How I got to Hollywood and began filming in the crowd
In the courtyard of two high-rise buildings, A movie camera stands opposite the Hyatt Hotel in Century City. Three hundred people walk around, most of whom work in the Hollywood crowd. A guy is lying on the grass, he is looking at the sky, I am sitting about two meters away from him with my friend, telling him: “This is the main character of the film“ Adolescence ”. And he is obviously ill. - "Why?" “Because it’s one thing to do a film for twelve years in a row, two weeks a year, where your whole team consists of people who become your family during this time. On the other, a full-length film with Tom Hanks about Silicon Valley, and all this is the backside of Hollywood. He has a lost look all day, and he even catches your view, unlike other actors, because he does not understand what he is doing here. He obviously lacks intimacy. "
My friend turns in the hands of cardboard. We were given wooden clipboards with a light in the middle and a logo on the other side. Everyone around is walking around with these cartons, pretending that these are tablets made up by Circle. These tablets in the hands of those who are in the frame something they photograph. Sitting next to a chair sits a girl, better known as Hermione Granger, but now an adult, she tells the makeup artist that she misses her small town in England and fishing with her dad. Children in Hollywood are each miserable in their own way. She is kind of wonderful, bright and tries very hard, cries at the click and gives Stanislavsky, unlike her colleague, she already knows, she is used to, this is work like that. Unlike children, Tom Hanks Hochmaite, without interruption, he, in my opinion, is always a great mood.
At the same time, at Disney Studios, the secondary characters of the Good Wife and Motherland series portray an ambulance on the resuscitation series, an exact replica of the United States’s busiest hospital, Angell Memorial Hospital, is built inside the studio, which, by the way, is not far . I walk around the playground in the costume of a pregnant woman. The fake belly beneath my blue blouse with a landscape print resembles a globe. My new friend and I are trying to be on the same films and TV shows to see more often. I have already starred at about thirty and even lost count, although I only go to this job a couple of times a week. Well, for example: "Real Detective", "Masters of Sex", "Sphere", "Reanimation", "The Big Bang Theory", "CSI: Cyberspace", "Mother", "Two Girls on the Strangle" and in several other films Marvel comics, which I can not talk about, because I signed a bunch of paper-obligations. I used to work at the site as an assistant director, producer and even make-up artist, but now I depict strangers, often in some kind of costume. How did that happen?
In my fifth year in California, I finally realized that you can do anything. For whatever I take, everyone supports me, Californians are by nature cheerleaders. If you managed to bake classic chocolate chip cookies, they advise you to open your own bakery and they even suggest that you introduce them to those who succeed, he will advise you. I tied a hat for pre-dawn beach walks in search of a wave, because I could not find a suitable one for sale, it’s time to launch your own clothing brand or at least collaborate with an existing surfer brand. This applies to absolutely everything, there are no restrictions, take it and do it. I love films about detectives and once told my husband that I want to play a detective in a movie. To which, naturally, she received a cheerleader's answer: quit your job, go to the actors. Also, just in case, we looked at what was needed in order to work as a real detective, and we found out that you first need to work as a cop for four years, driving around the districts with a partner in one car. It is completely uninteresting to me, I will strangle this partner in a week. In the actors so in the actors.
In some films you find yourself in the frame: sometimes one of the characters turns to you, and sometimes you just sit somewhere in the crowd
How to become an actor in Hollywood? This is the same matryoshka as Kascheeva death. You need to find an agent who will pick up your auditions, look for roles. In order to find an agent, you need to have a riel - video selection of roles already played. How to get them? Looking for portrait photos - headshots, with which you can sign up for listening. Every day they are laid out in hundreds on three sites: Lacasting.com, Actorsaccess.com, Backstage.com. That which is called right away is student films. Thirty girls of the same height, with the same hair, approximately the same age and body size, are sitting in a queue with you. Among them is one plump, which probably does not look like that on headshots. She looks around nervously and often, without waiting for her turn, leaves.
With student films is not clear anything. They may not be removed or removed poorly. They are almost never paid for. Give the name in the credits and a copy of the film. But when? And will it be watchable? At the same time, of course, they are waiting for you to do your job as a professional, and not as someone who looked in on friendship and after lunch he had to run. You drove half a town, you were recorded for an minute and a half on an iPhone or iPad by an Asian student of indeterminate sex and age, and you drove back. After the thirtieth such audition, I attended to the question, but how to get to the audition at the cinema? From students there is no sense. Immediately, however, a friend formed who shot me in a Samsung advertisement, but the role there is not speaking, and this is not enough for riel. In order to get into a normal project, for example, a film or a series, you need to be a union.
