St, which is the first stop into Brooklyn on the "F" train.

I get there to the subway stop with ten minutes to spare. I got outside and spotted another background person..you can always tell who is background. It's that certain background look of being puzzled, dragging a suitcase, and looking around aimlessly for a van.

So I approached this young lady, who obviously was going the same way I was. I introduce myself and within a couple of minutes, the van pulls around the corner. The driver pops his head out of the window and aks "Boardwalk?" We were like "Yes!" Quickly we hopped into the van.

The driver of the van clearly had a long, exhausting day of transporting people back and forth from the subway to the warehouse location. As we got on, this Woman that I know was talking his ear off and you could tell the driver wanted to throw her off the van a few miles back.

After a few twists and turns around the Brooklyn Navy Yards area, we get to this shipping and receiving dock. There was NO way I would have been able to find this location. We get up to the loading area, up to the freight elevator to the 8th floor. This elevator was one of these old ones where you had to grab this belt and pull down the doors yourself, then press and hold a button down. So glad I wasn't in that elevator alone.

The door opens up to this warehouse and racks and racks of wardrobe for this movies. I get to the front desk to sign and get my voucher. Next step this gay guy approaches me and tells me to take off my bulky sweater so he could take measurements. So I stand there with my arms stretched out and he gets out his measuring tape.

He measures my waist, hips, girth, bust and everything in between. There were over 4o measurements taken! Then it was off to the dressing room to get fitted. The part I really dread. I get to the dressing room and the guy tells me to disrobe and get down to my pantyhose and bra only.

Moments later, a Woman comes in and starts examining me and my measurement chart, then dashes out to get a costume. She comes back with a camisole and a corset!!! She tells me to take my sports bra off. I did this with much hesitation and figure well she is a Woman and this guy here is gay. So off came the bra and on with the camisole. That was actually easy in comparison to the next step. Getting that corset on!

First they had a medium for me and they pulled, stretched, it out and barely got the clasps on. I was dying. I couldn't breathe. I told them this wasn't going to work, so they brought another one in a large size. This one too barely fit around me. The gay guy had his knee up against my back to pull this thing and secure it on me. I was like "Wow, it must have really sucked to be a Woman in the 1920's!" Also I didn't know they didn't wear bras and just let the boobs flop around like that!

Once they got that on me, the rest of the costume piece together nicely, save for this skirt. This skirt was really awkward as it did not have a zipper on the side or in the back. The zipper was this strange 3/4 on the side past the hip. It took wardrobe a while to figure this one out. After I got the skirt on, they gave me a shirt, a sweater, boots, and a long heavy itchy fur coat!

It was something else. I felt like I was transported to the 1920's. It was a treat to be in such a museum piece, but even standing there for the time I was there, I already couldn't breathe and the coat was irritating me. I don't know how any of us will handle the day of the shoot wearing this for 17 hours. It will be an interesting day for sure.

So I got undressed, back into "2009 clothes" , got signed out and headed back to the elevator and heading back to Queens.

Back to One!

Addendum :At the time when I got the call I felt privileged and lucky that I got this call. Finally I get cast for being pale and Irish lookin. Though after going through this fitting, I'm not sure this set will be that much fun.

Unorthodox, Jew for a day in Brooklyn

(originally from Thursday, September 18, 2008)

I got a call from Extra mile to work on a movie called "Unorthodox" . The title says it all, it's movie about "Unorthodox Jews". When we got the instructions about the shoot we were told to wear plain clothes and no make-up or very minimal as we were cast to portray Orthodox Jews.
I thought this could be cool dressing up as a Jew. I always wanted to be Jew for a day!

I got to the holding area which was in Prospect Park area of Brooklyn, which is not a popular Jewish area as Williamsburg is where you see Hasidic Jews all over. The subway stop was at Grand Army Plaza which is a really nice area. As you walk to the holding area, you pass by blocks of gorgeous brownstones and tree lined streets. I walked a while until I got to the actual holding which was the Catholic church of the Virgin Mary.

