It seems odd to be standing in a winter coat, panty hose, wool jacket, and pumps on a 90 degree day in Los Angeles—but I wasn’t alone—let me explain….
A friend who works on the TV show Scandal invited me to set, and after a quick visit asked if I’d like to come back the next day and do background. They were short on ‘reporters’—and since I’ve worked in news—I didn’t think it would be a stretch to play one on a hit TV show, besides it could be fun.
5am alarm….fun meter low…. I drove to the studio for my 7am call time—lucky for me it’s close.
An overly caffeinated production assistant told me to go to wardrobe. Two ladies with racks of clothes and stern looks examined me. (Since I was told to wear something appropriate for a reporter—I did, but I needed approval.) A decorative flower on the lapel of my pink jacket had to go—and my overly patterned skirt had to be covered up. A lady with a gray buster brown haircut stared at my Burberry raincoat and announced it was too long— a dark purple Donna Karan winter coat was thrust in my hand and I was told to move on to hair and make-up.
Guided by the smell of hair spray, I found my way to a large trailer. An assembly line of people sat at mirrors getting braided, teased and combed. My own tresses got ironed and pinned. The hair guy asked me if I was make-up approved—I was not… so I was sent to a lady two seats down who was drawing eyebrows on a fair skinned girl. She stared at my face squinting and frowning than pulled out some powder and a bit of extra eye shadow and spit me out the other end of the trailer.
I felt like I was at Geppetto’s repair shop.
I wondered back to where I checked in and my too tight pumps were pinching—my Fitbit had clocked almost 5-thousand steps in 90 minutes.
“Did you get to props?” said yet another person with gaffer tape hanging from their shorts. I limped to another area and I was handed a fake news ID badge, a small tape recorder, a note pad and a pen—I was starting to have CNN flashbacks.
I finally made it to ‘holding’—a large room with a big table and folding chairs—and no noise…shhhh…. people were sleeping, most were staring zombie like into their phones, others were munching on craft services, and breakfast was setting up. As I grabbed my banana, an officious girl in cargo shorts armed with two walkie talkies told us we’d be going to set. She read us the scene–it was set at a historic memorial in winter—and we were part of a press conference featuring two of the actors.
NOT our reporter Lisa, with the TV President.
When they yelled background action—I waved my tape recorder high. “Don’t talk, mime” yelled the 3rd AD. It’s weird to move your face and body and not have any sound emit—oh well—at least I could look eager. Between shots everyone stood shoulder-to-shoulder talking about their last job, hoping for a meal penalty (they pay extra if they bump lunch past a given time), and trying to mildly disrobe and not melt in the ever-warming 90-degree sunshine. All in all it was fun.
So if you tune in to Scandal in the upcoming weeks and you see a press scene at a noteworthy memorial, you may see me—or you’ll just see three of my fingers clutching a recording device and the sleeve of a purple coat —that is if you look really really hard.
As I was walking away—an extra with gleaming white teeth said, “First time?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m sure you’ll work more—you look LIKE EVERYONE.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
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