Not A Close Up - But a Nearby

I told you I had a job as an extra on the movie "Peacock". (No, I didn't move to Nebraska, it is being filmed in Iowa)
You wanted an update, so here it is.
I got up at 4:20AM. I told you....Ass-Thirty in the morning. That is for me anyway, NOT a morning kind of girl.

I left home by 4:45, drove the hour and a half drive to the location of the shoot. There were 60ish extras needed for the day. As you already know, it has been storms and tornadoes like crazy around here for what seems like weeks on end. The skies were no different than the rumbly gray mass it had been days prior. I learned from the crew the shoot has been kind of a nightmare because of the weather.

So, they want to get the "big" scene with the extras done first and quickly, so we go thru wardrobe, hair and makeup PDQ, and they're calling for most of the extras to come out to be in the scene. Ellen Page was not shooting when I was there. Susan Sarandon, I learned from another extra who was local and was trying to get in as many scenes as possible, had been at the very long shoot day the day before and flew out.

However, Bill Pullman was in this scene and my initial blocking I ended up standing by him in a gazebo where there was a big buffet of pies (the movies takes place in the 50s) and he was very nice. He looked much older in person. I mean, Independence Day is on TV almost as much as Saved By the Bell...and who can forget the masterpiece that is Spaceballs?

No, I didn't gush all over him like an idiot and say, "I loved you in Sleepless in Seattle!" I actually did my job, hit my blocking, adapted to the blocking changes they made, and smiled and had fun.

Cillian Murphy had to ride a bicycle down the street "behind" us and I can only assume when all these folksy townspeople are doing this very Americana milling about in the town square and Cillian's character rides by, it's going to be CREEPY. I can hardly wait to see it.

Then one of the people driving one of the old cars in the scene about ran over him. An assistant director was standing by me when that happened and I'm like, "Yeah, that'd be kind of bad to kill the star of the movie at this point, huh?" and he goes, "You know, you could even run over somebody with 4th or 5th billing...just don't kill the star."

He was OK. Not to worry.
From the little bits and pieces I'd heard from other people who'd been shooting multiple days, this movie sounds wicked awesome suspenseful and totally cool. And I hope it's pretty easy to find myself in the scene, it should be I walk right in front of where Cillian was riding his bike so the camera has to catch me at some point.

Anyway, another day, another break from my real life. We got paid for the whole day and got out of there super early, so that made it even BETTER, I got to run a few errands and I managed to get all the stuff for the girls' new bathroom.

That's what I call a good day at the office!