When we got to the basement of the church, there was already a buffet of food lined up on tables that was already devoured into and practically gone. That was probably for crew and extras that were there since the morning hours. Since our call time was for 4pm, we were denied the food, even though the food was nearly done and only scraps of food remained.

The main event had to be the makeup department which was set up with all sorts of beards, wigs, hairpieces to put on us and create the authentic Jewish look. They dressed the Women in the wigs and scarves and all the men got the beards! It was actually fun. Not fun getting the wig put on.

When it was my turn to sit in the chair to get made over, the makeup artist tried several different wigs on me. She began getting my hair prepared by sticking and shoving pins into my head. She poked and jammed so many pins into my head, I could have been called "Pinhead!"

I started complaining and it really did hurt, and she took all the pins out and decided to just give me the head scarf. What a relief that was. Some were not so lucky and got the full wig put in and the men got beards glued on to their faces. It was very uncomfortable for many of the guys as they were complaining it was itching them.

All this took up about 3 hours until the "designers" were satisfied that we represented the Jews well enough. After we were done with the makeup and wardrobe, we sat in holding, and then we sat some more. Four hours later and the Assistant Director finally comes in and asks the union and non-union Jews to stand in a line.

He walks around, examines all of us and out of 20 of us standing there, he only picks two and says the rest of us are wrapped! I thought great, not a bad day after all. Unless of course they give a SAG waiver for the two Jews that were asked to stay behind. That never happened of course.

Oy vey , Jew for a Day. Though I don't think that I would want to become a orthodox Jew. It's too much work!

CA :(

Milosevic Movie

(originally from July 22, 2008)

Last week I was on this Serbian Independent film or Should I say "The Milosevic Movie"! If I knew it was a Serbian production I sure as hell would not have accepted this.

It turned out to be a hellish day, right from the start. First of all on the "Casting Networks" where they posted this said it was going to be 75 dollars cash on set. When we got to set, that was changed. It was still the same amount, though it would be in check form. This means it would have to go through Stanley Kaplan's office and it would be a miracle to find a check in that "Katrina Hurricane" of a disorganized office there!

One man was SO pissed about the mis-information that he started fighting with the P.A. and he refused to go on set until this was resolved. After finding out that they were not paying cash as it said on the website he grabbed his stuff and started walking.

I tell you I should have walked away with him. The day was excruciatingly long. The worst part had to have been that they didn't even use me!!! There were only fifteen of us left now and they took everyone upstairs to set, except for this Fat lady, a weird Lady/Biology teacher, and myself. The "weird" lady went outside to smoke every 5 minutes , saved all her cigarette butts and put them in the side pocket of her purse!

I don't mind being rejected b/c the way I look at it, even if you don't get used ,you still get paid. Though it really sucked that we were literally trapped in the hallway of this art Gallery in Brooklyn as they were shooting upstairs and we couldn't even talk or move our chairs! Even when we did go outside, they said we were too loud and had to be quiet. Put it to you this way it felt like a day At Law and Order which is like a Day in Prison.

Just being there on a "Milosevic movie" really got under my skin. Also being the fact that Serbians are born Killers and are animals. Just look at the latest example in the news with the extradition of former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic. He faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1992-1995 civil war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia. Taken from CNN news: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/28/karadzic.deportation/


If that's not enough you have that other "Serbian Killer", Miladin Kovacevic who beat the "life" out of Bryan Steinhauer, who is STILL in a coma after This Serbian "Slaughtered" him to a pulp! Then the Serbian was bailed out , fled the U.S. and is back in Serbia hiding. F'in Serbian Coward!!!
Here is the link to that news report: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/10/serbian.student/

On set, I heard from one of the PA's that they were celebrating when the news story broke out. How these Serbians even got VISAS to work in this Country here in Brooklyn, New York to film this movie is anyone's guess who they threatened or Shot to get their passports!

Amazing! Another thing is why did they have to come ALL the way here to shoot this crappy movie when it was just a simple office scene. Who knows if this movie is not a front to target some U.S. monuments. I wouldn't put it past these "Serbs"!

Enough on this. I am wasting energy on more fun, honest productions. Just hope I get paid in American dollars, not Serbian Blood money!

That's all!

A.