My life is a constant series of random events and opportunities that seem to appear out of nowhere. The most recent occurrence appeared in the form of a text message at 11:30pm last Wednesday night.
My friend, Sarah is associated with a local talent agency and had connections to the upcoming George Clooney movie "The Ides of March" that was taping in SW Ohio. She had planned on needing to be on set Friday, but late Wednesday her agent called her and told her that not only did they need her on Thursday, but that she should grab a couple people to come along. Hence the late night text I received.
Now, who in their right mind passes on the opportunity to be an extra in a movie directed by AND starring George Clooney? I'll tell ya who, NOT this girl!
I stayed up all but 2 hours that night washing clothes and prepping outfit options as we were instructed to bring 3-5 choices for the wardrobe people to sort through. Hey y'all... the life is rough :-)
At 6am Sarah, two other friends Naomi and Stephanie, and I headed out as we had a call time of 8:30 and a 2 hr drive ahead of us. After getting to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, getting checked in, going through wardrobe and waiting for everyone to get coordinated, we were instructed to get on a bus that would take us across campus to set.
We filmed inside the auditorium in the building seen here... :-)
On the bus, we were told more information about the movie, the scene we were shooting that day etc. I can't tell ya toooo many details because you'll have to go see the movie when it comes out in October, but it is a political movie and we were a part of a debate scene where Clooney (Gov. Mike Morris) stands his ground against a Senator Pullman.To not bore you with step-by-step commentary of the day, I'll give you the overview.
- Naomi and I sat together house right just a few rows from the stage, but had annoying college boys behind us.
- Clooney is quite the jokster. He was constantly trying to make us laugh and finishing the scene by ad libing things like "George Clooney is very attractive," "This movie is going to be awesome," and "I love green beer." (That final comment in connection with it being the infamous "Green Beer" week at MU.)
- The crew and AD dept. were super awesome and fun to work with. I assumed I'd feel like part of a cattle call and pushed around, but it really was a lot of fun and I was able to learn a lot by watching how they set up shots and just operated in general.
- After a few hours, everyone was dismissed except the first few rows in the auditorium, which included Naomi and I... awesome. We got to do a few extra set-ups and then headed out to get lunch, be told we were getting paid (which was in contrast to what we had originally believed) and cross our fingers as they announced door prizes. Unfortunately, the itunes gift cards, tv, and wii set were not in the cards for us. Over it.
That was day 1. Luckily, as 80-90% of the extras were dismissed, we were part of the group invited back for Friday shooting. Score.
Day 2...Friday morning Sarah, Naomi, and I headed out even earlier as our call was 8am. By the time we got to set we were told that a few other of the actors would be in the day's scene. Who you ask?
RYAN GOSLING! (Not to contradict popular belief, yes... he was very attractive.)
the always entertaining Paul Giamatti...
and the classic Phillip Seymore Hoffman.
Although it was only a few hours of shooting, we had glimpses of the additional celebs, got to be involved in another part of the debate, and we were able to get a better understanding of how the scene would be coming together in the movie itself.
On top of that, I almost got to meet George. Almost.
Long story short, George and I have a mutual friend in Hollywood storyboard artist, J. Todd Anderson. I worked with him recently doing some choreography for "Nativity: A Pop Opera," an annual show he does in the Dayton/Cinci area, and George has collaborated with him on projects like "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Upon texting J. Todd to tell him I was on set with George, he told me that I should tell George that I know him. After our final scene on Friday I talked to a few members of the crew and asked if I could stick around to try and catch George in a "down" moment. We waited for a bit but seeing as he was working double duty acting AND directing, and since we needed to catch our bus back to not have to walk in the rain, we decided we'd have to catch him the next time :-)
Among all of that, what was the craziest thing we saw? Well, since you asked, I'll tell ya. After we concluded shooting, we were standing outside trying to escape the rain waiting for the buses back to our base. There was a woman, baby in stroller, camera phone in hand, standing in the ever-intensifying rain apparently hoping for a star-studded glimpse. Unfortunately, they would still be shooting inside for quite a while, but I'm sure your baby will thank you for that pneumonia later. **Mother of the Year nominee**... syke.
So overall, it was just a pretty cool Thursday-Friday combo for my average Ohio life. But let's hope this was a peek at my fabulous life to come!
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