I spent the better part of two days as an extra in a movie. What a blast! As I told a few people, I have a real understanding of why actors and directors get paid the big bucks. These people do this their whole lives? Wow. Two days of being up at 3:30am, work a twelve hour day and know you're doing the same thing again tomorrow? Yeah, they deserve both the fame and the money.
I have to say I enjoyed the whole experience immensely. The film, Nouvelle France is set in late 1700's Montreal and thus, I was dressed as a 1700's Frenchman with the little black hat and all. It was so much fun to do. The only thing not great about the whole experience was the shoes. They were dead sexy, but had flat plastic soles... I was ready to cry by the time we finished yesterday. Several aspirin and 10 hours sleep later I feel alive again, but my feet are throbbing still. But that's life, and was well worth it. What an experience.
And the people involved. I got to chitchat with many of the extras and that was fun, but the crew were fabulous. Many were francophones and spoke broken English, and despite this they had unbelievable patience with the extras (I would say 40-50% of us did not speak French) and took very good care of us. And what a friendly lot they were. I wish I could take the 5-10 that were in charge of my group home with me. Fantastic people that even though I only spent two days with, I'm sad I will probably never see any of them again. Ah well, that is what memories are for. And I know I will remember these folks for the rest of my life.
