My final day of filming began in the hair and makeup trailer as usual, however this was my first time sharing the trailer with John Travolta."Ah, my son-in-law!" he greeted me with.
I was a bit thrown because this was my first time seeing him without his wig on. Completely bald. In fact he was in the middle of having his head shaved. I couldn't help thinking....he's just a normal guy. A normal 62 year old man. Hair and makeup can make him into Stanley Hill, wrath-bringer. But in reality he's just John Travolta, proud father of two who has thinning hair and dad arms. Hey, kinda like my dad.
Since this was my last day, I came baring gifts....a giant bag of chocolate, jelly beans and a card made by the one and only Jessie Kinyon. It had four dresses on it, for each of the four ladies in the hair and makeup trailer, and said, "You're fancy." A funny story ended up coming out of this, which I'll describe later.
Finally I took my seat, which was the chair immediately to the left of John. I had to take a moment to let that sink in. I was getting my hair and makeup done next to John Travolta. I think it was the equality of it that struck me the most. Two actors sitting next to each other being prepped for a day of filming.
I'm not remotely suggesting that we are equals. JT is in his fifth decade of film making and, let's face it, he's a legend. I'm Jordan. I was cleaning up champagne and broken glass off of a Michael Kors boutique floor a few months ago.
But I was hired to be an actor in this film. John was hired to be an actor in this film. Ergo, we are equals. It was this simple equation that gave me the confidence to make it through this film.
Back to the hair and makeup trailer, John is commenting on the posteriors of the four ladies in the trailer. "Yeah all of you have back."
Back, noun 1. Booty of significant size.
"You got back too" John added about me. This struck me as odd, yet humorous.
After I had my finishing touches, I rose out of my seat to get changed and John again referenced my butt.
"Yeah you got Meloni butt."
Meloni butt, noun 1. Posterior sharing similar qualities to that of actor's Christopher Meloni. 2. Not to be confused with baloney butt, which is not good.
"Wow....can I put that on my resume?" I asked, trying to play it cool after this celebrity just compared my butt to another celebrity's. I ducked out of the trailer, trying to maintain my composure.
We were dealing with the final scenes of the film and the pages were a mere day old. Chuck had spent the weekend doing a major rewrite, then spent last night doing a rewrite of a rewrite. A simple scene showing the family visiting Stanley in the hospital morphed into a scene with two new characters, a doctor, a lawyer....and a gun.
The doctor and the lawyer were hired the day before. The lawyer, a great guy named Jeff Grover, was going over his lines, which were very jargon-heavy. I asked him if he wanted help running them and he was grateful for the offer. We ran them so many times I ended up memorizing everyone else's lines in the two page scene, which might be a good habit to pick up.
Poor Jeff, though. When it came time to film the scene, the lines, which were there just a few minutes ago, left him when the camera's turned on. I think the big problem was that he didn't have a night's rest for the lines to sink in. We did a few takes and eventually got through it, but all of us empathized with him and were giving him lots of encouragement. Amanda was especially good at waving off Jeff's apologies. She understands the demands of learning lines in a condensed amount of time.
The most irritating moment was when the producer came over and tried to talk to Jeff.
"Hey, have fun, alright? Have fun!"
Sounds encouraging to read, but the comment was very inappropriate considering the source. Chuck actually intervened and told the producer to get lost, then whispered to Jeff that he was doing great and the producer shouldn't talk to his actors.
Jayden, our darling little boy, was struggling too...but it wasn't his fault at all. The kid is six years old and he's asked to stay up AND behave until 1am. Not to mention....he had school the following morning. But when they said "Action" he was right next to me where he needed to be. What a trooper.
(Should've finished writing this when it was a bit fresher.)
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All in all, the movie was a wonderful experience. A little trying at times because of the constant shifts in the schedule, but I can't imagine a better experience for my first movie.
Wow...my first first movie was playing John Travolta's son-in-law. Shit!
I think if I could do it all over again I would've let myself enjoy the process more. I spent a lot of time trying to stay grounded so I wouldn't crack up when it came time to shoot the scene. It was just what I had to do. But now that I know I can get through a high pressure situation, I would take in the moment more.
What got me through this whole process was a simple equation that I created for myself.
John Travolta = actor in I Am Wrath
Jordan Whalen = actor in I Am Wrath
therefore...
Jordan Whalen = John Travolta.
Obviously I'm not equal to John Travolta. He's had a successful career spanning five decades. I've done one movie. But in this case, in order to do my best, I needed to believe that I was on the same level as John Travolta.
And it worked. I got through it. I was focused. I wasn't self-conscious. I listened. I learned.
I made my first movie.
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