It Just Gets Better

OH, MY GOD.

So I caught my 5:12 am bus yesterday morning out to Closter, New Jersey like a good girl, and got my hair teased and sprayed and my eyebrows made deeply surprised, and went off to breakfast and the set.  And we filmed.  (Well, you know...it's what we were there for.)

What a day.  First of all, I got into a scene (a tiny, baby, itsy bitsy scene consisting of about six words) with Leonardo DiCaprio.  Now while actors do speak on camera, very often the actual lines are dubbed in later, when nobody's worrying about staying within their key light and stuff like that, so that while people do say the lines, there's room for improv, as long as the time is correct...and in case you care, DiCaprio is a real potty mouth.  So he does what he's supposed to do, which ends him up coming over to my desk on the set, and at one point, to express his jubilation (he has just made a large stock sale), out of nowhere, he gave me a big kiss on the cheek.  Imagine my surprise...I think my jaw must have been down to the ground. 

After they picked me up off the floor, it was decided that he should introduce himself to me, which he did (nice firm handshake that boy has)...which exchange ended me up having two lines, to wit:  I'm Wendy (what can I tell you...they're not good at names around there), and, You got it!

This, my children, is what is known in the business as a "five and under," meaning a scripted exchange that is five words or less.  BUT, according to the rules of my glorious union, it takes you out of the background designation and into the contracted principal desgnation.  Which takes you into...big drum roll here, please...the designation of people who make $842 dollars a day.  Yeah.  $842.00.  A friggin' day.

So, let's add up the numbers:  $300 for Friday's shoot, $145.00 for the Monday holiday, and because the upgrade wasn't given until the afternoon, another $145.00 for Tuesday morning, and $842.00 for the rest of the day.  This makes it roughly $1400 for two days work (turned out they didn't need me for today).

Now, this is only an upgrade for one shoot, so let's not get carried away here.  Next time I shoot something I'm sure I'll go right back to plain old background status...and indeed, I'll be occupying my usual desk at the law firm tomorrow.  And the kiss was an unscripted improv which won't end up on camera.

But sheesh...I had Martin Scorsese grinning at me and giving me a thumbs up, and I was goofing around with Spike Jonez (we kept yawning and accusing each other of causing it...you know how contagious yawns are)...oh, and did I mention that LEONARDO DICAPRIO KISSED ME?

Love, Wendy (you know, the one who got kissed by Leonardo DiCaprio)