Brad Bird, Director, with the best extra girls ever!
......will be to stand up 15-16 hours per day, in high heels and a fancy ball gown, while the Director takes his sweet time arranging every little detail from Paula's hair strands behind her ear, to the exact level of Scotch (aka ice tea) in the tumbler, to Tom's bow-tie straightness, to the music level, to the position of the lamp by the bar to the....and I can go on and on and on....
Just came off the set of 'Mission Impossible:4 - Ghost Protocol' starring Tom Cruise, Lorraine Martensson and Pia Ault, plus a full cast of Hollywood wannabe's taking you behind the scenes of a major motion picture!
There is something about the sound of..."just came off the set of" - sounds like I do this for a living! Well, there clearly ARE people who do this 'extra' work for a living. Take Ricky Gervais' BBC comedy spoof on extras, called..."The Extras" for example, about that very phenomenon! You watch several episodes before you embark on a real set and you can pretty much laugh at yourself :) My point is, you really can't take yourself too serious and there is definitely a reason why the crew in charge of us 'extras' tell you why you should not approach the actors on set! You can make a total ass of yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR81gKiKXoE&feature=related
Our local paper had a big article in the September issue about Tom Cruise filming the latest sequel of MI in Dubai. It also said they needed about 1000 extras, business people between 35-50...I thought, yep that fits me, since I am 39, so I signed up and gave them a picture and clothing size details.
After a few weeks I got shortlisted as did Lorraine and Robin (my spinning buddy)- so we were all giggles when we were called to the fitting. Imagine, showing up to the production location and picking out a ball gown, jewelry, shoes and handbag FOR FREE, which makes you look like a million bucks and then having to be background to TOM CRUISE? It was truly a once in a lifetime experience which allowed us to act like silly teen girls for 3 days :)
The night before we started shooting, none of us could sleep - afraid to oversleep and miss our call at 6.30 had us tossing and turning. We arrived on the Palm, at the Zabeel hotel (which is 3 weeks away from opening, so was all empty and presented a perfect back drop for the "Mumbai" style charity ball - supposedly taking place in India in the film). We were escorted from the parking lot to the 'extra' large tent where we registered and got our X badge. Then on to 'make-up and hair' for an hour and then into 'wardrobe' to get into our costumes...we were among 350 people who had been picked from 3500 so we were clearly the cream of the crop in terms of talent (or so we convinced ourselves)! After we were fully ready, pampered and powdered, we went to a holding area (later known as the holding tank) women separate from men (as we are in a muslim country) where we waited, and waited, and waited, for 2 hours until the producer came and picked up 7 women. We had been firmly instructed to leave camera and phones behind; signed releases and non-disclosure agreements stating we would under no circumstances take any photos on set. Seeing the 7 women leave prompted much discussion among the rest of the 170 or so women...were they getting special treatment, what made them so outstanding, yada yada...the bickering among the cats was outstanding and we hadn't even started filming yet! There were all kinds...young, old, black, White Asian, Indian, European,I would guess 30-40 different nationalities and likely as many different temperaments!
Lorraine, Robin and I stayed together and went with the flow. When we finally got herded upstairs to the lobby and giant hall of the hotel, the crew was still busy organizing the set, cameras and props. Tom was standing right in the middle by the fountain reading some papers and discussing the script I'm guessing, since he is both writer and producer on this film. It was so unexpected to walk in and see him right there, live, in jeans and T-shirt, and consequently we all just gasped. More giggles from the three of us, as we were directed to find empty seats next to the bar area, where the scenes were to be shot.
Lorraine and I picked a table in the back, Robin sat on a couch with two others and it took us a good hour to realize why everyone left our area and moved up by the fountain. Tom and Paula Patton - 'Precious', were to walk in from the front door, walk around the fountain and towards the bar - a 50-60 foot walk, right through several extras, and for Jeremy Renner-'The Hurt Locker', to meet them halfway and say some code, to which Tom replies "copy that". Lorraine and I, oblivious to all this as we sipped our fake champagne (ginger ale) were not even in the camera view. I'd never make it as a professional extra...these Divas use fangs and claws to get into the camera's vision and we soon found ourselves battling a silent war where only the fittest among bitches survive. The scene was shot 12 different times from 6 different views over the next 7-8 hours - we eventually learned and got to position ourselves in the background of where the camera was pointing! Not a good first day on the set, but clearly success in that we got to see Tommy close up.
