Nervous About Acting Nervous: Another Movie Experience

So I was an extra for the movie Forever for the fourth time today. I was going to be a teacher once again, so I dug into my wardrobe for something that looks the part. What do you think?

The wardrobe girls seemed to think I looked it, and so must have the director, since she didn’t ask me to change. We shot outdoors, and the actor sitting beside me, who was playing the part of the leading lady’s father, pitied me because I had to wear a blazer in the heat.

The scene: Gin (leading man) is conducting a musical concert by his students. Cecilia, his fiance, and her father are in the first row of the audience. The father is acting really bored, fiddling with his cellphone. Just then, Gin turns around and smiles at Cecilia, and she blows him a kiss. When the father catches this, he throws dagger looks at Gin, then at Cecilia, before stomping off. Since the father is a benefactor of the school and therefore, a very important person, I look really nervous when this happens.

This is my fifth time to be an extra but the first time that I have to really act. I thought I already looked nervous because I actually was, but the director told me, “Dee, you have to be more nervous than that.” Eeps. In the end I think I looked more scared than nervous but whatever.

We had to shoot the same scene from three different angles and had to take a break when it rained. After the last shoot, this huge piece of black-painted styrofoam board used by the lights people suddenly fell over and landed on top of me. Luckily I saw it coming and caught it with my hands, so that when everyone worriedly asked if I was okay, I could answer yes. The experience somehow reminded me of that time a cabinet fell over onto my leg back when I was training for CAT in 1998. Why do these things happen to me?

The “father” was really nice. He kept talking to me and he explained what his role was and what he would do in the scene, confessing that dads can’t help but feel like that in real life. He says he doesn’t outwardly show his dislike for his daughters’ boyfriends, though, because this will only make them rebel more. Eventually, though, the girls find out for themselves what losers these guys are and break it off, so it’s all good. He also confided that this present role was so much easier to play than the role he did recently which had his character beating his wife and kids. I found out that he had worked for the Ministry of Defense for 30 years and when he retired, he decided to go into the acting market for father roles, because there aren’t that many in the industry.

He actually asked to have a picture taken with the lead actress, after which he asked to have a picture with me, the nonspeaking extra. Seriously? So I took the opportunity to ask to have a photo taken with both of them too.

a picture with my fellow actors

One new thing I noticed on set today – the makeup artist was styling the lead actress while looking at a picture of what she must have looked like for the same day scene in the movie but which must have been shot in a previous day. There was even a shot of her feet. Continuity is an oft-used word and a big deal in shoots.