12 July 2008

North by Northwest

Left work early yesterday (5 o'clock is early now) and magically made the 5:16 to New Haven.

I spied a bouquet of green Starbucks straws sprouting out of a garbage can like flower stems near Grand Central. It was very 2008. "How utterly urban!", I thought.

MetroNorth is just weird. I grew up riding the "RR" and sometimes the N. Sometimes my dad would drive us in the Ford Tempo and park near 36th street and we'd grab the express.

The whole MetroNorth experience is foreign to me, I can't wrap my head around this commuter/old school "Roger Thornhill" locomotive amalgamation. The way this lonesome silver bullet barrels through the dead end streets of The Bronx to the bucolic backyards of Connecticut blows my mind. Then again, perhaps my mind is easily blown.

So runners from the movie crew picked me up at the train station when I arrived about an hour later. I was ferried to the house we were filming at and met the crew and the other actors I was doing the part with. We ran through the script a few times on the back deck and then the DP called us in. They were using all sorts of movie set lingo which I enjoyed hearing. I love being around new languages.

We filmed until around 1 AM. It was intense. I had to grab a handful of baked ziti and throw it in this actors face (guy was supposed to be my stepfather) then I had to beat him up. Doing stunts isn't easy. In reality, actually punching someone in the face is a whole lot easier than pretending to.

The actor who played my stepdad (Jerry Goralnick) was super cool, an older guy also from Brooklyn. Small world. He had a great, booming voice and an amazing deadpan delivery. I am notoriously good at keeping a straight face but he was making it really hard.

Said he'd done a lot of political plays and works with that Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping posse. Dude has 30 years experience as stage actor and I'm throwing pasta in his face. It was a lot of fun. The movie is "Counting to Infinity". They were filming all week and the rest of the weekend as well.

I spent the night there. They had a hotel room for me which was nice. Went to bed around 3am and woke up around 10, got coffee and a ride back to the train station in New Haven. Got even more coffee there and hopped an 11:55 to Grand Central. Train was packed along the way with dolts from Darien going to the Mets game and that Bon Jovi concert in the park.

Being in midtown on the weekend and not in a suit is so weird. I felt like I was in a dream where you wake up and you're at school in your pajamas or whatever. Must've been the tattoos.

So, yeah. That was my last 24 hours.

No comments: