Extras, Parties and suits

When I last wrote, I was preaching about possibilities, which is exactly what was given to me. I had a music video shoot all booked on Friday, but it was an outdoor shoot, and anyone who was in Montreal last Friday knows that it was pouring, so the shoot got cancelled. Obviously, that sucked. But I was still believing in my possibilities, so I decided to work on them. I wrote back to someone who had tentatively mentionned something about background work. I had already told him I was pretty much always available, but decided to follow up with my availabilities this coming week. I figured that if I did this every week, eventually he would use me, right? Turns out he needed people that very Sunday!

I will get to how amazing that day was, but the slight catch was that I was supposed to go the AMI Invisible Full Moon Party that started at 9 on Saturday, and my calltime was 5:30 on Sunday. All things considered, I would have to wake up around 3 am, which didn’t leave me much time for sleep. I also couldn’t bail, because I had convinced my cousin to come with me. So, we went in when it opened, with pretty much no one else there, had a great time once people showed up, and I stayed until 11 ish before basically abandonning my cousin with a girl I knew. I felt horrible at the time, but looking back, it was the right decision, because I had been on set for hours by the time he actually got home.

The first reason why Sunday was so awesome is because it was the first time Carolyne and I ever got to work together. Knowing I would be on set, especially with Carolyne, was enough to make me excited to be driving to work at 4 am. The second awesome thing, for me at least, was that we were dressed for business/corporate. This doesn’t sound like much, but I have been watching a lot of Suits lately, and the girls are always wearing pretty dresses and blazers and I sometimes wish I had a job that required me to dress like that every day. And this is the beauty of acting, even as an extra. For that day on set, I was a paralegal, doing some shopping with my best friend on our lunch break. Because the day spent on set as an extra is a lot more interesting when you have a backstory 😉

Another thing I love about being on set in any capacity, or just working in the acting business, is meeting people, whether they are actors as well, or just doing this for fun. The advice and conversations you have on set are priceless 🙂 Even when the conversation is interspersed with running for your life, with the camera nowhere in sight. All in a day’s work I guess, and can’t wait to go back!

Since Sunday was also Father’s Day, I rushed to my grandparent’s house for s’mores, having missed supper. I also planned on watching or doing whatever my dad wanted that night, but instead I fell asleep almost as soon as we got home. Still, my dad took it in stride and let me know what was happening in the golf game, even while I slept. You guys should be so lucky as to have a dad as good as mine 🙂

On Monday, I got some more extra work for this week, before my brother and I took my dad and grandfather out for a proper father’s day supper, to make up for the fact that I missed it the night before.

My fitting was on Tuesday, and I have been lucky to get shoes I can walk in every time I am an extra, and although the outfit isn’t exactly what I would wear today, it was definitely nice back in the day when this particular movie is set. Once the fitting was done, I met my cousin for some menchies and to find out what happened after I left him on Saturday. We ended up walking and talking for over an hour, mostly leaving because it started pouring.

Now before I go, falling asleep on Sunday meant I couldn’t watch Sex & Ethnicity live, but the first 4 episodes are currently on youtube, and you will find some laughs, some heart, amazing talent and even a little bit of me 😉

“God, make me so uncomfortable that I will do the very thing I fear.”

-Ruby Dee