The Unofficial Wrap or Lunching on God's Little Acre

Thom calls me at 5:00AM in a panic.  “Sean, can you help us out?” 

“Do you need a ride to the hospital because that’s the only way I’m leaving my air-conditioned apartment before the sun comes up.”  I reply.

“No, really.  I need an extra set of hands to help operate the spider dolly.  Mark ate bad clams last night and he’s praying to the porcelain goddess as we speak.”  Thom says breathlessly.

“What time?” I say with a teenaged exasperated sigh made famous by Thom himself.

“Awesome, brother.  I’ll need you at 6:30 in Fort Greene.” He says and hangs up.

As more and more technology is placed in the hands of filmmakers and the distribution models for these films remains in a constant state of change it has become customary to include DVD (and VOD) extras as added incentive for watching a film.  Not only does your audience get to see behind the scenes, they sometimes get director’s commentary, deleted scenes edited out because of time issues, documentary footage of production in progress and possibly alternate endings.  These things sweeten the deal for distributors marketing films to viewers.  Indie films usually appeal to film buffs and their interest in the making of a film from start to finish is what has spurred on now defunct shows like Project Greenlight and the reality based TV show that followed actors around as they went on auditions.  (That show was enough to give anyone GERD and a lifetime supply of Pepsid.)  Today the Londinium producers are shooting an alternate ending to the story. 

This, dear reader, is your official spoiler alert!  If you don’t want to know how the film might end then stop reading now.  Judy arrives from wardrobe in a beautiful blue and brown striped bustle dress.  She is stunning.  She takes her seat by the window dressed with sheers to soften the light and create a wonderful sunlit glow.  The dolly track has been set up and the shot is quite simple yet requires precision.  Catherine receives a telegram from Charles in New York.   As she reads, the daunting news brings tears and breathless disbelief.  Patrick is seated on the dolly and operating camera.  It is a very slow dolly into Catherine as she reads. And then once she looks up revealing her shock, the dolly moves to a close-up very quickly.  It takes a couple of runs to get the hang of it and so I position myself accordingly.  I keep missing the moment and I can feel Thom’s frustration. 

“Okay, I have an idea. We’ll switch.  I’ll push and feed you the numbers for the slate.” He says.  I take the slate and mark the scenes.  It’s a tough move as Thom keeps missing the moment as well.  “I got it---I got it!” He says.  I slate.  The director yells action from behind the monitor. Thom pushes and then Pat says, “Push it---push it!”  Then Pat blows a gasket.  “Jesus Christ! Will you just push it in already!” 

“When you get to this point on the track you should start running.”  Eddie Jo offers chuckling.

“No. It has to be when Judy looks up.” Pat corrects.

“You know what?  Too much information---I’m going for a smoke.” Thom says frustrated and stomps out once again to the front stoop.

“Don’t worry.  We’ll get it.  I think everyone needs to calm down.  If it takes 30 tries to get the shot then that’s what we’ll do.  We don’t have to get upset over a dolly move.  Everyone is doing a great job and we just got started. So get some water and we’ll try again in a few minutes.”  The director says cheerfully.  Then she walks out to the stoop and tries to soothe Thom whose nerves seem to be on edge.  Whit arrives in a ‘Piggly Wiggly’ T-shirt, surfing shorts and hemp sandals.  He starts to chat with Judy and Pat when Stephanie leads him into wardrobe and make-up.

