Cranky Actress Blog

Remember the film I was cast in opposite the Hatwoman? Well, filming dates coincided with my vacation. The last day of filming being the day I’m flying back from Florida. Oy. So I quickly offered my apartment as a location. I was the only one in my scene so it didn’t matter. I’m on the phone in the scene. The director said OK. Which was awfully nice of him ‘cause he could have bagged my ass and gotten another actress.

So the day comes to go home. I travel most of the day. Sit on a packed plane with not enough air. Eat a mini bag of Fritos and a micro mini Kit Kat and a Diet Coke for dinner on the plane. There was a sandwich, but it scared me.
Take a cab home. Drop my bags. Call the director, who is parked a block away waiting for me. Run and wash my face, brush my teeth and let Visine work it’s magic. Changed into wardrobe. Did a turbo makeup job.

We started filming at ten p.m. and I’m afraid we will be at it all night. DP’s and lighting sometimes take forever. And since it is night, and they have to make it look like day, because the other half of the phone call was filmed in the afternoon.
But, I so lucked out. The DP has done massive amounts of big work on big films. So he walks in and says, “Sit there.” Then he sets up one big light that he bounces off a mirror and IT’S DAYLIGHT. Then he recruits my husband to hold a square of tin foil and periodically move it a certain way and now we have cars going by reflecting the daylight on my face. Ingenious.
I do the first take and it goes fine. So did the takes, so we got it done in an hour. And my husband did a great job manipulating tin foil square. Which I appreciate since we just got back from vacation where I am not at my best. The director, the DP and the sound guy were total dolls. Like so happy to be doing what they’re doing and all. This makes Cranky Actress happy. A little bit of film magic in my living room.

It’s funny how things in life work. One day you are rushing off a plane to shoot a scene and the next day you are waiting once more for the phone to ring.