Southland and the Portuguese Pothead

Late call today, which was great cause I had time to go hiking and fix lunch and what not. I must say...when I left my apartment this morning, there was an angelic glow about me. Not sure if it was the exercise, pride in my cooking skills, or my pink silk top, but I looked rather pretty like an angel. I stress this only cause about an hour later, someone asked me if I ever tried acid. This guy was cute...like Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise- I could get any girl I want-cute. And he decided to sit across from me. I thought...hmmm...maybe he is interested? Nope. Within 5 minutes he tells me that he thinks the girl at the other table is really hot and that he wants to move to Brazil and is learning Portuguese in order to seduce Brazlian women. He doesn't like any of the Brazilians here though...they are too smart and independent and full of the "American Dream" so he has to go to Brazil. Then he asked if I ever tried acid. Do I look like a drug addict? I thought I looked so angelic today....but apparently me looking angelic could pass for acid dropper. He went to Burning Man last week and is still high on the experience. He thought there were too many gays there, but he managed to find some straight ones. The woman he went with is apparently a religious lesbian who taxidermied her pet dog. He is 25 too and told me about how he made out with and hooked up with this 49 year old woman he was renting a room from. He made out with her on camera though in the movie Valentine so he got a SAG voucher out of it so look for him! He was crazy weird...but still really hot....but stupid...very stupid. During a break he decided to go smoke pot. When he got on the bus everyone could smell it. We called him out but he acted dumb as to not get in trouble. I'm actually surprised they didn't send him home...other sets would have. In fact, the only comments he got were "did you bring enough to share?" He didn't.

NCIS and the SAG Voucher

Working NCIS has finally paid off. I remember there was a time when I wanted to request to not work the show ever again, but I'm glad I didn't. Four months after receiving my first voucher, I get my second. Here's hoping I get the third in no time at all. Hacker (the 2nd AD) pulled me aside and asked how many I had and told me he was about to make my day. He did. It was awkward though cause he was trying to be discreet yet he also felt that I wasn't showing my gratitude enough. Make up your mind! I don't know how many thank yous he required but evidently saying it twenty times wasn't enough. I think I'm supposed to be more buddy buddy with him now cause he did me this favor. For some reason I feel like I owe him something now cause he is totally holding it over my head as if he saved my life. We shall see.

United States of Tara and the Trivia Cards

Pickwick Gardens:  Tomorrow I have an online test to be on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  So I have chosen to use my ample holding time reading trivia cards from the 90s Game, Trivial Pursuit and Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit.  Of course I'm surrounded by nosy ninnies curious as to what I'm doing and eager to play as well and all are mighty impressed with my trivial knowledge.  Of course the test the next day has an error to it and doesn't save, but that's beside the point and I can proudly say 3 years later I can't remember anything on those cards.  The actual filming aspect of the day was simple.  I was bundled up and watching ice skating from the side lines and was of course freezing the whole time.  But I can't help but feel some pride whenever working on United States of Tara since it is supposed to take place in my hometown and I can say that I definitely participated in indoor ice skating rinks in my youth.

Bones and the SCRIM

Today was an especially embarrassing day on set where I, in all my classic clumsiness, walked THROUGH a scrim on set.  To be fair, I was wearing sunglasses and looking down at the time, but that does not excuse the giant hole that my right foot left in the bottom of the scrim.  I was humiliated and had to put up with grip and gaffer nasty comments for the rest of the day.  They called me an idiot, and at that moment I never felt worse.  For those who do not know what a scrim is: A scrim is a very light textile made from cotton, or sometimes flax. A scrim will appear nearly transparent if a scene behind it is lit, but there is no light on the scrim.  So I'm telling you...it was transparent!! Not my fault!!! REALLY!! (okay maybe a little)

Cost of a scrim: $150

Cost of a clumsy extra: $64

Monk and the Reunion

Dear Monk,

Without you I would not work at all. Thank You.

Sincerely,

Mary


It has been 5 weeks since my last extra gig. Depressed, poor, and willing to do anything for money, I was called in to work on Monk at Paramount with my car. Of course my car is too noisy for those spoiled sound guys (what on earth did they do before hybrids??!!) so I was a pedestrian for the most part. It was perfect timing too because I just returned from San Francisco/Berkeley visiting Kate just yesterday. (God I needed that). What is really funny is that I was reunited with this guy Chip who was the stunt coordinator for this independent movie I worked on called S.E.R.E. I told him how the old gang was doing and he offered to work for free on this horror script I'm writing. I'm shocked how much faith people have in the project. It really motivates me to keep on working. Our identities and how we knew each other was bugging us for hours, until he laughed, then I knew that I knew him from somewhere. His real name is Lee, but his friends call him Chip...that's when it hit me. So glad we figured that out. I told him I'd mail him a copy of the movie..must get a hold of Jonathan. It was so fun reliving the S.E.R.E. days right after graduation when I thought this was only the beginning......haven't done much since though.

The guy who plays Mr. Eko on "Lost" was the guest star...I don't think he is really Nigerian...but damn, he can play it really well. (Okay..I checked on IMDB and his parents are Nigerian, but he was born in London, which explains why he spoke perfect English at Lunch...he also looks like a football player)

Monk and the SAG VOUCHER!

"Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I've got a wonderful feeling, everything's going my way" Today seemed just like any other day on set. I worked for maybe 3 hours yesterday which was brilliant because I needed to go by Universal Studios to pick up a free ticket that I got when I purchased my annual pass. I was so afraid that I was going to miss out on a great deal. I was a jury member so basically I sat down for 3 hours and then was let go. The next day they recalled me however, and I guess they didn't have enough SAG people so what did they do? THEY GAVE ME A SAG VOUCHER!! My very first one..and it only took me a frickin year to get! One down, two to go! Also, I was done by 1 pm...another short day, and decided to go to Universal Studios afterwards with Ashley to celebrate. Such an amazing day.

Entourage and the All Nighter

Working 9 to 5, ain't it tough to make a living......yes....especially when those hours are 9 pm to 5 am.  Fact: LA is cold at night.  So when doing extra work in the wee hours of the night outside it is essential to find some form of heat whether it is sitting on the generators or cuddling with a fellow male extra who has an unknowing girlfriend sleeping at home.  In this case we were cuddling on a generator. (keepin it classy).  But since my reasoning for the cuddling was purely survival, I feel no guilt or regret since he has a serious girlfriend.  This was probably the most tiring day of extra work ever, but what makes it more memorable is that I started writing the script for Rainbows and Butterflies (a horror movie obvs) on the back of a voucher.  These long hours provided me with the inspiration to write a script where everyone dies.