Heroes and the Joey Pal

Well, it is a new year and before I begin my post about the joys of Heroes, I would like to take the time and re-evaluate all that I have learned this past year of doing extra work.

-It takes a real actress to dance to absolutely no music, in painful heels, with a smile on her face, after someone spills a syrupy mixture of sorts on her dress and to not react in terror after realizing it will take half her paycheck for the night to dry clean it.

-It takes a real actress to behave like it is cold outside and to shiver, even though she is wearing a wool coat and it is one hundred degrees outside in sunny LA and the shiver might be caused by a fever due to dehydration. AND she can always pass the sweat off as melting snow on her forehead.

-It takes a real actress to wake up at 4 am and get her hair and makeup done, only to wait around for 8 hours doing nothing, while her hair frizzes and her make up melts and smears across her face.

-It takes a real actress to seem upset after being wrapped after working only 10 minutes on set. That's like $350/hour. And to think...I could have been a doctor.

As you know, I love working Heroes. Why? They have good food. That's the only difference really between a good show and a bad show... the grub. Today was sub par for them, but I'm not going to complain really cause I did eat steak and birthday cake which I sure hell would not have eaten at my apartment. I also got to work with Sylar (Zachary Quinto) today and also Zelijko Ivanek who has been really big of late appearing on True Blood and House and he won the Emmy last August for Best Actor in TV Drama. I would say he's huge even...except for that he is not. When I first saw him on set, I did not recognize him. In fact I found him to be terrifying...kind of looked like someone who would go postal on you at any moment. Also, he is tiny. Like 5'3" and the width of my thigh. IMDB has him listed at 5'7" but that is a lie...sure I was wearing heels...but he was shorter than every guy there and had to sit on two pillows to make out with this one Asian girl. Key word in that sentence was Asian...and god knows they are a tiny people...unless you are Yao Ming. It was really cool to see him though.

Okay..I'm not going to freak out...but Zachary Quinto touched me. Yikes! Moving on up in the world...first he throws trash at me and says sorry, and now he bumps into me while moving through a crowd of people. Oh the little joys of extra work.

Now, I used to have a theory that any guy who likes Frank Sinatra music has to be a decent guy. I would like to modify my theory however. Any guy who likes Frank Sinatra music has to be a decent guy unless they are an Italian from New York. I had my Sinatra purse on set today which has been my usual for the past few months. I assume this guy had seen it when he decided to blast "New York, New York" from his MP3 player, but who knows. I try to be friendly to this guy who looks like the offspring of Elvis and Zachary Quinto and say that I too like Frank Sinatra music and he says, "Frank Sinatra is the best. Ain't no one better. Other people can sing his songs, but no one will sing em like Frank does...no one" Now...he said this as if he were going to kill me...as if I threatened him in someway, which was quite jarring and I decided to not speak to him again, but then he said, "Have you seen Joey Pal?" "Ummmm....You mean Pal Joey" I replied. "Yeah. That's it, Pal Joey, I alway get it reversed. Boy, Rita Hayworth is something in that, isn't she?"

I will never understand why guys on set are so crazy. The girls don't seem half as demented at times. And I always feel so awkward for the poor helpless ones who catch a guy's fancy. I can usually take care of myself with these crazed wolves since my knowledge can be quite intimidating, but most are not as fortunate as I. Towards the end of the night there was this shorter version of Kevin Smith preaching to this attractive female about how important watching movies is to an actor and how surprised he was at how few movies some of the theatre students at his college had seen. (Clearly he did not go to USC.) He was saying how his favorite movie was Raging Bull and how Meryl Streep was the most nominated actress, and this poor girl had to listen to his rant and was clearly not interested since she knew a lot of this stuff anyway (just because you haven't seen the movie, doesn't mean you're clueless as to what it is about Kevin Smith look-a-like!) I usually behave myself on set and act very professionally but I almost lost it with what look-a-like said next. He said he was going to have a Sam Mendes marathon. You know...watch American Beauty and Road to Perdition and LITTLE CHILDREN!! That was my chance, my chance to put the girl out of her misery and to put this little show off in his place. TODD FIELD! I wanted to scream. TODD FIELD directed Little Children you douche. But alas...I refrained. However, my facial expressions must have given away my thoughts??? Fore at that instant the guy next to me turned to me and said, "You need to read this book called the Power of Now. I can tell you are either thinking about the Past or the Future, and you need to be in the Now" I am quite confused. "Actually, I was thinking of the present. In fact I was eavesdropping and analyzing the person next to me". "Oh", he replied, "You must be a Cancer or a Libra". "No... I'm not". And that was the end of it.

A few moments later, they started cutting people to go home. I noticed that they were keeping all the "hot" people for another scene. I made it past 3 cuts until they realized that they had all women and no men. Still...not bad to be considered hot enough to be part of the 2nd to last cut. Ego Boost!

Keep an eye out for this episode 3.21!

Heroes and Another Piece of Trash

This was my 2nd time working Heroes in what seemed like over a year. I could not wait to see what Heroes star was going to be on set that day. There was no way I could have predicted the amazingness that followed. SYLAR (Zachary Quinto) was on set! He is pretty much the best thing about the show...especially as of late. I played an office worker in a scene where a woman who has the special power to tell if you're lying gets killed by Sylar. I didn't see any of that happening. In fact I was used for only 20 minutes tops even though I was there for 8 hours. I didn't care because the food was amazing. I mean...I'd gladly stay put anywhere if they feed me banana pudding with strawberries and chocolate chip cookies inside.

I love getting my hair and makeup done for a shoot. It makes me feel mighty special and significant, but this was not normal set where extras are separate from the guest stars and cast. Maybe it was because of the small call of only 10 background performers or something, but Zachary Quinto was getting his makeup and hair done right next to me. And that is when it happened. He leaned over to throw his empty bowl that once contained oatmeal away, and he missed and it ricocheted near my shoe. He said "sorry" and picked it back up to throw it away. I must be a trash magnet. First House and now Sylar. Do I care? Of course not! Whatever it takes for them to talk to me, even if it is "sorry."

Sylar also had his dog on set which was pretty cute. I guess a lot of cast members bring their pets with them which is pretty amazing. I need to find a job on a set like this for when I finally get my Great Dane...which at the rate I'm going might be in 30 years.

Heroes...Oh to be 18 again

I love the TV show Heroes, and was very excited about working on it. I also got to play a high school student which had the potential to give me quite a blast from the past. I wore a t-shirt that I bought at American Eagle my senior year and some khakis. I looked...well...let's just say I fit the part. I could have recreated photos from my youth. It was a short easy 4 hour day that required about 200 of us walking quickly out of a high school as if class was over. Easy enough. Hayden Panettiere ran through the crowd against the current. We did the take a few times, at the end she cursed "fuck" right at me. I felt that we connected. We were one. We could have been mind readers. They had pizza for a snack. There was a girl from some European country I can't remember eating pizza before a take. She took a bite, but then we started rolling, so she put her slice back in the box. The Craft Service guy saw it and threw a hissy fit telling her how disgusting she was. He then proceeded to throw the whole pizza box including 3/4ths a pizza away in the trash. It was hilarious.

If you are scratching your head wondering what this scene was and what episode it was in, do not fear....it never got past the cutting room floor.