A few days ago I woke up at 4:30 AM for my debut as an extra. A background performing artist! I've made it. I knew from the phone call the night before that the wardrobe request would be a problem. They said they wanted "East Village Hip" or "Soho Sheik." Something with a neighborhood I can't afford and a word that doesn't apply to me.
I wore my favorite yellow shirt and my nice suit pants that I think fit well. After chomping down some eggs and cantaloupe they asked all the extras to check in with wardrobe. They looked at me and instantly asked me to bring over my other clothing options. Gazing at my clothes they seemed confused. "What happened to your tie?" one man said. "Your jacket is falling apart," said another woman. "We're going to get you a shirt," said the tall man bluntly but kindly.
15 minutes later I took off my yellow button down revealing an admittedly very worn, now semi-white undershirt. "Try this on," said the kind tall man, "without the undershirt."
I came back from a corner room wearing their trendy, stripey, brown and blue shirt, on my bare skin. "See he looks really good now" said the tall kind man. "And throw away that white shirt, it's disgusting. Buy a bunch of new ones at Filene's Basement." They took my voucher to ensure that I returned my shirt in order to receive my salary. I went back to my folding chair in my fitted, what I feel is tight, shirt.
A couple minutes later I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see the tall kind man beckoning me with his hand. I walked over to him and he handed me my voucher and said, "We want you to keep the shirt, it's from us."
Clothing is definitely not my forte, and this isn't the first time that a production has taken pity on me and let me keep my wardrobe. And I'm sure it won't be the last. But never have they cut to the core of me so quickly and so acutely. I can't help but laugh at myself for not even passing as fashionable in the background. Little do they know that I wear my clothing in the foreground of my life everyday.
Thanks for the shirt tall kind man, I'll try to take care of it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
HAHA... great blog Andrew! Funny, this has always been my fear whenever I've done background, especially for Gossip Girl. Lucky for me, my clothing has seemed acceptable so far although they usually end up needing to add to what I bring as I never think about the accessories to 'complete' the look.
i stopped reading after 'SoHo Sheik' - until you learn to distinguish between manhattan fashionable attire and a south of houston holy man from bangladesh... well, y'know... uh... you'll get pain-in-the-ass responses, i make you that promise.
Wow! Great, it's like Larry David... meets... Project Runway!
It's about time.
And "foreground of my life"... wonderful!
Post a Comment