Today is the day that I become Dr. Maria Bouer. Hmmm, well I am not sure how I feel about the Doctor part of that character because I am clearly not old enough for that title, but I'll take it.
I awoke early today because I was scared that I would over sleep and wouldn't have time to take a shower and I honestly couldn't sleep anymore because all I could think about was how being an actress was going to go today. But in the end, regardless of how the day would go, I knew it would be a great experience and a huge resume builder to get the ball rolling on my acting experiences in front of the camera. The downside was that today was the day I wished I would have stopped eating like three weeks ago. I was feeling very self conscious about my appearance. The thing that was going right was that no army of pimples appeared on my face overnight, thank goodness!
And of course we were running late as usual. Rob, Ticho and I were to ride with Matt to set today and I swear to the heavens that he is THE slowest person in the entire world. Or maybe guilt is not a problem with him because he'll get to set whenever he pleases. Even if he does have to take three of us with him. I guess I am just not used to being constantly late because in theatre, if you are early then you are on time, if you are on time then you are late, and if you are late then you could be fired or reprimanded in some way. Time has become very fluid on set so no one really sticks to it, just as long as we are generally running on time they let it slide.
Today I didn't have to worry about being 2nd Assistant Director. As soon as I arrived on set I went to find out what they needed me to do in the position of 2 A.D. before I got into costume. But Michael Wright came up to me, gave me a hug, and told me that he was going to treat me very special today because I was an actor. HAHAHAHA I think it's funny that when you are an actor, people lovingly kiss the ground that you walk on and when you are part of the crew the day consists of being yelled at all day. I much prefer the treatment of being an actress! But it is sad that the people who are working hard all day get little gratification when an actor comes for one scene and they are praised. You just have to remember that you do it because you love it, not because you will get a lot of special treatment for a job well done.
Next I was off to hair and makeup. The makeup was to be very natural and understated and I was given a very matronly bun. They wanted to make me look like a professional but I felt like I had hair from the same character as when I played Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker." But matronly is definitely a step in a very different direction from my usual prostitute or man roles so bring on the matronly buns. Costume was a whole other situation. I was told before I left the states that I should being something business'y' so I brought a business jacket, a blouse, a skirt, tights, heels and a dress so that they would have options to choose from if they needed my stuff. The head of the wardrobe department asked for my sizes so I was told that my costume was taken care of. Like a boyscout and always being prepared I still brought all my own stuff just in case. And it is a good thing I did. What wardrobe brought for me wasn't anything like what the director had in mind. The European female business suit must be different from the American female business suit. So in the end I wore my own skirt, tights, shoes, jackets and they just provided me with a button down white suit shirt. I wish I had had the mentally capacity to remember to grab my camera, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures on my own camera of my experience that day but plenty of other people were taking pictures so I am going to try and scrounge up a few of my day as Dr. Maria Bouer.
So now I was in makeup, costume and hair and I was ready to go but getting more nervous by the minute. Now it was time to meet the actor in which I would be playing all my scenes with. His name was Mimoun Ouled Radi, and what a character he was too. I'll start this story by painting a picture of the scene we were supposed to be creating. My character has entered the Immigration Office to compile data for a study on efficiency within the department. Mimoun's character is pissed that I have come to call on them so late but I would be impressed by how they got things done and he would show me by letting me sit in on an interrogation of a man they found in a freight container trying, what they thought, to get illegally into the country. The man in said box is the protagonist of the whole film, Rik Sinkeldam. As the scene progresses, JD (Rik) disarms the two armed guards in his holding cell and flees the immigration office all while I'm taking notes on an IPad. It was a really fun scene to shoot. There were many takes and a lot of it ended up being improvisation because that was just how Mimoun was working that day. And in between every take he would sing to me and he even made me a rose out of a napkin at lunch. Obviously smitten with me and my brilliant acting ;) I also had to run around the corridors of the office building while Mimoun was chasing after the escaped possible terrorist. I ended up having to film all day but it was A LOT of fun and I hope to get to have a chance to do it again soon. I keep looking on IMDB.com to look for the update on my acting gig on the 'Amsterdam Heavy' page. It is still not there but I am hoping it will be up soon!
And now that I got to play around on an IPad all day I really want one. I always thought that they were just an overrated IPod but now I feel obsessed.
The rest of the day went off without any major problems. The only one I can think of was when one of the actors' planes got delayed in Belgium and was running late to get to set. If he had been running on time we could have been done filming 2 or 3 hours before the scheduled wrap time. But since we had to wait for him we just got out on time, which is still fine with me. I was on a euphoric high and I was in the best possible mood for the rest of the day. I think Amy was quite annoyed with my positive mood because she was having a bad day. So instead of hanging out with her because I knew that she was stressed to the max, I went with Courtney to make sandwiches in the catering truck for our wrap dinner. I normally don't have to help out with that sort of thing but I was feeling generous so I didn't feel exploited to help out with good duty.
When we did finally wrap, the ride I usually get back to the hotel was going in the complete opposite direction of home so Rob, Ticho and I took the train home to Centraal Station Amsterdam and then walked to a grocery store and headed home for a nice relaxing evening. I took all of my groceries and sat at the bar in the lobby and caught up on the blogs that I was a week behind on. So for three hours I sat at the bar with my headphones in, listening to music, eating, and pouring my last weeks adventures into some sort of controlled chaos that would make sense to anyone reading it. I also called Caity to tell her all about what I was doing here! (Hi Caity if you are reading this). So it was really nice to catch up with her and then I headed to bed where Courtney and Amy were watching Sex and the City. This would be the last night of 3P because the next day after filming Courtney was headed straight to the airport to get back to London with the friends that she was staying with. I will desperately miss her when she is gone. From now til the rest of the shooting it will just me Amy and myself in the room. Home, Sweet Home.
Check me out on IMDB.com!
-M
And thank you for all your love and support, it completely and utterly keeps me sane!
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