 6/24/04
There hasn't been many updates here because I finally took the plunge
and joined the Screen Actors Guild last month. That means I'll be
working a lot fewer gigs but getting paid more for the
ones I do work. Every job should have that option, no? I just
hope
it works out for me. So far I've worked on only two jobs. First,
the new J-Lo movie called Monster-In-Law. These big budget star vehicles
move so slow! It's really hard to make a determination based on the
portion of one scene I worked on, but I think it's safe to say this
will be a standard gauzy romantic comedy in the chick flick vein.
Bonus points for including Hanoi Jane Fonda
who now looks a lot like Mrs. Roper!.
My other job was on the show Crossing Jordan where I am the customer
at an ATM machine while the ATM's security camera captures some
evidence happening behind me as I am conducting
my transaction. This was
a truly
great gig as I was only there an hour and I got paid for both
me and my car!
05/03/04
Most of my time lately has been spent doing photo
double work for David Caruso on CSI: Miami. I'm a lot taller than he
is, but most of the work is about hands or a shoulder or something,
so it's more important
that I have the same coloring than the exact right size. It's
not a lot of glamorous screen time but it's still a great gig because
it
pays
well and is a lot less yelling and "resetting to one."
The new Vince Vaughan movie called "Wedding Crashers"
co-stars Owen Wilson and is based on a pretty clever concept I must
admit (2 guys crashing weddings/receptions), but the couple days I've
worked on have not yielded many laughs IMHO other than one funny physical
bit by VV as a salsa dancer.
I've worked on a hell of a lot of pilots this
season as well. One sitcom starring Tom Hanks son Colin and David Hasselhoff
wins for oddest cast composition. I don't see it going too far other
than the involvement of the offspring of a Hollywood heavyweight.
That's as good a reason as any to get on the air I guess. More so than
the
other sitcom I worked on starring people I simply did not recognize
called "Lucky Us." This was a simple "will they?/won't they?" type
thing about a mismatched couple who get pregnant on
a single blind date. Several anonymous cop and lawyer shows also. One
gave me
the
opportunity to spend the day on board a (grounded) Gulfstream jet -
the same one Kobe used to fly to Denver and back!
Perhaps the oddest project was a total B movie
about a stripper volleyball team starring Burt Reynolds! Didn't he
just have a career resurgence not too long ago? Wha' happen!?!
11/16/03
Let's see, over the past few weeks I worked on
an episode of "Boston Public" where REM performed live in a bar set.
Notably they insisted on actually performing live. They sounded pretty
good, too. They performed an acoustic version of "Losing My Religion."
I can only wonder why they would play a golden oldie like that when
they're slumming by even being on that show? As usual, the guy who
plays the principal (I think his name is Chai?) proved himself to be
a total jackass in ways too numerous to mention. That is one guy whom
I would bet will never work again once this show ends.
I also spent three days on movie about dodgeball
tentatively titled "Underdog." It stars Vince Vaughan along with Ben
Stiller and his wife Christine aka "Marsha Brady." The movie has kind
of a vanity project/one joke feel to it. but I suppose that's about
how I would have felt about "Old School" had I seen it. Anyway, Ben
Stiller did some some very, very funny stuff. I have worked on a few
of his projects since I've been doing this and I must admit that he
does get more laughs than anyone else I've seen. For having such big
stars in the cast, this movie was very chincy so we'll see how it turns
out.
Other than that I've been doing a lot of days
on a series for Chinese TV called either "World of Gene" or "War
of Gene" no one is quite sure. Only a few people on the crew speak
English very well so it's difficult to know exactly what's going on,
but I gather that this is sort of a Chinese "ER" prime time
soap opera type thing. The show is
set in Los Angeles with both Chinese and American lead actors. Listening
to the dialogue is a bit surreal because the Chinese actors speak solely
in Chinese and the American actors answer them solely in English, and
back and
forth. I imagine that the English is subtitled or dubbed over in the
final product. Nice people though. And hard workers!
07/13/03
First Daughter. This is a movie nominally based on the adventures
of Chelsea Clinton going to college. It's directed by the actor
Forest Whitaker.
I was reluctantly selected to do a small bit as a press guy
tussling with
the Secret Service on my first day working on it. That scene seemed
to please the powers that be and led to 3 more
days on the movie which include some
of
my
most featured (albeit non-speaking) screen time yet. I'm in a very
long scene where
the press
chases the
first daughter and her boyfriend through a town. You never can tell
how these things are going to be cut, but I think it's safe to
say by how
much time they spent on them that these scenes will make the film.
And if they do you can't miss me, I'm doing sort of futile, Keystone
Kops
chase thing.
And after a shaky start, they ended up treating me first
class, and actually made it possible for me to join the Screen Actors
Guild, so please feel
free to patronize this one when it comes out!
07/03/03
Lately I've been working on a new HBO series
called "Carnivale." It might end up being something decent to watch
but it's been a hell gig for me. It's not the people on the show either,
they're nice enough. It's just the circumstances that make the work
so miserable.
First it's set in the 1930's so they give us these hideous haircuts
that are shaved on the bottom half of our heads while leaving the top
untouched. I personally feel it's because they put hats on everyone
so why bother cutting hair that ends up under a hat, right? Next, it's
the producers' opinion that everyone in the 1930's was absolutely filthy
(dust bowl, etc. I suppose) so they put this Fuller Earth make-up (read
"fancy
dirt") all over
us and put so much grease in our hair that it takes two days to wash
it out. Finally, this is a spooky series so a lot of the shoots are
combinations of daylight and overnight. They shoot up in the valley
so that means within the same 14 hour span you go from blazing 100
degree heat to freezing your ass off at night. It certainly makes me
glad I didn't live through that time period, although working this
series was plenty bad enough.
