On the Set of "CHUCK"

Last Wednesday, I was on the set of "CHUCK" from 8:30am until 8:30pm, and it was a wonderful day! Even if my paycheck from Entertainment Partners totaled a measly $88, it was a day well worth my minimum-wage pay stub.

I showed up to the Warner Brothers lot at 8:15am, after parking at gate eight, and had to go through security. When the guard handed me the map with "Stage 10" circled, I almost had a heart attack when I saw how far I had to walk. I set off at a brisk walk-run, oversized bag of costume options and purse in tow, for Stage 10, the set for "CHUCK". I made it just before eight thirty, the call time for myself and the other "Russian Bus Riders", was sent over to the wardrobe trailer to have an outfit selected, changed into heavy winter wear (despite the ninety-degree Burbank weather), was shuttled away in a van to the area with the "Russian bus", and waited in a plastic chair under a shady, flowering tree to be called to the bus.

Within an hour or so, the group of around fifteen of us boarded the dusty, smelly Russian bus, they started filming, and five or six of us walked off of the bus, pretending to be chilled to the bone. We did about three takes, and then they sent our group back to the holding area, while the "LA bus" filmed their bit.

I checked out the craft services table (aka, the area where the free food is placed for the starving extras! Oh, and the cast and crew, they also use craft services). I was amazed at the large selection of healthy foods available; there was almond milk, trail mix, dried fruit, almond butter, fresh fruit, a vegetable tray, water with mint, Babybel cheese - it was divine! Of course, there were also Egg McMuffins and sugary cereals, but I was ecstatic to also find such a large variety of good foods. Hurray!

Following the filming of the LA bus scene, the casting liason sent most of the people home (about thirty-five), and hung on to six of us for later on in the day. This was more than fine by me. Some extras like to work only an hour and then go home, since you are guaranteed the first eight hours of pay regardless. I, on the other hand, think it makes more sense to spend as much time as possible on set, watching and listening and learning, and meeting people the right way, by being professional. Plus, even if I'm getting paid to sit around all day, I'm still getting to eat for free, right? So I was glad to stick around. I saw Yvonne Strahovski ride her bicycle up to set and walk around for a bit, gorgeous with her styled long hair and black business skirt and jacket. For those of you who were curious, she is quite the tall damsel (nearly 5'10"), and a very pretty Aussie.

After a couple of hours, the van brought us back over to Stage 4, where we were sent to an upstairs holding room on our official "walk-away" lunch break, meaning the point at which SAG is required to give us extras an hour-long break for lunch (and a walk-away means you have to find one yourself). Two of the other guys and myself peeked around the set downstairs, and asked one of the crew hands, "can we look around?" The guy shrugged his shoulders, "yeah, sure." So saying, we walked through the world of Chuck, including the kitchen, the living room, the bedrooms, the balcony.. even the little veranda with the waterfall in the courtyard, which I recognized as the location where, I believe, Chuck and Sarah first kissed. It was so neat to see how much attention to detail there was. And when a Warner Brothers' tour walked by and saw the three of us peeking around and guessed that we were actors, there was a silent sense of awe at their being in the presence of real, live actors from "CHUCK." (I didn't feel it was necessary to mention we were working as extras. Woops.)

After that, I wandered over to John Levey's office. John, who is the head of casting at Warner Brothers, met with me privately back in May, following a large "mock audition" (which any intelligent actor should read as REAL audition) with the CMU senior class. I figured it wouldn't hurt to peek in and say hello, but neither himself nor his assistant Melanie were to be found that afternoon. Oh well.

I took a bit of a nap in our holding area, as twenty new extras showed up, apparently to portray "airline passengers". I figured I would be sent home soon, but I was then sent to wardrobe and given a sleek, sexy, brown business travel suit, which looked awesome with my brown boots I had brought to set. Around 5pm, we all headed down to the indoor set for the evening, which featured a large greenscreen wall and a small airplane sections of maybe four rows of two seats apiece. I got picked to be a flight passenger, and they sat me down, with about six other actors, in this teeny-tiny plane recreation. And then, Zach Levi and Josh Gomez swapped places with the stand-ins in the row in front of me. We then filmed the take a few times, and then the extras were sent outside of the loading doors to wait for a bit, since the set itself was pretty cramped.

