Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Maybe Someday I'll be a Star
I might have said I'm young 'n unemployed, but I still have a couple tricks left up my sleeve. A couple weeks ago, half out of desperation and half because I thought it would be exciting, I registered to be an "extra" for a feature film that's shooting this summer in Minnesota. It's not that often that a big Hollywood production comes to Minnesota of all places, and it's not that often that I have spare time, but somehow it all converged so conveniently this summer.
I drove out to downtown a few weeks ago, my heart beating a little heavier than usual the whole way there. Palms sweating, I walked up to the building, went up to the office and waited a bit. A nice, soft-spoken lady quickly greeted me and had me fill out a form with some information about myself. She went over some brief background to being an extra and handed me a sheet with more information. In turn, I gave her a photo of me, as requested. That was it, I was registered to be a movie extra! It was way more painless than I thought.
I wasn't banking on it all too much, though. Local newspapers reported that over a thousand signed up as extras. Add on to that my complete cluelessness about how this industry works, I didn't expect much. They also didn't confirm me for any dates, basically I had to sit and wait for a phone call. And I waited... for a couples weeks, until this morning when I was awoken by a call to my cell phone.
So, yes! Tomorrow and Thursday I'll be spending 12 hours each day on the set of A Prairie Home Companion. I don't have any lines and I might be hurrying up and waiting a lot, but hey. With people like Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, and Lindsay Lohan on cast I'll definitely be seeing stars for a couple days. And even though we're not allowed to take pictures or interact with them, I'll still be seeing stars! LOL.
I drove out to downtown a few weeks ago, my heart beating a little heavier than usual the whole way there. Palms sweating, I walked up to the building, went up to the office and waited a bit. A nice, soft-spoken lady quickly greeted me and had me fill out a form with some information about myself. She went over some brief background to being an extra and handed me a sheet with more information. In turn, I gave her a photo of me, as requested. That was it, I was registered to be a movie extra! It was way more painless than I thought.
I wasn't banking on it all too much, though. Local newspapers reported that over a thousand signed up as extras. Add on to that my complete cluelessness about how this industry works, I didn't expect much. They also didn't confirm me for any dates, basically I had to sit and wait for a phone call. And I waited... for a couples weeks, until this morning when I was awoken by a call to my cell phone.
So, yes! Tomorrow and Thursday I'll be spending 12 hours each day on the set of A Prairie Home Companion. I don't have any lines and I might be hurrying up and waiting a lot, but hey. With people like Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, and Lindsay Lohan on cast I'll definitely be seeing stars for a couple days. And even though we're not allowed to take pictures or interact with them, I'll still be seeing stars! LOL.