The next scene requires another dolly move.  Catherine sits on her couch holding the telegram from Charles waiting for Richard to arrive.  Apparently because of Victoria’s notoriety the news has also made the papers.  But Richard has not seen any papers.  Catherine says, “I’m so sorry.”  Richard assumes she is sorry for her actions and then informs her that he has booked passage to New York to be reunited with Victoria.  From that moment on Judy’s performance is riveting and commanding. I can’t take my eyes off her. The waves of emotions that play across her face penetrate Catherine’s hard, selfish shell and this is her moment of redemption.  Her empathy for Richard is heartbreaking almost more so than Richard’s impending sorrow.  Each tiny beat is ripe and extraordinary and she doesn’t say a word.  She extends the telegraph to him.  He assumes she is playing another one of her mean games.  However, once he reads the telegram stating that Victoria has died as result of miscarriage, Richard is rendered a ghost, hollowed out.  His disbelief is at once astounding and profound as this is also news that he was the father.  The silence is painful.  “It was yours, wasn’t it?” Catherine whispers between tear filled breaths.  It is when Richard barely nods his head that the cascade of loss overwhelms him. Consumed with absolute childlike vulnerability he crumbles into her in grief.  It is her ability to match his sensitivity while comforting him that makes the scene so tender and intense.  I’ve grown so attached to these characters that even the idea of one of them dying makes me upset.  So I’m a softy, ask my wife.  It is an extremely slow dolly move and I execute it with great ease.  I have to say I’m sorry it is not part of the original story as the scene is terrific in every way.  I hope through this blog readers will rent or buy the dvd when it comes out specifically to see these actors work.

We take a brief break and the actors grab some coffee and a bagel before disappearing into make-up and wardrobe.  The next scene takes place in one of the oldest cemeteries in the country. One of the stipulations of the cemetery is to cover any names or inscriptions on the monuments, and rightfully so.  The mausoleum in the scene is somewhat famous and the family name appears on the steps leading up to the grand monument.  The art department has created the Thornton name in faux patina’d brass and on faux concrete to cover the actual step.  Amazing!  It's all made out of styrofoam.  Jennie Evangelista arrives on set and plays Richard’s daughter by Victoria fourteen years later.  Standing before the monument paying his respects, Richard pulls out the embroidered handkerchief that Victoria had given him at their first meeting on that snowy night in the London streets.  His daughter wants to go home but he places the hankie in her hand and tells her it was the first thing her mother ever gave to him and now it is hers.  Start the waterworks, folks.  She now has a something that was once her mother’s—a woman she never really knew.  Father and daughter make their way home, credits role.  The producer’s also shoot an alternate in the cemetery.  This time Catherine is married to Richard and Jennie is their offspring.  Through the death of their beloved Victoria both Richard and Catherine are jolted into true adulthood by taking responsibility for their actions and realizing that life is fleeting and a loving existence is what really counts.  Paying their respects to their beloved Victoria they have found each other  through her example. 

As we are in the midst of shooting the alternate scene, Thom exclaims, “I’m hungry --- my stomach is eating itself. Hey, Pat, can you grab me a wrap from the cooler?”

“Number one it is not time to break yet. And number two, get it yourself, I’m changing lenses.”  Pat replies.  Then smiling he immediately walks over to Whit and says, “Hey buddy, you hungry?  Can I get you a wrap?”

“Yeah sure.  Are there vegetarian ones?” Whit replies.  Then Pat walks over to Judy, “Hey hon, you must be hungry can I get you wrap?”  Judy starts to get up.  “No, no don’t get up.  Stay where you are.  I’ll bring it to you.”  Pat instructs.

“That’s so nice of you, Thanks Pat.”  She demurs.

Thom stands there with his mouth hanging open truly wounded.  “I am so underappreciated here!” 

“I appreciate you, Thom.”  Eddie Joe says as he stands by the cooler munching on two wraps, one in each hand. “Maybe we can talk about those acting pointers.”

Adam's Apple or How Lilith was Banished

Ahhh, September is here.  But the heat of the summer remains and the heat on the Londinium set just keeps getting hotter.  It is common practice and practical logistical sense for scenes to be shot out of sequence and today is no exception.  When I appear on the set in Fort Greene I ask the Director if I can sit in.  She clears it with the actors who seem to be comfortable enough with me observing.  Not so fast, though.  I have to work for my peeping tom privileges.  I am asked to ‘Hollywood’ a light with a large silk flag.  Easy enough.  I have to divide my attention, but I’ll do it.  Focus, Sean, focus.

