DAY 3: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
I’m thrown into an especially emotional moment as an extra: playing one of Phil’s roommates watching the news reports of 9-11 with him. We’re sitting on a bed, eyes glued to the screen. Imagining this moment makes me teary, and it’s a challenge to do over and over. Biggs is from New York. As he says his lines, I wonder what he was doing that morning, and if he’s remembering anyone specific who was in the World Trade Center that day. The scene is about two eights of a page, so it holds a great deal of intensity packed in a small amount of film.
The screen we are watching is actually blank and Indus, our props master, gives me a bowl of pretzels to hold. I was actually in Seattle on 9-11. I remember being summoned from bed at an ungodly hour of the morning to watch the reports; food was nowhere in the picture.
During a break I find out Nik Doner, the local actor playing Doug, has just finished a run of a show at the Balagan, a fringe theatre beneath Boom Noodle on Pike and 12th. He fondly speaks of performing an outdoor show on the Fremont troll, one of my favorite sites in Seattle, beneath the Aurora Bridge. We’ve got some authentic Seattle talent in this film.
Grant starts crying in a breakdown during a scene today, and Joel David Moore gets some major kudos for his performance. Though I missed this scene while doing PA work on the bottom floor, those lucky enough to watch it during filming say it’s a shining moment for Moore in this movie.
For baseball aficionados: On break, Biggs expresses excitement over throwing out the first pitch in an upcoming Yankees-Mariners game. But he hearkens back to a difficult scenario in which he threw the first pitch in a Florida Marlins game when the Mets were in town. He was embarrassed to be decked out in Marlins gear. But his status as a celebrity baseball fan had to briefly override his loyalty to NYC.
At 3 pm, about forty extras arrive for a party scene in Phil’s living room, during which Phil agrees to be Grant’s campaign manager. They get to smoke herbal cigarettes, drink Red Bulls, hold India Pale bottles filled with water and listen to some live music played by Sean Nelson, front man for Harvey Danger.
Jason and Lauren have to go outside between takes; the smoke is building up, and I have to hold the door closed so it doesn’t get out. Jason cracks everyone up by making intense wheezing noises as he steps outside. This is the longest day yet, with a 9 pm wrap. The extras were ready to keep partying at the end, but they’ll have other chances to kick it with the Grassroots clan.