first day on Kid Napped

well, I got to see Muslim Hay. He is a famous actor and famously good looking. Muslim was in a Stan Spongheymeyer film when he was 7, and never got off the fame train. he was fairly intense on set, walked around in chains, he's one of the captives of this kid who kidnaps adults. he's also a juggler, and the plot sez he's having an intense competition with another juggler. I know, I know ... I didn't birth this thing ...

in the scene we shot today, Muslim Hay is pretending to be American. he's from new Zealand, but can jettison the accent with an eyelash's bat. it's weird to hear him suddenly burst into a full kiwi accent, when conversing with the director who is also from New Zealand. two extra kids get to unchain him, so he can talk to his "solicitor." I keep saying that if he's from America, he wouldn't know what a "solicitor" is (laywer). Or, at least, it would throw him for a second.

The other thing that is weird is while we are all captive, when the lawyer shows up to talk to him, we don't acknowledge, we just keep doing the tasks of incarceration given to us by our handlers.

One of our handlers has used me before. We chat today. He's just bought a Condo in beverly hills for ONE MILLION dollars. His occupation: corralling miscreants. Lord knows how I hate to bash a fellow backie, but being away from the herd for awhile makes me remember how barely functional some of these peeps are. Examples of coarse behavior today:

Immediately asking people how much money they make in certain kinds of previous jobs.
Farting in crowded areas.
Waving and shouting across a courtyard to fellow extras who are being given direction by THE DIRECTOR.
Shouting to the director and actors to "have more fun!" I hope this guy got canned. We heard five people are not coming back tomorrow.
Starting conversations with a personal complaint that is irrelevant to me ("I'm supposed to have gotten a residual today.") Uh, okay.
Coughing on people while barely covering your mouth.
Going up and talking to a nice principal actor, and immediately telling him about your access cable show you hope to do some day, thus insuring that the next time one of us stands next to said actor, we won't understand why he's being so stand-offish.
Speaking in a loud voice on a quiet set.
Taking a take-away container and filling it with two weeks worth of food. I know peeps are poor, but comon ...
Mistaking the very married make-up ladies kindness as an invitation to ask her out ...
Arguing with the sign-out people for five minutes (and making others wait) for a make-up bump for two dabs of face mud.
Launching immediately into your political diatribe of choice on someone who is lucky enough to stand next to you.

It's an early A.M. shoot in Van Nuys. They've taken one of the oldest buildings in the city, and turned it into a makeshift prison, run by kids. We are supposed to clamor in our bondage, but have to be careful we don't break the fake steel bars actually made out of flimsy wood. The main problem is it's a courtyard that sits next to the 405. So you have the attendant sirens, traffic helicopters and whooshing of traffic. Maybe their sophisticated post-production audio programs can get rid of these gremlins of the sine wave, but I doubt it. We did a lot of takes today, and I think sound was the culprit. Why do people shoot inside of staid soundstages instead of quirky quixotic locations???? This is why.

The set is button-cute, with several levels, and makes me want to break-out into Oliver songs, or West Side Story balcony numbers. Ah well.