Day One (Take Two)

Base camp for a motion picture production is a collection of trailers that serve as a temporary headquarters on location.  I parked in a designated area and was driven over to base camp in Milton, Massachusetts just before my call time of 7am on November 27th, 2007.  Alie escorted me to a trailer divided into six small sections, each not much bigger than a closet, where my costume awaited me and my contract was delivered for me to sign before it was quickly whisked away.

The rain which had postponed the previous day's shoot had ushered in some unseasonably warm air, so I felt a bit overdressed as I emerged from the trailer in my wool suit and overcoat.  I soon boarded another shuttle and was brought over to a side street and the house that served as the exterior of the Norma and Arthur Lewis home in the movie.  The street was blocked off by Milton police, and the small army that constitutes a film crew was assembled preparing for the shot.

The scene we were doing on my first day of work was actually from the end of the movie.  And I was particularly excited because I knew I had to deliver the final lines spoken in the script...or so I thought.  Changes had already been made and it turned out that I no longer even had a line.  I merely had to stand in the right spot, pretend I was talking on a vintage orange 1970's Sony walkie talkie and watch the action.  I met some new friends - Frank Ridley who played Detective Starrs and the late, great James Rebhorn who was playing Arthur's NASA boss Norm Cahill.

Before shooting began, a woman from props came up to me with a selection of eyeglasses for my character, but I pulled from my pocket a pair of my own aviators with an old prescription.  I'm afraid I won no brownie points with the props lady when costume designer April Ferry okayed my personal glasses.  They became the signature look for my character.

We spent much of the morning shooting the scene multiple times.  It was a crane shot, so the timing had to be just right when James Marsden as Arthur was walked out of the front door by two black ops to a waiting car, James Rebhorn (now rightfully having the last line) spoke to him, the car drove off with Marsden looking out the back window and the camera swooped up to a second floor window of the house where son Walter and his grandfather watched the car turn the corner.

I had two very brief interactions with the stars of the film that day.  Somehow, I wound up alone in a van with James Marsden as we were being shuttled over to lunch.  To make conversation, I blurted out that I had seen him six months earlier in Providence when I did extra work on 27 Dresses.  He expressed his hope that that film would do well when released.  And at some point as I walked alone through base camp, Cameron Diaz emerged from her personal trailer, pulled a sweater over her head, smiled, waved and called out, "Hello."  I shyly waved back and probably mumbled something in response.

For a good portion of the afternoon, I sat in the screened-in back porch of the house with Rebhorn and Holmes Osborne, who was now appearing in his third Richard Kelly movie, while Cameron and Frank Langella shot scenes at the front door.  I was pretty much a fly on the wall, pinching myself, as I listened to the two film veterans talk about a wide range of subjects.  Late in the afternoon, we did a few pickup shots of the final sequence.  The weather had gotten rapidly and dramatically colder, so I was now quite happy to be in my wool suit and overcoat.
                                                       
Before I was dismissed for the day, I was surprised to be asked if I could attend a meeting that evening to go over some script changes.  When I got back to the trailer at base camp to change, I turned on my phone (this was ten years ago, remember - my phone was not yet a permanent appendage) and discovered that I had a few messages from home and from CP Casting.  I called Carolyn Pickman and was officially informed that they wanted me to shoot the next two days, which I eagerly okayed.

I reported to the Intercontinental Hotel in Boston that evening and was met by 2nd Assistant Director Mark Carter (yes, we had already had a good laugh about that), and he sent me up to the penthouse lounge.  A nice spread awaited us before the meeting began, with Richard Kelly, producer Sean McKittrick, James Marsden, James Rebhorn, Bob Harvey and Gentry Lee (more about him in a future post) in attendance.  We read and discussed some green script pages with some new and some rewritten scenes that we would be shooting over the next few days, as I once again marveled that I was even in the room for such a gathering.  According to the original plan, I was supposed to be done until my next scheduled shoot date in December, but this incredible week was only half over.