i am a movie star

I am falling dangerously behind on this thing and have decided that if I don’t catch up soon, I’m going to stop doing it altogether, which would be an unfortunate thing.

New Year’s Eve was nothing spectacular, so you’re not missing out on some awesome post about it. A group of us went out for all-you-can-eat-and-drink sushi. 150 rmb and all the sushi, sashimi, beer, plum wine, sake, etc you want. That’s less than $20. That is something I am seriously going to miss when I come home. I am obsessed with sashimi. After dinner we went to a party at an apartment of a friend of a friend, did the countdown, and then I came home and talked on the phone/went to bed. Woohoo 2007.

January 2 was far more interesting. My friend Ken had texted me the previous day, asking me if I wanted to be an extra in the upcoming Ang Lee movie, which they are apparently shooting in Shanghai. I obviously wasn’t about to say no, because I’ve always wanted to be in a movie and Ang Lee is an awesome director. So then this Chinese guy calls me and asks me some questions about my appearance, including ‘you aren’t fat, are you?’. I sent him a picture and told him I was coming.

So…we left campus at 5:15 am. When we got to the film studio, they took us (me, Ken, Lisa, and this German guy named Peter were the 4 foreign extras) on a bus to the shooting location about 40 minutes outside of Shanghai. By the way, the guy had told me to bring a warm coat in case we were waiting around outside at all. It was about 40 degrees and raining.

So we got there and Lisa and I were immediately sent to wardrobe. The clothes they gave Lisa fit her perfectly, but they gave me a dress to put on that didn’t fit quite as well. I buttoned it without a problem, but I guess they didn’t like that it was a little tight across the chest. The women told me to take off my bra and gave me a little tank top to wear instead (this tank top was TINY), and looked at me and said “still too big.” Well it’s rare that that’s ever been a problem. So anyway, they’re looking at me and decide that the top buttons should be moved so that it buttons differently and is less tight across the chest. I didn’t think it was a big deal.

Of course, they move 2 of the buttons while I’m standing there, still wearing the dress. The woman then looks at it and decides that no, that doesn’t look better. After watching her spend all this time moving the buttons, she rips them off and asks me to take of the dress. She then proceeds to move every single button on the dress while I stood there wearing a tiny tank top, nylons, and a underskirt thing. In an unheated room. Did I mention that? No heat. I would also like to point out the fact that I was an extra. She was moving all of the buttons so that my dress would look ‘perfect,’ as if I was actually going to be seen.

After the dress ordeal, they sent me to get my hair and makeup done, again in an unheated room. Finally, we were shuffled outside to the set, where I did get to see Ang Lee. The scene was a street in Hong Kong. I guess they were filming a scene inside a tailor’s shop, and needed some people to be passersby on the street outside. There were 4 of us foreigners, and maybe 15 Chinese extras. For about an hour and a half, we stood outside, practicing our walk from one side of the set to the other. I’m not kidding. We just walked. We must have done it 20 or more times. And guess what. They weren’t even filming out the window of the shop, to actually see the people walking by. There was a mirror in the shop, in which you could see the people walking by. Sort of. So I’ll probably just be an out of focus blob. Good thing they spent half an hour fixing my dress.

At about 10:30 am, it was time for a tea break. We went and sat down, waiting for them to call us again. It was still raining, 40 degrees (or less?) and we were wearing thin dresses and thin shoes and nylons. We had our jackets, but after continually taking them off for the scene, we were chilled to the bone. We continued waiting in the cold by the time it was time for lunch. We took our lunch to a small room that had a heat lamp, next to where we’d gotten our costumes, and stood around the heat lamp and ate our lunch. We went into another room when we were finished, and just sat. And waited. I texted Mike continually, just waiting to be called again. We couldn’t change our clothes in case they actually would call us.

They never called us again. We ended up being there for 12 hours, made 550 rmb, and were only used for an hour and a half. I got home, ate some fried rice, and passed out watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (also directed by Ang Lee) at like 8 pm, still freezing cold.

Being in a movie isn't all it's cracked up to be.