In a prior scene (see Organic Fruitloops entry) Victoria shows up to Richard’s studio to see the portrait he has painted of her.  The chemistry between them is amazing.  They so want to be together and yet she tells him she must go to New York.  He tries to persuade her to stay, stay with him.  Emotional, she leaves.  In order to pursue her Richard must collect on money owed him to book passage to the states.  Catherine owes him quite a bit of money and so he immediately stalks her outside the theatre where she performs and threatens her.  But Catherine is not easily frightened.  She tells him when the portrait is finished she will pay him.  “That means you’ll have to perform.” She chides.

She is Lilith.  So here’s a little Sunday school lesson that’s never taught.  Lilith was Adam’s first wife but because she wanted to be ‘on top’.  In other words, to be in control of her own sexual pleasure and satisfaction she was thrown out of paradise and demonized.  She is a seductress, a goddess and disincarnated spirit representing sensuality and, perhaps the darker side of that---obsession.  Lilith in proto-semitic language has as its root meaning “night”.  i.e. darkness, secretive, intrigue, entrapment.  Originally Adam and his ‘helpmeet’ occupied the same body.  The first man was androgynous and bisexual or, rather omnisexual.  But duality had to come into being to manifest on the material plane.  Opposites attract. On the other side of the coin ‘like attracts like’.  So it is with Richard and Catherine they are the same manifesting in different forms, male and female.  Yet, Richard has made a concerted effort to redeem himself.  Two steps forward, one step back.  The forces of his station and situation work against him.  He must play the game to get what he wants or retain what integrity he has acquired (through Victoria) and possibly never see his soul-mate again.  In his mind the moment is now.  And so he acts from a place of passion to be set free unknowingly tightening the shackles that are already in place. Catherine has pulled together all of her power to control Richard.  He is her whore for as long as she can manage to keep him.  He must do all the things she requests or commands in order to be paid and set free. 

The scene begins with Richard feverishly painting on the huge portrait of Catherine in his studio.  Various remnants of drink, food and fruit dot the set.  She is drunk in her corset and bloomers polishing off who knows how much Champagne.  Interrupting him at every turn she taps on her glass so that Richard, her piss-boy, can wait on her every need.  A darkness washes over him and he is seething with rage.  Throwing down his brushes he saunters over and fills her glass.  Then with confident bravado he takes the glass away unbuttons his trousers and lifts her off the bed and into position.  She is absolutely in her element enjoying every moment.  Angry, controlled sex ensues and she is almost surprised by his skill and acumen at finding her.  But then it gets darker when he pulls a hidden knife and as he is about to strike, we immediately think OMG he’s the killer, he stabs an apple and begins to cut it into pieces while he is still on top of her.  Who is in control now?  She’s pinned in every sense.  She cannot reach satisfaction even though he is still engaged and she cannot get away because he is on top.  He offers her a piece of apple.  It is apparent that she is not pleased and is biding her time until he finishes with his little game.  But he insists.  She refuses.  He insists yet again.  Frightened she refuses and as she states her displeasure he rams the apple pieces into her mouth and begins choking her.  CUT!  Jeez.  I need a break after that.  Judy and Whit take a minute and drink some water.  They are like athletes.  Not because there is anything exceedingly physically strenuous that happens but the pinpoint precision of each psychological turn makes for one hell of a scene.  Catherine emasculates Richard to such a point that I need not point out the symbolic use of the apple.  After a brief break the actors hit their first marks and start all over again.  In take after take the actors refine their character arcs and even though it is disturbing to watch, it is also quite thrilling to see them at the top of their game.  Illusion. 

We break for lunch and Judy and Whit wander into wardrobe.  The next scene scheduled is with Keith Herron and a day-player who is the new detective assigned to the Jack the Ripper murder case.  Charles Thornton returns to London after discovering that Victoria had miscarried Richard’s child.  Still devoted to her, he has allowed her the freedom that he enjoys. (More on that later).  In order to collect the portrait of his wife that he commissioned at the beginning of the story he must be let into Richard’s studio by a detective of the Metropolitan Police, played with sublime subtlety by Hayden Morris.  Charles finds the brilliant portrait in the abandoned studio.  The detective informs Charles that Mr. Rhys had not been seen for a month or so.  “The Murders have stopped, by the way.”  He adds.  Charles is left alone with the painting.  It is all he had ever really had of her in the first place. 

