The Wrap Party

If you've been following this blog, you might now be wondering, "Wait a minute.  If the shoot wasn't over yet, how could there already be a wrap party?"  The reasoning behind it was that the bulk of the shoot had taken place in and around Boston for two and a half months.  With the production about to head down to Virginia for its final week, the decision was made to allow the local cast and crew to celebrate their work before leaving the area.

I do not remember what the place was called in 2008, but the current eatery at 200 High St. in Boston is a sports bar known as Finn McCool's.  The downstairs space where we had the wrap party looks much the same now.  It is not very large, but it was sufficient to accommodate our group.  I arrived at the address by the Greenway on the edge of the Financial District on an unusually warm late January evening, unsure of whether I would be staying very long and debating in my mind the odds of any of the stars of the picture actually showing up.

As is my habit, I showed up rather early and saw that only a few members of the crew were at the bar.  I sat down, ordered a drink and exchanged a few pleasantries with those I knew.  It was awhile before any of my friends who had worked on the film finally came down the stairs.  I was delighted to see my old friend Floyd Richardson and his wife Donna.  All three of us were veterans of Boston's Publick Theatre in the 1980's, so we had some catching up to do.  And Floyd had just had a juicy role in The Box as the creepy employee who watches Cameron Diaz's character Norma in her home and at the library.

We spent so much time together that the room had now filled up and karaoke was getting underway right near us.  Young Sam Oz Stone, who played Norma and Arthur's son Walter, dominated the singing for most of the night.  My attention drifted up to the darkest corner of the bar where I was surprised to notice someone I had not expected to see that evening.  I excused myself and headed in that direction, hoping my nerves were up to the task.

I had known for over two months that I would be doing a scene with Frank Langella in the film, and I was very much in awe of that accomplished stage actor.  Now, here he was standing alone having a drink, and I decided that it would serve me well to break the ice in advance rather than wait until meeting him on set for the first time.  I approached and introduced myself.  I could see that my name clearly meant nothing to him, so I quickly blurted out, "I play Teague."  His demeanor instantly changed, he shook my hand warmly and said something along the lines of, "We're going to have fun working on that scene."  The conversation was brief, but it had served its purpose.

I next encountered another good friend and colleague, Cheryl McMahon, who had worked with me in many shows at various theatres over the years.  She was playing the 911 operator in the film and had shot her scenes on one of the sets I had seen at the Lucent Technologies building back in November.  While we were chatting, I became aware that I was standing right next to Cameron Diaz, who was involved in another conversation.  Cheryl and I continued talking right there for a good ten or fifteen minutes.

By this time, James Marsden had a few drinks in him and joined his film son Sam Oz Stone at the karaoke machine.  Cameron wasted no time getting in on the fun and the party was officially in full swing.  But I had been there a few hours already and I knew I had a long week ahead of me, so I started up the stairs to High St. to head home.  Upon stepping outside, I encountered our 2nd Assistant Director Mark Carter smoking a cigarette.  He took this moment to inform me that in all the films he had worked on, he had never seen an actor's role expanded as much as mine had been since the start of our production.  It was clearly the alcohol talking when he made me promise to remember him once I became famous.

I told him that I would see him in a few days and walked off, already anticipating the trip to Virginia in my mind.