I went to a friend's afternoon cocktail party the other day. My friend who I often call 'Carrie' as in 'Carrie Bradshaw'. She is a successful wedding planner who recently went through a divorce. The cocktail party was a backdrop for the pilot of her new reality TV show.
About fifteen years ago in Los Angeles, I used to do extra work for extra cash. The Screen Actor's Guild paid us very well to mime conversations and stand behind people who were paid even better to speak out loud. Many actors have a hard time doing this aimless background work, therefore, there are not a lot of actors doing it. Background Artists are a breed of their own. Odd skills are required. There is a lot of waiting around between takes and back when I was enduring it, there were no hand-held computers. You made friends or you read books. If you chose to make friends, you had to tolerate a lot of strange folks making small talk about strange things. Strange like being a stranger at a cocktail party for a reality television show.
At this cocktail party, I watched the camera follow 'Carrie' around the room and I noticed everyone become perfectly animated whenever the lights hit them. Especially 'Carrie'. She looked amazing. She'd been in a makeup chair earlier and of course her perfect dress hid the mic the perfect distance from her lips. When she hugged me I felt the battery pack on her back.
She mentioned she wanted to do this party to thank her clients, vendors and friends who'd been there to support her business. I was honored to be invited and at the same time felt flashbacks about the extra work. I also thought I'd recognized the room she booked from the ONE episode I'd seen of The Real Housewives of NYC. 'Samantha' would have been proud of her lemons-to-lemonade multitasking. She was getting good PR, giving good revenge and turning her irony into opportunity.
There was no director telling us what to do and I still wasn't clear on my role in her reality show. I'm a trained actor. I am NEVER NOT aware when a camera is on me and if I don't have lines, I'm either a miming, over-articulating idiot or an awkward mute. Back in school, reality acting was not a part of the curriculum. When 'Carrie' came over to me, lights and camera in tow, I flip-flopped between big-eyed, overacting and a lot of silent nodding.
I was the only guest with a degree in Theatre Arts.
The cameras never came back to me.
At least there were free drinks. Back in L.A., there were no martinis for us out in the freezing Pacific at 6am shooting David Hasselhoff's Malibu Shores.
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