We break for dinner and wait for it to get dark outside.  Then Whit and Judy are whisked into wardrobe and we all jump into various vehicles to make a trek to downtown Manhattan.  We set up on a cobblestone street down near Wall Street.  It is the corner of Mill Lane and if you look at it at a particular angle it could just as well be nineteenth century London.  Patrick will have to shoot around parking signs and other anachronisms to make the scene work.  Stephanie gives Whit a few last looks and he steps into a corner behind a small buttress.  The way the lamplight hits him and the way he leers out like a wolf about to pounce gives me the creeps.  In between takes I even say to him, “Dude you really creep me out sometimes.”  I would definitely cross the street if I saw him walking in my direction.  Whit tells me he knew a guy at Art School that was just like Richard.  

“But this guy was emotionally unbalanced.  I mean, he was the type of guy who would intentionally harm animals for fun.  I remember he was in my sculpture class and his eyes were so dark and soulless that he seemed like a shell.  But there was something there because he was angry and dangerous.  I stayed far away from him and he sort of disappeared, stopped coming to class.  He wandered around like a homeless man for a while and then completely disappeared.  No one ever saw him again.  I’m basing part of Richard on him.” Whit explains.

Thom calls places and the actors find their first marks.  Sound is an issue since the area is a popular tourist attraction.  The soundman stops the scene twice.  Then the director steps in.  “Look, we’re not going to be able to get clean audio.  It’s impossible, so do your best and we’ll use the sound for reference when we go in to ADR the lines.”  ACTION!  Catherine ambles along the street when Richard steps out from the shadows blocking her passage.  She is surprised and possibly a bit uneasy about seeing him so unexpectedly.  He wants his money.  When she threatens to scream again his plan disintegrates.  He must play or walk away.  But he can’t afford to walk away.  For all he knows Victoria has set sail for New York. So the cat and mouse games begin.  And Catherine gets her way…for now.

My Secret Life

It is the last day in August and surprisingly it has not been nearly as hot as past summers in New York City.  I am happy to wave farewell to sweat, loud music, sidewalk barbeques and stinky people on the train.  Having spent all of August in wool Victorian clothing, the cast of Londinium will be ecstatic to see some cooler weather as well…if it comes.  I have a moment to speak with Whit about his preparation for Richard and he informs me that the director asked the lead actors to read an abridged copy of “My Secret Life”.  It is an anonymous memoir encompassing eleven volumes of a gentleman and his sexual exploits with servants, whores, milkmaids, respectable ladies and a few male hustlers for good measure.  It is a staple of Victorian erotica and was first published beginning in the year 1888.  Bingo!  Anytime I see that year I immediately think Jack the Ripper now.  I can’t help it. I do a quick google search on my crackberry to find things that I cannot write in a public blog.  Sorry folks.  You’ll have to get the book or find it online for the juicy tidbits.  The only bit I can post is this li’l ole’ review:

"...a parade of genitalia, pornographic writing of the most explicit and lascivious kind .. unusual as a surviving piece of hardcore Victorian pornographic writing" --  Maya Mirsky. 

It was banned for nearly eighty years and only underground copies seemed to circulate. It was also reviled as one of the most filthy, pornographic, smutty pieces of literature in modern times.

“She wanted us to read it so that the highly erotic nature of some of our scenes, though not explicit, are flavored by the thinking that goes behind the follow through of the sexual acts.”  Whit explains.  “You know, Richard is very, very similar to Walter.  He is a womanizer. He’s addicted to sex.  Not just merely the act of it---that’s the finish line.  But the whole chase.  The whole dance, if you will.  There is the voyeurism and the manipulation and the urge to control another person.  To control that other person’s pleasure or fear.”  He adds.

“Catherine is a lot like Walter, too.”  Judy says.

“How can that be?”  I ask.

“Well, she is of a higher class than Richard.  She is a lady.  She can pull strings for him or put his very life in danger if she wants.  She can make him perform his manly duties or refuse his advances.  She likes a challenge and is willing to perform sexually deviant acts as a kind of one-upmanship with Richard. I think she’s addicted to sex, too.  No, wait.  She’s addicted to Richard.” Judy says

“Obsessed.”  I add.

