First of all, a little background. It is a movie about roller derby. set in Austin TX about a small town girl (Ellen page) who finds derby and it changes her life. It is being filmed in Detroit and Ann Arbor because of a new incentive that Michigan has to bring film productions to Michigan.
We were on set yesterday in a old steel warehouse in Hamtramack in Detroit. And this is a ROUGH area--let me tell you.
The set includes a banked track which is NOT what I will be skating on, or the majority of leagues are skating on in the country. Most use a flat track. The banked tracks are expensive to build, hard to store, and easier to get hurt on--so the existing 5 banked track leagues are based in Texas and California.
I reported to set at 1 pm with two of my fellow skaters from Glass City, Betty Block-her and Erica Panterica. We were called to our first scene I think at about 3:00 and we were placed in the stands disbursed with blow-up dummies to be the fillers in the stands. One of my fellow "actors" took this photo of me with a playmate of mine.
Taking photos were strictly forbidden. This photo was taken minutes after that rule was explained to us. We did not, however, take any actual photos that you would actually WANT to look at. I was too chicken.
So the next 4 hours were spent standing in a FUCKING hot as hell warehouse, under the hot lights of Hollywood, pantomiming a screaming crowd watching a derby event. This began to get torturous, but we were still having fun watching all of the stars, (more on that in a minute) when we realized that we only get little cups of warm water every 30 minutes or so. It got so bad, that when they started "granting" us bathroom breaks, no one really had to go because we were so dehydrated we didn't have to piss.
Then dinner. A catered bland roast beef, and veggie thing that we scarfed down like we were living in Darfur.
The second half of the "shift" began at 8:30 pm and we kept hearing rumors that it could go to 3:30 like it did the night before. No big deal. Union rules state they HAVE to feed us again after working a six hour shift. (keep in mind, it is still hot as hell and now we are all standing on pavement for sometimes 2 hours at a time with nothing but those fucking cups of warm water. I was wearing my converse tennis shoes, which have no support and my legs and back began to ache at about 4:00 PM!
By 3:00 am, people were BARELY standing. I can't believe that someone didn't pass out. People that had contacts had eyes drying up, everyone was STARVING. The second meal never did come. Eventually they released us out into the wonderful area of Detroit hungry and exhausted. It sucked. The three of us were actually hired to go back again today, but just physically could not handle another brutal day like that so we canceled.
From what I hear from some of the other "seasoned" extras: this was shitty treatment of the extras. Many of us were probably not going to return because it was so rough and they will probably be scrambling for more extras next week.
Now for the cool as shit stuff. As much as the experience sucked, it also kicked ass! I was in A LOT of close up shots and A LOT of crowd shots. I am pretty confident that I will make it into the movie somehow.
Who is in this movie:
Drew Barrymore
Drew was SOOOOO nice and cool. You could tell that everyone on the set respected her and she was very respectful of everyone else. Including the extras. (except for feeding us and letting us sit down) Even at the end when we were all dead on our feet she tried to talk with us and learn names as she positioned people into the correct spots.
Side note: TOO THIN! but beautiful.
Ellen Page
She is a nugget. The whole day people were looking for her, but she didn't appear in any scenes until after dinner. She was standing right next to me for probably 20 minutes before I figured out who she was.
My first impression (when I finally got a clue): very tiny and looks like she is 12. Seemed kind of nice, but didn't seem to make much of an impression on any of the extras. My friend got a snooty vibe from her, but I took it as shyness.
Kristen Wiig
I am a HUGE SNL fan and Kristen Wiig is the best cast mate they've got going and she rocked my world yesterday! She was in a scene where she was working behind a counter and Ellen approaches and talks to her. I was standing at the counter and as the camera came in on the train track thingy, I had to move out of the way so that Ellen could approach. My shoulder was supposed to be in the shot. (notice in the photo above that I had the flashdance look going) Well, Kristen and I were face to face for about an hour working on that shot and the whole time I was trying to come up with a way to say TURGET (Target) to her. [only SNL people will get that] Keep in mind that we are NOT supposed to speak to anyone unless spoken to.
By the way, she is too damn skinny as well. She is probably 5'7' and maybe 115 lbs.
Julliette Lewis
Juliette played the skater on the "mean" team so I think she was supposed to look slutty and bitchy. she nailed it.
Also too fucking skinny.
Eve
Eve looked SO cool. I wish that I was cool enough to listen to her music.
Jimmy Fallon
Fallon played 'hot tub Johnny'. He is the cheesy announcer that is hungover and makes nasty comments to all of the skaters. very will farrell-esque. He was the absolute coolest on the set. he would perform for all of the extras, come over and talk with us. Tell us to do certain things in the upcoming scenes, when the director had no idea that we were going to do it. At one point, he sang the entire Whitney Houston "I believe that children are our future..." song.
He was the only star that made an appearance in our mess tent during dinner. Just a really cool guy.
Alia Shawkat
This is the girl from Arrested Development. She has grown up folks! they had her dressed in a dress that should be a crime. Very curvy woman. freckles galore and huge eyes and eyelashes. Very beautiful.
Andrew Wilson
The hairier of the 3 Wilson brothers. The one that no one knows. He played a coach. Nice legs.