How to get there? It takes three days to act in the role for which the trade union voucher is given. Egg in a duck, duck in a hare, hare in a chest. An acquaintance who had already been an actor told me that going to stupid listening and simultaneously doing other work is, of course, an option, but for some people it takes ten years before they get to the site. There is an option to remove the riel yourself. We scored dialogues with friends from films, for example, from “Fights” with Al Pacino, and made a couple of commercials. It looks beautiful, but everyone has a very funny and smug look. Al Pacino didn’t work out the first time, instead of talking detectives to a suspect, we shot a comedy. Everyone was very nervous and at the same time received a wild thrill from the process, it turned out a kindergarten, not a movie.
The coach at the gym said that he himself had recently become an extras actor. Walked with friends at the festival of vegan food, an agent approached him and offered to star in an ad in Nike. For it gave trade union vouchers, and he earned for two days of shooting decent money. Here it is, a loophole. I went to the Central Casting office, defended a long line, filled a whole pile of papers, a questionnaire with all its dimensions and features. There are several pages of various skills: surf, skate, tennis, golf, martial arts, motorcycle skills, languages and accents - write everything you can - breathe fire, juggle, dance salsa and so on. What kind of car do you have and do you have certified pets. All this is brought in base.
The “Central” (as everyone calls it) has a Facebook page, where every few minutes they are thrown out announcements about shooting for tomorrow or in the coming days and a phone number. Within the first thirty minutes after the announcement is published, the set usually ends, then the answering machine will turn on: "Thank you for calling, we are all booked." That is, you need to call immediately. The casting agent asks for the first five digits of your social security number, full name, his profile pops up in the database. If you fit the description, they give you the number of an answering machine, where after seven o'clock in the evening there will be all the information for tomorrow.
On the answering machine in the evening they will tell you in detail what you need to have with you, how to dress and where to go. At the appointed time, you must already arrive, park, get your voucher. Then you go to the costume and makeup. If the action of the film takes place in another time, for example, in the sixties, then, most likely, you will be summoned in advance for a fitting, they will be given a costume. For the series "Masters of Sex" I was given Manolo Blahnik shoes on a high-heel pin, they were tied up for an hour and even made a manicure. In some films you find yourself in the frame, sometimes even one of the characters turns to you, and sometimes you just sit somewhere in the crowd. With styling. You smoke herbal cigarettes, the sixties (for that, by the way, give a premium). And you, by and large, are out of focus, but everything in the frame should correspond to the time.
Having walked in a wig and make-up a couple of times, I stopped thinking that it would be great to get into the Game of Thrones. False hair weighs like a parachute.
The first few shootings were hard for me, some working days were 14-16 hours. And, of course, shoes had to be removed all the time. And then the fun began. I realized that this is actually a dream job. Firstly, you can choose the films in which you are filming. Why not play in your favorite series? Plus a tour of the studio for which you pay. For two months I visited all the studios that are in Hollywood. Secondly, you are the only participant in the process who has plenty of free time during the working day, which allows you to read a tremendous amount of literature or do anything on the computer, for example, work. Everyone is sitting with ipads and laptops, some people play computer games. Just you sit inside a Hollywood movie. Unlike other film workers, in two months you can have time to work in forty different films, look at various stuntmen and acrobats. Take a ride on a bus, surrounded by zombies, in a post-apocalyptic landscape. See how sitcoms, westerns are filmed, and at the same time find out that the horse earns more than a man in the crowd.
I always thought that I didn’t look like my grandmother outwardly, but after visiting the site of a film about superheroes, which was filmed in Marvel comics and which takes place in the 40s, looked like a suit of that time, with the same hairstyle, I found out what else looks like. The make-up was done differently then, the face in it really looks older and harder - not everyone will. Eyelashes, for example, painted only the upper ones, there was no shine either in the shadows or on the nails, there was no French manicure and even more so there was no bleached hair. On post-apocalyptic films, make-up artists distribute special napkins to everyone who has their nails painted, for some reason they believe that after the conditional end of the world the nails will have nothing to paint.