“Maybe.  But she’s not shadowing him.  She has her own life. She has her entourage and her parties and her female lover.  No, she’s not obsessed.

“So what do you think the difference is between obsession/addiction and plain old love?” I ask.

“When it is destructive to you or the other person it is an addiction/obsession.  When the experience proves positive change in both participants, that’s love.”  Judy explains.

“Well done.” Whit adds.  “The book can be disturbing in its graphic nature. Walter seduces girls that are way underage.  That’s just gross.   I mean, the guy pretty much rapes some of the women and they can’t do anything about it.”

“Rape back then wasn’t much of a crime unless it happened to someone of prestige by someone of a lesser class.” Judy says.

“What we consider date rape today would have been the norm back then.”  Whit adds.

“We see Richard with several women throughout the film.  He loves the conquest.  Until he meets the one person who shows him ‘truth’.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Victoria shows him his authentic self.  She shows him his spiritual nature by acting in a spiritual and altruistic way towards him.” Whit says. “At every turn she either tends to him, helps him, encourages him or adores him.  Usually one mirrors the person they are attracted to.”

“Catherine belittles him, uses him, abuses him and almost destroys him.” Judy says.  “Who would you choose?”

“Who was this guy, this Walter?” I ask.

“He was a book collector, writer and bibliographer. Some believe it was a man named Henry Spencer Ashbee, a man of the gentry with a trust fund that he spent on wine women and more women.”  Judy explains.

“Do you think he was a murderer?” I muse.

“Do you think I think he was capable? Certainly. But it would have been a sloppy murder of passion not of precision.” She answers.

“He wasn’t Jack the Ripper.” Whit adds. “Walter loved exploiting and fornicating with women, Jack hated women.  Period.”

“Besides there was no intercourse or assault at the scene of the ripper crimes. Precision.” Judy says.  She is called on set to begin the first scene of the day.

After nearly destroying Richard leaving him to rot in prison by setting him up to be arrested, Catherine decides that honey is better than vinegar.  She arrives at his studio to try and make peace and hopefully love.  He answers her with silence and indifference.  “We play games.  That’s what we do.” Catherine coos.  A revealing bit of dialogue as to their ongoing affair.  But the rules change.  When she kisses him and the same indifference cannot be ignited into anger or rage or passion, she realizes that there is no game if there are no participants.  If she can’t press one button she’ll find another.  She amuses herself out loud that Richard believes Victoria could actually love him.  “She’s just using you.” She says just like Catherine is using him.  “You are a superb lay, but you’re common.”  Life in the East End of London requires that someone is always out to get something and so why would human nature change.  It is his Achilles heel and it plants the seeds of doubt.  She finds the button and he launches into a fit of rage.  But wait, this one is different.  This fit is exclusively combative with no hope of a sexual release.  Catherine has lost this round.  After a box of breakaway wine bottles has been successfully hurled just to the right of Catherine’s head and small canvases torn up again and again, we break for lunch as the prop and art departments clean up and restore the room.  The incomparable Keith Herron (Charles) arrives and is whisked into wardrobe and make-up for the next scene between Charles and Catherine.

Catherine knows by this time that Victoria has a thing for Richard and that Richard is falling for Victoria.  She can’t find Richard at any of his haunts and decides to pay a visit to her cousin to find out where he is hiding.  She is met by Charles and he tells her that Victoria has spontaneously gone on holiday.  Catherine stirs up trouble when she insinuates that Richard and Victoria are having an affair and they probably rendezvoused somewhere in the country.  Further she warns Charles that the ‘family’ can’t afford a scandal.  It would ruin them (Charles and Victoria).  Charles poopoos Catherine and realizes that Catherine is in love with the painter.  Judy plays it with such finesse and subtlety.  Her slip is showing as they say.  This is where her humanity resides and we can’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for her as she seems to be the one left out.  She is no longer the puppeteer, but the marionette of her emotions.

