I took a break from my normal Saturday, although this Saturday is far from normal since Philip is here. The kid is thin! It’s remarkable. He desperately needed clothes. What he had was falling off. We went to see “Men Who Stare at Goats.” It was a good time to go, since everyone else is seeing the Twilight movie or 2012. There were only three other people in the theater. Philip and I thought it was a riot. I laughed so hard. One reference I had to explain to Philip because he doesn’t know the history of LSD. No one else was laughing. My son particularly liked the references to being a Jedi and Ewan MacGregor’s character (Obi-Wan) having no clue. This is one movie where the time went by quickly and I had no desire to find out the time. That’s rare.

While I enjoyed the Michael Jackson documentary “This Is It,” I certainly wasn’t moved. The film showed his attention to detail, showmanship and talent. It would have been an amazing concert. After all the articles about MJ, I was surprised he was so vibrant and healthy. He seemed normal for a pop star. The reviewers all said to take Kleenex and that the whole audience would be crying. I don’t think anyone cried in the theater when I went. In the end, we lost a great talent too early. Unfortunately, the same can be said of many celebrities.

I just got back from seeing Funny People. I am in the movie. You can see me in the background of the airport scene. If you’re looking for me, look for curly, long blonde hair. I’m wearing a purple top, and my red luggage is beside me. I’m in the scene for several seconds–enough to catch me. And…I don’t look fat!!!

Finally the release date, July 31, is close. The trailers look good. Please go see and watch the airport scene to look for me. There may be a reward for spotting me in the film. I’m not sure what yet.

The new Harry Potter movie is quite well done. For once, I agree with the critics. I’m not sure that’s a good thing though. Unfortunately, the books are so long and the movies are 2+ hours, which is not enough time to really establish the significance of the characters’ actions.

So far this week has been full of movie watching. I have seen two new movies, plus ones recently relased on DVD. The timing is perfect snce I will be participating in ScriptFrenzy again this year. It starts on April 1. I’m still working out an idea. I had a beginning come to me out of nowhere last week, but I don’t know if I will go with that.

This week’s movies:

Watchmen (surprisingly good, not one I would have picked)

I Love You, Man (hilarious, I picked this one.)

Milk (wonderful, moving; Penn deserved the Oscar)

Role Models (funny, but not as funny as I Love You, Man–by the way, is Paul Rudd in every movie?)

Religulous (funny, poignant, thought-provoking)

Body of Lies (good, worth seeing)

And it’s only Tuesday…gotta go…more movies to see…

The trailer is out. The release date is July 31, 2009. I wish it was earlier so my son and I could both see it. Anyway, this is the film that had so many of us crazy extras. From the trailer, it looks like I movie I would see without having been part of it.

So at the scene where Seth walks near me, there were two actors dressed as cops standing nearby. They were also extras. One was old and one was young and cute. He kept staring. Then I suppose he got flirty. We chatted a bit until we had to move to a different area of the airport.

And…I told him he was being weird. He laughed but seemed surprised. I asked him if he was one of those weird actor types. You know the ones… He said he could be if I wanted.

He had that typical actor thing–holding eye contact far longer than normal. I don’t have a problem with it, but only actors (and Landmark Forum graduates) do it. They must learn it in acting classes–to be able to “be” with someone. I have done that exercise many times to the point where I can be with someone completely without distraction. However, real people don’t do that. If you notice, you will find that they look all around. They don’t gaze directly into someone’s eyes. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to talk to the guy again–not even to apologize if my comment left him weirded out. Heck, I’m weird too. No big deal.

One thing that was odd all evening for me was that I spoke to a lot of different people. Sometimes they initiated the conversation, but I always kept it going. When we moved or went back to holding, I was suddenly without someone to talk to. It seems that others paired up more. I always met someone else to talk to though. Yet, I never spoke to the same person twice. I think I spoke to eight different people. It was odd to me. I also noticed people staring. Weird.

