"I should have brought some sun tan lotion." - A fan, watching filming on The Informant in Moweaqua and baking away in the midday sun
What a difference a day makes.
It was a sunny, breezy, beautiful day Monday in Moweaqua, where filming for "The Informant" continued at the former house of Mark Whitacre; a far cry from the nearly winter-like wind and cold that shuttered production Sunday.
"It was horrible," said one extra. "They had us in a barn, and it was just miserable out there."
Extras remained on set all day waiting to see if the weather would eventually allow for the exterior shots needed (filming inside the house continued). But winds remained too strong, skies too grey, and production had no choice but to reschedule.
"They asked us pretty early on if we were available to come back Monday," said another extra. "I think they were just waiting for someone to step up and actually make the call to let us all go."
This particular extra actually wasn't an extra at all; he was a "day player," meaning that he would be delivering a line of dialogue in the film. This seemingly unimportant variance in title carries a big difference in your on-set experience.
"I got my own trailer," he said, clearly tickled. "It's only a 4-foot-by-10-foot room, but how cool is that?"
Wait, it gets cooler.
"I got to meet [director Steven] Soderbergh," he said. A self-described film geek ("And proud of that," he added), Soderbergh was to him the kind of draw Matt Damon is to everybody else. "I didn't wet my pants, so I'd say it went pretty well."
He describes a cool and very relaxed director. "He walked us through what we would be doing, and then he hung around for some chit-chat.
Someone mentioned he had a great jacket. It was definitely a highlight."
Back to Monday: with weather now permitting, our day player joined his fellow "reporters" on set for a scene at the gate of Whitacre's house.
Basically an impromptu press conference, he would be lobbing a question to star Matt Damon.
"When he was coming towards us [in the scene], it wasn't Matt Damon"
he recounted once shooting had ended. "He's hunched over, he's got the glasses on, his attitude, the way he walked. I don't know if it was Mark Whitacre, but when I locked eyes with him for my line, it definitely wasn't Matt Damon I was talking to."
Overall, his experience was an eye-opening view into the life of a Hollywood player.
"It's just amazing. I can't get over it. Any time we were sitting around, the assistant director was asking if we needed anything.
Unbelievable."
The line for his entourage starts here.
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Shannon May was excited when she and a friend got to meet one of the stars of "The Informant" Sunday night.
"Joel McHale! I love you on [television's] 'E! News'," she told him.
"Really," he grinned back.
"Yup! I watch it daily."
"So you must really be a fan of Ryan Seacrest," he asked.
"Who?"
"Ryan Seacrest," he repeated. "The HOST of 'E! News'."
May paused, then leaned over to her friend. "It's 'The Soup,' isn't it?"
Her friend nodded.
May smiled widely. "Joel McHale! I love you on 'The Soup'."
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 12:00 am
Updated: 2:30 pm.
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