Later the director and crew shoot one of the first scenes of the movie.  Richard slips away from a notorious pub, the Ten Bells and meets with a local prostitute, played wonderfully by Anne Pasquale.  Standing in a back alley it is obvious that they know each other and like Walter, Richard ‘keeps’ this woman, paying for her doss and her food and some of her drink so that she sticks around.  She is an object to be possessed to him.  That is all.  Most prostitutes of the time were respectable women, mothers, daughters, sisters who fell on hard times and the only way to survive was to sell the only thing they had.  Many succumbed to alcoholism and opium use to escape the dark realities of such a hard and savage life.  When the hooker asks for more money Richard demands to know what she spent her last stipend on?  She is obviously drunk.  He cuts her off and tells her she can take care of herself. He does it with the same indifference as if setting an animal loose to fend for itself.  In retaliation she hits him with a bottle.  He punches her the way a man would deck another man and she is falls hard like a sack of potatoes.  To start off with a completely unsympathetic character is difficult.  For a villain to be fantastic the audience needs to identify with their own shadow side.  The part of themselves they would never, ever act on.  Richard is so brutal in that one action.  The magic happens when he begins to redeem himself.  When we are able to see that he is treated no better than the hooker in the alley and he overcomes the stigma to find himself in Victoria.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

It is a Sunday morning and I am awakened by Church bells from the Polish Catholic Church down the street in my Williamsburg neighborhood.  Perhaps the bells are a reminder for me to be good, to keep my mind clean and to think pure thoughts.  I am now getting the emailed schedule for the Londinium shoot from Thom.  I’ve put in my hours  hauling C-stands, sandbags, stingers and light kits.  I’m free labor and because of that I’ve made the list.  I get up to check my email and the day’s scenes and am relieved to find that the set is closed until lunch due to a sensitive/intimate scene.  Only the director and DP are allowed.  I swan dive back into bed much to the chagrin of my wife who is rudely awakened by my gymnastics.  I am pummeled by the worn out and UNfluffy pillows by my wife with my son joining in the melee. Any hope of extra slumber is ruined so I get up and make some iced coffee and ‘organic cheerios’ garnished by a banana flavored fruit rollup.  Mmmm the magic of processed food.  I hold the rollup in my fist and wave it above my head a la Charlton Heston yelling, “It’s people---It’s made from people!”  my wife shakes her head sadly and ambles out of the room unimpressed. My son stares at me questioningly: ‘is it time to commit daddy, yet?’

When I arrive on the set Judy and Sandra DeLuca (who is playing Sophie Newhardt) are in their corsets and bloomers.  A scene shot the day before introduces the audience to Catherine and Richard’s voyeuristic natures.  They love to be challenged.  Sophie is Catherine’s sometime lover.  She is a pawn in the web of manipulation between Richard and Catherine.  She is a bon vivant with youth as her guide, everything is an adventure and to her credit she is not easily hurt or not aware that she should feel hurt by the machinations going on about her.  In a previous scene Richard fulfills his challenge and when Catherine feigns illness he threatens that she find a woman so that he can watch or else he will come looking for her.  I wonder if Richard is capable of harming Catherine and over the past two weeks my answer is yes and without the slightest bit if guilt.  On the earlier closed set Catherine fulfills her challenge and engages in a lesbian tryst with Sophie much to Richard’s hidden pleasure.  Peering from behind a screen we become voyeurs of the voyeurs.  It leaves one with a creepy feeling.  I shouldn’t be watching someone who is enjoying watching other people have sex. I feel kind of dirty.  Once the women reach their peaks Sophie passes out and Catherine eyes the peephole.  Richard can now collect his reward.  Wait a minute, not so fast, bub.  Catherine plays ever harder to get by claiming she’s all worn out from pleasuring Sophie.  It gets even darker, folks.  Richard, nonplussed, will collect his reward from the unconscious Sophie.  Now I feel really dirty.  Catherine throws down the gauntlet.  “Do as you please.”  Okay.  That’s not what that phrase means.  To a man’s ears it means, “If you do it, I’ll cut your balls off.  I’ll make your life so miserable you will wish you had been boiled in oil and your fingernails slowly pulled out by needle nosed pliers.”  The Menage a troi has been averted by the steely glare of a jealous and possessive nemesis.  The scene ends and we are left with the idea that Richard did collect his reward from Catherine and that she was only too happy to participate.  We break and the cast and crew get ready for the next scene. 