Interestingly, almost all films are shot in Los Angeles, often New York is shot entirely in studios, Florida, Mexico, Idaho, even Paris can be entirely built from scenery. And the views of the city are taken as a separate team. The series "Mad Men" entirely filmed in downtown Los Angeles. In the series "Ray Donovan" there are scenes on the East Coast, they were shot here, the snow is not real. Every time you see a party in the frame, people with glasses of champagne are two hundred people who are up at five in the morning, fake champagne, and fun or rave occurs thirty duplicates in a row on command. The ice in the glasses is made of film, even when you hold the glass in your hand, it seems that the ice is real. Having walked in a wig and make-up a couple of times, I stopped thinking that it would be great to get into the Game of Thrones. False hair weighs like a parachute.
It is clear that not all people on the site are professional actors, but some do it for this. It is simply amazing that absolutely anyone can come to the Hollywood film site, sit there all day, get money for it, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, chat in the free time during the free time and have no other work, no qualifications. The most interesting thing is that you can do this at least once a week, at least seven days. All you need is a social security number and show up on time.
Alfie Allen, who plays Theon Greyjoy in the Game of Thrones, zooms around in a zombie and apocalypse film and turns around asking if someone has a cigarette. I have in my suit pocket a fighter with evil, the same as on it, someone's pack is lying. I give him the whole pack of cigarettes, he extends his hand to me: "My name is Alfie." I understand that among the Hollywood stars there is only one Alfie, and it’s foolish to pretend that I don’t know him, but I’m nervous, I clap my eyes, and he realizes that I don’t know who he is. This makes him calmer, and all day he tries to talk with me about something. We both fight off the zombies, which are then drawn using computer graphics, I feel like on a children's matinee: we are wearing helmets, and we both constantly laugh, although in the film it will be a scary scene and our faces will not be seen.
On this day, I work as a stunt double stunt in one of the main actresses in the film. The doubler didn’t come, but I practically came up in height, they pulled me out of the crowd for knowledge of martial arts and the ability to ride a surfboard, but my shoes were given on the platform because I’m five inches below the actress. The military bus staggers from side to side at high speed, and if I fall out of it, I will be grouped in time, besides I am wearing a helmet and a suit and I signed a paper that I am not embarrassed by such circumstances. When it comes time to say goodbye, Alfie waves his hand to me and says: "Bye, honey!" I think that it is, of course, surprising that he knows my name, and I don’t seem to know him. My husband never calls me by name, only honey. Just half of his friends call me, and I suspect that they do not know what their real name is. Perhaps it's time to take an actor's pseudonym.
Alfie Allen and I are fighting off zombies, which are then drawn using computer graphics, and I feel like on a children's matinee
Behind the scenes in any film some kind of perfect parallel life is created, and it is not clear why it is not seen in the film, where all this energy of friendship, joy, fun disappears. Hollywood is a terrific snag. On the site of the series "Crusher" with Rob Low in the lead role, we see the police station of the city of Boise, Idaho. Rob plays a television star who comes out of the bullpen, he is greeted by fans. I stand in front of everyone with a glass of coffee, because the propster thought that this character could well hold my character. The first seven takes, I drink it, then they take it away from me, because it is necessary for me to wave my arms and rejoice. Rob is charged by the fictional joy of the fans and starts to dance between takes. Once he even says “Actor's life matters!” Instead of his text. The crowd starts to applaud sincerely, albeit on command. He stands with his back to the camera, and then this text will be replaced with the desired one.
When the camera is rearranged and we will continue to wave our hands, posters and enjoy, you can no longer depict the face of agitation, but keep a calm look. Rob goes out of the police station again and is very surprised that all the joy has disappeared somewhere, she is not visible, in front of him a crowd of strangers who wave and applaud him with calm faces, in silence, because the sound of dialogue is being written and we have to jump and rejoice in silence. He looks into my eyes, but this time with interest, and I think that I can, of course, be expelled for such sabotage.
A week ago I was sitting in a cafe, on the sitcom site with Anna Faris, in the frame I had to eat salad, but I was so uncomfortable that after another take, in which I leave the frame, I spit it out into the trash can. The second director saw it and said: "Mother, even the actors chew food in the frame, but according to the law, I can't make you eat it, so let us shoot this scene without you." Anna Faris defiantly offended and even showed me that she really ate her pumpkin in salad. Of course, I was worried, but you can’t argue against character. At home, my husband told me that, perhaps at such a pace, I would turn things around in the film industry, because all the actors do what they are told, and I do what I think is necessary. Well, welcome to Hollywood!
Photo: USA Network, Flickr, Shutterstock