Now, to be honest, Zach Levi is a very handsome guy. The fact that he is as down-to-earth and downright funny in real life as he is on the show was heart-warming. While outside, he made small-talk with a small group of tourists walking by, and as I nearly tripped over a piece of wood sticking out from under a trailer as I walked past him, he jokingly commented, "hey, you might wanna watch out, there's a big piece of wood there." I smiled a huge grin to myself and kept walking (I was very aware of said board for the rest of the evening).

After a few minutes of waiting, the second assistant director - read: a big deal - came outside to where we were all standing, after having been told to pick a few of us to stick around. He looked around, his eyes fixed on me, and he quietly motioned me over. "Do you want to stay?" he asked in a whisper. Trying not to seem overly eager, I smiled and answered, "I would love to stay." So he kept me on and proceeded to quickly point out four other people to stick around. "Alright everybody else, you are done for the day, thank you."

Woohoo! The group of us were then used to film some shots of passports being stamped (they only filmed our hands stamping the passports). Now, I don't mean to be cruel, and I am an extra myself. But there are some dumb extras out there. It isn't that hard to slide a passport open, stamp the page, and slide the passport out of frame. Yet for some reason, this task proved to be exceptionally difficult for most of the people there. When I did this perfectly four or five time, the crew and director were elated, much to my happiness (as well as befuddlement). As the group of us cycled in and out for passport stamping, I got to watch Zach and Josh filming several takes with the greenscreen, all to the tune of James Bond music, and all hysterical. Everyone on set would hold their breath while the cameras were rolling, and then let out loud hoots and hollers once the red light went off, signaling to Zach and Josh both our admiration and appreciation of their comedic skills. When it came time an hour later to keep only two extras around for a few more scenes, the second ad once again picked me to stay, as well as a middle-aged Indian man. Even though he must have known at this point that I was in overtime (and thus earning a few dollars extra pay), the second ad let me stick around - I was thrilled! I got to speak for quite a bit with Zach Levi's stand-in, who had some excellent, non-condescending advice for me as someone trying to make it out here, starting off as an extra. His words of wisdom were:

*"Never sleep on set, even in holding as an extra. Keep your energy up and realize you are at work."
*"Ignore the people who want to give you tons of advice and talk your ear off. Read and listen to music."
*"Find out who the second AD is, and ask him or her what you need to do that day to get a SAG voucher. That's why you're an extra, to get your vouchers. Don't show up on set if you aren't willing to ask for them."
*"Join both unions a.s.a.p. Again, that's why you're doing this work, isn't it?"
*"All you need is three costume options, and leave your valuables in your car."
*"Always have headshots and resumes ready, as well as business cards."

While I already knew most of these things, I figured it couldn't hurt to write them down. In any event, it was refreshing to speak with someone who was so good-natured and who genuinely just wanted to give me some helpful advice as a newbie.

They then used myself and the Indian man to film four restaurant takes, where our hands were used to slide food into different place settings, two of which were fancy and two of which were dumpy. We worked on these takes for about an hour, during which time the Indian guy I was with kept trying to instruct the production crew in how the dishes and food should be set, and then physically moving the items around, even though they had already been set up the way the crew wanted them. I cringed and tried to send silent brainwaves to this man, a self-professed filmmaker who had randomly decided to try being an extra that day for fun, to be quiet and to stop making an ass of himself. My brainwaves didn't really work, but heck, I tried!

Around eight ten, we wrapped with filming for the night, I dashed over to the dinner area and packed up some salmon, roast, and grilled vegetables in a to-go box, and I caught sight of the second ad, whom I quickly stopped. "Here you go," I said, as I handed him my business card. "I really enjoyed working on your set today, and I'm working toward joining SAG, so please let me know if you need me again in the future." He nodded, looked over my card, and said, "thanks" with a smile. I was exhausted, but I was thrilled.

Tune in on September 20th to see me as an extra on "CHUCK" (Season 4, Episode I). You can see me as the Russian bus rider with the black coat and hat (the only blond), the woman on the airplane behind Chuck and Morgan, and as the set of hands with the passports, the credit cards, and the restaurant items. :) WIN.