Extra, Extra

Alright. Due to excessive interest, I’m going to tell you about my day as a star. Or, not star. Extra. But that’s as close to a star as I’ve come, and you weren’t there, so you don’t know – therefore I’m going to call myself a star. So there. *Sticks out tongue*

Oh, and Ryan was a star too.

Okay, for those of you who don’t know, Ryan and I appeared as “background” (the new word for “extra”) on the set of WB’s The Gilmore Girls. Ryan was slated as “Townsperson” and “Yale Student” and I was hired as a “Waitress”.

Once I got there I stood around for two and a half hours before getting an hour lunch break. After lunch I started to work. We moved from the town (where Ryan had been walking) to the Pub. For a three-page scene we shot the same thing from five different angles. Which would not have taken five and a half hours had Alexis Bledel (the daughter) known her lines. Seriously. The girl was horrible. As you know, if you watch the show, she’s not the best actress. Most of the world wonders why they cast her in the first place, but they don’t even know the half of it. It’s like she doesn’t even try. She just rambles what sort of resembles her lines and tries to pass it off. The script supervisor has got to be dying. Poor guy. Anyway, we did like a fragillion takes just ‘cause she couldn’t make it through without stopping. Which, in itself, would not make her a bitch, but her personality put her over the edge. Talk about your spoiled little brat. Sheesh. Every time they would yell ‘cut’, her wardrobe lady would run (and I mean RUN) to her with a giant fluffy coat and wrap her up. Like the girl wouldn’t last a second longer without dying or something. Once they had to hold for a minute because of a technical problem, and little angel Alexis had to wait for a minute. Then the director yelled, “Come on people, she’s out in the cold! Let’s move!” Like we, the background, hadn’t been freezing our butts off for the past six hours. Plus, she had some little phone thing, or palm pilot – I couldn’t figure it out, and she was playing with it every time she wasn’t filming. Like every second. She was punching in things and talking on it. It was like she couldn’t be without it. If she only spent that time looking at her script.

So, there was a lot of standing, and a lot of repeating. And let me just say it was FREAKING cold. Ryan estimates it was 40 degrees. And I concur. We were dying. And since we were supposed to be inside (when we were actually in a shell of a room) we were not allowed to wear coats or anything. So we just froze to death. My poor fellow waitress was wearing a miniskirt and fishnets. She was suffering. At one point my waitress friend (Michelle) and I were inside the bar while they were filming a street scene. They wanted there to be heads in the windows so the place didn’t look empty. Anyway, we were just sitting inside, being heads and shivering. In an attempt to warm up, we were huddling over little restaurant candles. The prop guys were in there too, just sitting at the bar talking (I don’t know why, but I suppose they had nothing else to do) and they felt so sorry for us that they ended up giving us their jackets and gloves.

So the first pub shot started out with the camera following me as I delivered a tray of beers, but in the end it got cut to just starting with my butt. That’s what the cameraman said. We got to talking (he felt bad for me that I was shivering, plus he wanted to compliment me on my stellar waitressing skills) while we were waiting for bitchass to learn her lines. He said that it looked like the first part would be cut, but my butt would definitely get screen time. So keep an eye out for that. Also, Ryan and I are in the background a lot. He’ll be easy to spot in the pub. He’s playing pool and wearing a Willamette/Griffindor scarf. Then there is another scene were girly and her friend are walking down the street in the dark and people are crossing behind them. Ryan comes out with stumbly/drunk boy and I cross a little later in a bright yellow coat. It’s like we’re famous.

Anyway, Ryan put in a fourteen-hour day and I worked for ten (not counting our lunch break). So it was really cold for a really long time. It wasn’t what I could classify as “fun” but it was a good experience, and I think I’ll do it again. It pays, anyway.

It will air on November 30th at 8pm. I’d recommend taping it if you want to see us, because my guess is you’re going to want to pause it to make sure it’s really us. Plus, if you tape it, then when I write you exactly where we cross the screen, you can go back, watch it, and realize that we’re not really stars.

Points of interest:

- We saw Lauren Graham, Scott Patterson, and Alexis Bledel. Ryan picked up Ms. Graham’s newspaper and I brushed up against Alexis a few times.

- Two of the extras had been paired as a couple on Blind Date and ended up sleeping together but never speaking again. So it was really awkward between them but really funny to watch.

- A good portion of the extras use their free time to hit on the other extras. At least three pairs of them ended up going home together at 1:30am when we finally were released.

Also an interesting thing I learned to notice is that shows really reuse their background people. They bank on the viewers not noticing, but when you look it’s really obvious. Ryan and I watched Friends and Will & Grace yesterday and were watching for background actors. In both shows they had the same people walk by, going the same direction multiple times. It was pretty funny. But it’s true… you don’t notice the extras. Unless, of course, it’s a really hot waitress.