The colors are deep and saturated and it reminds me of the rich aesthetics of such French films as: Delicatessen and Amelie.  The camera is positioned and the actors emerge from Make-up.  Whit looks a bit more disheveled.  Stephanie added more growth to his five o’clock shadow. Catherine has that tossled look. In the next scene I watch in rapt attention.  Catherine has referred Richard to Charles as a portraitist to Paint Victoria’s likeness.  After watching Richard beam in Victoria’s presence and her in his at the infamous dinner party Catherine’s little green monster grows.  She notices a framed daguerreotype of Victoria in Richard’s studio.  Another competition begins.  “Good Luck getting into her knickers.”  Catherine says to which Richard replies, “Are you challenging me?”  This gives me pause.  It changes everything I know about this project and it calls to mind Les Liaisons Dangereuses.  It makes me wonder if what I am seeing really is happening.  Is Richard really falling for Victoria or is the entire story about winning.  Now I am challenged.  My mission from here on out is to comb through all I have seen and heard and wonder what is genuine about Richard and what is not.  One of my favorite programs before it got too ridiculous and eventually had guests on that I would not consider consummate actors was The Actor’s Studio on Bravo (before it was eaten by NBC). In the early days when the show was new the guests were people I would pay an arm and a leg to hear speak.  People like Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Eli Wallach, Meryl Streep, Glen Close, Rip Torn, Dennis Hopper, Al Pacino, Mike Nichols, etc. One night I tuned in specifically to hear what Meryl Streep had to say.  Her self-effacing demeanor is endearing and is most likely one of the main reasons she works so much and is held in such high esteem by her colleagues (besides the obvious reason).  Actors sometimes know what they are doing and sometimes don’t know what they’re doing.  When they don’t know what they’re doing is when the magic happens.  Something Ms. Streep said stuck with me.  She said that when she reads a script there is usually one word or phrase that is the key to the entire story and character.  A lot of times she does not know what the word or phrase is until she is on her feet and it strikes her.  Other times she can see it on the page and know that it is a story she wants to live and tell.  When one sees an actor have an epiphany we, the audience, become bon vivants.  It is like fine aged wine, expensive smooth champagne, truffle oil that tickles the taste buds and true dark chocolate from the Peruvian rain forest.  The epiphany engages our senses with the ‘real’ and that which brings pleasure, discovery, compassion and understanding.  There is a method to the madness.  The voyeurism of these characters is just one stripe to this tiger. The question is who will be eaten?  Or will they cannibalize themselves.  The obvious victim is Victoria but she is smarter than the average bear.  Keen and observant and aware of her cousin’s antics Victoria could quite possibly out maneuver them all and come out winning.  The greatest prize of all? True love.  I know that sounds trite and archaic but it is the engine that drives this genre.  I grab Whit before he makes his get away into make-up.  “Is he playing to win?” I ask.

Whit just smiles.  “Secret’s in the sauce.” He says enigmatically and walks away.  I help the crew break down.

“You think the director would let me do a walk-on, Thom?” Ed asks.

“I don’t know, can you walk?” Thom says.

“No one likes a smart aleck.” Ed says.  Silence.

“I’m craving jerk chicken.  Ya think we can stop at that little joint on fourth avenue?” Ed asks.

“This is why you should drive yourself or take the train.” Thom says.

“You don’t want jerk chicken?” Ed replies.

“I don’t NEED jerk chicken.  I’ve got stuff to do.” Thom adds.

“I just thought we could spend some quality time together, ya know?” Ed says.

“Okay. (exasperated sigh) we’ll get some jerk chicken.” Thom softens.

“Maybe you could give me some acting pointers.  In case the director uses me.” Ed says starting to giggle.

“Get away from me.” Thom says as he throws down the cords and stomps off to smoke.

“You walked right into that one.” Ed says laughing.  Thom flips him the bird as he disappears out onto the stoop.  And that wraps another day on the set.