The next day we showed up at 10am, since we had worked until 12.30am the night before. We were ready for prime position and this time we didn't get bowled over by the other primadonnas. We had started naming and shaming the true outrageous women who practically threw themselves at the Director. 'Pinkie' was a Portugese/American, dressed in a pink Sari; a middle-aged 'professional extra' who 'had done five other movies and knew how one should play the game' - oh boy did she ever...she was practically behind Tom in every single shot! In fact, for continuity we had to remain in our original spots for every scene so it doesn't look weird when the movie is edited. In other words if you are in one shot where you stand next to a lamp with a glass in hand, facing another person, you must stand in the same spot, with same glass, in same hand,facing same person regardless of where the camera is shooting from. Makes total sense. Pinkie was moving with Tom, and was in every shot from every angle and it didn't matter to her that she was standing with different people in the shot! By the time we wrapped on Day 3, she had been warned 4 times and was moved around and out of the frame several times because she ruined the scenes. We figured she had also slept on set so she was ready for Tom, and we joked that she most likely did the desert scenes with him, as well as dangled off Burj Khalifa with him...
Then there was Swedie...a tall, blond, model from Malmo Sweden, who walked around with an innocent smile and played totally dumb; the crew loved her personality (what personality???...or her boobs and ass...not sure)-and she featured with several of the producers in the corners. During the wrap party, the assistant director told us that Swedie had approached her and said with the finest Swedesh accent, " I reeely think it is taaim to put foocuus more on me and put me in frooont of the kameraa" - to which he had replied: "I really think that when you become the f***ng director you can tell me what to do!" - OH we loved the drama.
And 'porn-girl' who posed on several of the couches on set for the gaffers and set-crew to take iPhone shots of her in her shimmer and shine red sequin dress!
Or how about 'Silver'...an older, very classic gray haired lady (62) who was dressed in a stunning silver Grecian-style dress; whose husband of 30 years was also an extra and on the set, and who made a big deal out of the fact that they had been happily married 30+ years...she was caught by one of our co-extra males, in the men's room kissing a younger man on Day 3! And then there was the Emirates pilot Richard 'the flyer' who missed Day 1, came late on Day 2, and when changing in to his Tuxedo, told the wardrobe attendant, Zak, to "fetch me a soda" (Zak is a good friend of Aric's and a fellow Mastercraft owner)!! He told the 'Flyer' to go fetch it himself.
We also endured 'goldie' an Indian snob in a gold sari who walked in front of us deliberately in several scenes where we had been asked to walk by the Director Brad Bird. The worst Diva behavior must have been 'Bar-Girl' a fortunate Indian woman who happened to randomly position herself right at the bar, and as a result, she is (or was) in every single shot and angle shot by the bar of Tom, Paula and Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire)- she would have been on the big screen right in front with the main cast, for the whole ball scene, had she not stood up Day 2 and said "I really want to be a movie star but I don't want to put in 12 hour days" - alrighty then, I think you can kiss that career goodbye then. And since she did not show up on Day 3 like the rest of us (minus 60% of the extras) she was cut out and the scene re-shot. Brad Bird, JJ Abrams (producer and writer), Tom and Mike Kehoe, gathered all of us around late Day 2 and pretty much pleaded with us to stay until 2am and to come back the next day so they could finish shooting the scenes. It would have been a big problem for continuity had we all stayed away. They motivated the entire crowd and promised that we will all be invited to a pre-screening next year when the movie premieres in Dubai. I won't hold my breath, but the pep talked worked. We were all very tired and it is hard work to stand and wait for hours while the crew gets the staging right, but that's the movie business. It's not glamorous and "dinner with Tom" - we were never promised other than 12 hour days and 500 dirhams per day.
There are no unions and actors guild here in Dubai so it is what it is, and besides, most of us have a regular day job! Lorraine, Robin and I were treated well, had fun and met so many lovely people during the 3 days. I even got to talk to Tom, initiatied by him, not me (as approaching the actors was a no-no) so what else can I ask for?
They surprised a select group of extras with a special invite to the wrap party; a mere 10-12 of us went to an Irish bar on the evening after wrapping Day 3; it was so much fun to chat with everyone involved. This is their life and passion and to learn what goes into making a movie was fascinating.
So, Mission Impossible: Accomplished and until Dec 16, 2011 - "standby, background aaaand ACTION" !