After the long line, came the wardrobe check. Surprisingly, I didn’t need to change. I wore a lightweight, v-neck, purple sweater and jeans. I brought all those clothes, shoes, etc. for nothing. I would have done just about anything to go back to my car and dump the stuff–at least get rid of the bag of clothes. Next line may have been the worst. It was back through the mud to wait for a seat on a shuttle bus. I think I waited 20 minutes or longer. They came in shifts. The buses filled right away and returned to pick up more. I suppose I was lucky both times because I was on one of those luxury buses, not a typical airport shuttle. Again I waited to get my bags back. It was time to go into the terminal.

Everyone was remarkably friendly. I have no idea how many conversations I had with complete strangers while waiting. We did a lot of waiting. I guess that is normal, but this was my first extra job, so I didn’t know. I had brought a book to read, but I didn’t read. Once we got to the “holding area” (sounds like we were farm animals), we sat for a few minutes, got up, came back, sat for a few minutes, back up again. Once the filming got started, we didn’t sit much.

The crazy people were the ones who were so adamant about getting on camera. It’s almost a competition to see who can be first to get picked to do various shots. It was funny. I don’t think that extra work gets you “discovered” unless you have a speaking part–and maybe not even then. Then there were those people who were professional extras.

I did a lot of walking. At one point, I began to hate my bags. They were far lighter than anything I would carry to the airport even for a short trip, and yet they got very, very heavy. My arms hurt this morning.

I did get in a shot were you see Seth walking through a mass of people near the check-in gate. I was talking to someone else. Seth walks within two feet of me and turns to dodge some other people. I will have to wait to see if it’s in there. I was definitely in the shot. The other areas where I walked back and forth? I have no idea if I was ever in the camera. Maybe.

One idiot got in trouble for taking a photo of Seth with his iPhone. I barely paid attention to the actors. We were usually rounded up back to the holding area or busy being given directions.

We had an audience at one point… SFO workers and travelers were watching. The whole set up caused some confusion for a few travelers. We had a few who thought the fake airline was real. The airline that is normally there was closed. We also had a few travelers insert themselves in the background. Often they stopped filming to let groups of travelers go by to get to their airlines.

Next, I have to tell you about cutie “cop” who acted weird enough that I called him on it…

So I spent late Wendesday afternoon and night being an extra on Funny People. They were shooting some final scenes at San Francisco International Airport. No, I didn’t see Adam Sandler. I did see Seth Rogen, and I was shot in a scene with him. I saw Leslie Mann, but not Judd Apatow. It was quite an experience. I think the people who do extra work are crazy. Not a little bit, but a lot. My first ordeal was driving in the rain to SFO. Now, driving in the rain doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but people out here don’t drive well in the rain, and I was driving during the evening commute. I left an hour before my call time. Once at the airport, I followed the signs to the garage where I had been told to park. We had to park on level 8. That meant driving seven spirals to get there. I had to stop once along the way to be checked by security. We had special parking tickets. The most exciting part was that parking would be FREE! So I’m thinking this could be a lot of fun and interesting. Nevermind that I had to bring two changes of clothes, a suitcase, a carry-on and my purse. My bags were light–far lighter than when I travel. Next was navigating the parking garage elevators to find the shuttle bus that would take us to where we check in.

Base Camp

It looked a lot like a camp. I got my bags off the bus. I pulled the bags through the puddles and mud while carrying my clothes that I had put on hangars in a bag. Once I arrived in the tent with my first form, I saw all the people. Lots of people. Some sitting. Most standing. Some in uniforms. Lucky them to have a uniformed part so they didn’t have to carry several changes of clothes, shoes and accessories. My suitcase and carry-on were full of shoes, makeup and accessories. The first line was short. I just had to provide ID. The next line? That one went halfway around the enormous tent. This was the line for badges and more paperwork so we could get paid. While waiting, the generators went out twice–darkness fell. It was dark outside already. I could hardly see in the tent. My biggest concern was to avoid hitting the person in front of me with my bags.