04/17/03
A couple interesting things over
the past few weeks or so. The best was working on the Madonna video
for her new single "American Life," yes, the video that has
been stirring up the mild firestorm of controversy. This shoot had
the tightest
security of any production I've worked on, metal detectors and pat
downs every time you stepped onto the stage. They were very concerned
about
the song leaking to the Internet. Madonna looked great naturally,
and she seemed pretty nice and down to earth. I honestly didn't see
her
get hair or make-up attention once during a shoot that involved a pretty
demanding dance sequence. As for the video itself it was filled with
some intentionally provocative images that had a vaguely anti-war tilt.
The premise of the bit I worked on was a militarized fashion show that
turns into an actual battle and has a lot of - again - provocative
images heading down the runway that didn't really seem to mean anything
concrete. They shot a lot of film so who knows what will be in the
final cut
of the
video,
but
let's
just
say
this
cast
included the largest group of single and double amputees I've ever
seen!
Other than that I spent over a week on a new
Garfield live action film. Shouldn't they have done thins about ten
years ago? Anyway, even though
it's not Disney, I think it will turn out to be pretty good Disney-style
family fare. It stars Jennifer Love Hewitt who from everything I saw
and heard seems to be as nice as she is lovely (i.e.
very). Unless I'm crazy, I think I even saw her ask one of my fellow
extras out on a date?!?
3/06/03
I just got done working a couple days on the new Ben Affleck Christmas movie. Is it me or is this guy cranking ‘em out pretty indiscriminately? He needs to start doing a little quality control - learn to say no. Then again there is the position that he should make hay while the sun shines. This film is a typically stupid romantic comedy co-starring the chain smoking Christina Applegate (how does a “Must Not See” sitcom all of a sudden merit co-billing in a major feature with the “Sexiest Man Alive?”). Anyway, I was able to witness my very first honest to god movie star frenzy as literally hundreds of girls were gathered around the perimeter of the set in the small town square where we were shooting. Regular shouts of “I love you Ben!!” broke up the otherwise Shakespearean atmosphere. One girl inventively added “And I can cook!!!” Take THAT J-Lo!
Later, as we were filming along a street with “live” traffic, there were, I kid you not, at least two near car accidents caused by people rubbernecking to get a look at Benny on the sidewalk. A few minutes after that Ben gave his public what it wanted as he strolled to the edge of the set and waded into the girls to sign autographs. The screams crescendo’d into a fever pitch in mere seconds and just as it looked like it could get literally dangerous (girls weeping uncontrollably after procuring his signature), Ben’s bodyguard yanked him out the scrum by his collar. Fascinating!
1/25/03
Last week I worked on the worst movie job I’ve
ever had. I should have expected it from “American
Pie
3.” It was actually humiliating
how
badly I felt treated. For those
of you who give a crap about such things, the final scene and “American Pie moment,” as
they declared with much hubris, involves the main guy getting a blow-job
under the table of a fancy restaurant at the
time when he intended to propose to his girlfriend. The
guys’ father walks in, the whole restaurant looks at his wiener, and
hilarity and an idiotic feel-good ending ensue. Screw you American
Pie!
10/25/02
Presented: for your amusement this is me
dressed up last week like a British marine
for the upcoming film "Pirates of the
Caribbean." This is Johnny Depp's latest
opportunity to wear frilly shirts. Whatever
you do, do not patronize this film when it
comes out in about a year or so. In my humble
opinion this has been a miserable shoot and
they are total jerks on this set (particularly
one idiotic 2nd AD) and I don't give a shit
if they know I think so. Sue me!
7/26/02
Well, I should probably have updated this
at the time I did it, but I did work one
day on the latest Austin Powers movie. The
scene I did was an extended fart joke featuring
a Queen Elizabeth look-a-like. The scene
itself was not very funny although it was
interesting to see how hard Mike Myers works
at squeezing comedy out of every available
second. I saw the movie at a special preview
on Wednesday and although I did get a good
look at myself on screen (it's the scene
where Austin gets knighted), the large majority
of that scene was thankfully not used.
2/22/02
For those of you who are interested in getting
a good look at me on TV your opportunity
is coming up on the show "Angel."
I play a guy who try's to pick up Lila in
a bar and gets shot down. The role I was
born to play! It should air in the next week
or two. Other than that I've been working
on a lot of commercials and "The Agency" on CBS.
11/28/01
I've been working on mainly commercials
lately.
But right now I'm in the middle of
two days
on The West Wing. First Class treatment
for
sure! I can certainly tell this show
is doing
well. A very easy going attitude rules
and
there's plenty of good food. Everyone
seems
to genuinely be having fun. And why
not?
11/03/01
Next week I'm working a couple days
on CSI
and on then Boston Public.
10/25/01
My time is basically being split between
The Agency and "Path to War" an
HBO movie staring Alec Baldwin, Donald
Sutherland
and many others. Actually, I'm being
run
ragged, working more hours than I ever
did
when I had a real job.
9/23/01
4 days on The Agency in the last 10
days
or so - I'm going to demand a credit
if this
keeps up. Plus a very nice and easy
day on
"Just Shoot Me" last Friday.
"Just
Shoot Me" may not be the best
show to
watch, but it is IMHO the best one
to work
on.
09/04/01
Not much camera time for Sol' Eric on
VIP
today. It was already the last episode
of
the season! Anyway, I'm wandering around
in a club while one of the characters
(not
Pamela) speaks with a transvestite.
Tomorrow
I return to The Agency
9/03/01
Last week - Boston Public. Not very
fun -
too many teenagers. This Tuesday it
will
be VIP with Pamela Anderson.
|
