So, this movie's cursed then...

That's what many of you may have thought about the story that appeared in The Sun over the weekend (I forget exactly which day since I was so tired).

Actually, the website version is slightly nearer the truth than that which was printed in the paper, which claimed the fuel truck, which was parked right next to the bus full of us extras (included myself) went up in a "fireball" (there was a small amount of flames that were quickly extinguished), and also claimed that Downey Jr had needed 6 stitches (he'd needed two) and that he'd been knocked out for "minutes" when he'd been out for seconds.

Ah, well... it may well be publicity action on the part of the producers and director. Fair play to 'em.

The slightly galling thing was that us extras were not given any indication of a problem with the truck, which was parked right next to our bus and even after the event noone came to reassure us or to say it was all sorted. Meh, I know we're not important, but we are human beings!

As for my part in the movie (heh, as if it can be called a "part")? Well, this is one you'll definitely be able to spot me in, as in a major fight scene RDJ is chased by another character underneath a log I am carrying with one other fella. The big guy then knocks the log out of our hands and out of shot. We then back off towards the door, as Dr Watson enters and fires his pistol to get all the mob out of the way.

Funny story - the first take RDJ ran round the outside of the log and the other guy carrying the log joked it would look better if he ran underneath instead and the big guy threw it away. Sure enough, two minutes later this became the plan (pretty sure it was decided on independently of us, though).

So that guy is me, if you go and see it.

The rest of the week was slightly less exciting for me unfortunately since that and a couple of short shots are all I was involved in for six days in total - this led to a lot of stir craziness as me and 33 other blokes were cooped up in a bus for 3 days solid at one point, which tends to drive you round the bend a little. Luckily, in my capacity as "bringer of the fun" I supplied a big box of poker chips, a selection of 200 traditional games and my Go set so tried to keep everyone alive for a while at least. In the week I learned to play Halma, Backgammon and also bashed through about 8 games of Go, teaching four others to play.

The things you do to stay sane, eh?

Oh, and to anyone I appear to have ignored over the last week, please bear in mind I've been getting up at 4am and arriving home at 8pm, so it's not been possible to stay as in touch as I may like.

'Til Next Time!

A
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This Week and This Weekend

This weekend I have been up in Essex in the Studio recording so my apologies for the glut of reviews I have dumped on you all - three, for Disturbia, Snakes On A Plane and Annie Hall.

It also raised an interesting question. What on earth does "Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing pavements?" mean? I've looked at it from several angles but I can't make sense of it. To be honest for ages I thought the line was "chasing payments", which may well have been a function of the battle with the council I was having at the time.

This is also the time of year when the band wheels out the traditional Wizzard and Slade for our Christmas show next week. It's irritating to learn a song for one show, but since it's one you hear all the time and people sing along no matter what anyway I don't think we'll have much trouble.

As ffor the week ahead I'll be spending it on the set with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law (hope none of my readers are there) and also Guy Richie to do some dock scenes for the new Sherlock Holmes. I'm pretty sure the luck of getting five days on this project is linked to guilt on my agent's part for the Boris Johnson fiasco so I'm not knocking it. It's rare for five days work come along at once.

This does mean that since I have to get all the way to Chatham and back every day (I'm hoping some nice guy will agree to drive for petrol money) your movie blog goodness may suffer.

My apologies and I'm sure we'll be back on track this time next week.

Until then, good reader.Until then...

A
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Should I be insulted?

I was at a casting today...

I don';t know what my agency's malfunction is but surely there is usually a good argument to be made in favour of actually finding out what it is a casting for and telling the guy who has to go there?

This particular one was for a B.. sigh.. a Boris Johnson lookalike thing for a chocolate company. Look, I accept I'm a little portly and fair skinned, but I really didn't want to think I look like that moron.

The other thing is, I usually have a beard. Not a Brian Blessed beard, but significant facial hairage. If the agency told me I'd have shaved for the cxasting. As it is I turned up for a casting to be Boris Johnson with a full beard. Needless to say I haven't heard back. they were very pleasant and kind and said they could "look through" the beard. Bless them for being nice but I haven't heard anything so it may be that my agent managed to cost me the job. Sigh... rant over.

A
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What are those people doing on the stairs?

Hmm... If you have any kind of nerves over self image I would not recommend the world of Extras to you. Consider my day today.

I was representing a sperm. Yup, the Male Gamete. Great.

I'm not really complaining, I love the fact I've had three weeks with work in and I've had several absurdly easy jobs recently.

Let me explain in more detail;

By Waterloo Bridge there are two of my least favourite buildings in London, The Hayward Gallery and The National Theatre, awful ugly homages to concrete blocks, they exude all the artistry and beauty of a hazardous chemical spill. Next to them is the Royal Festival Hall and South Bank Centre, nicer buildings and our base for today's filming. Dressed all in white, and and male and female, we headed for the awful concrete steps of the two concrete monstrosities, to run up and down on the sperms way to the womb.

By the way if you, like some people, were asking why both male AND female, biology fans will know there are Xs and Ys in Sperm, unlike the X purity found in the female gamete, the egg. Hope that helps answer that issue.

I'm not very fit.

OK... I'm unfit. Running up and down stairs is not my best suit. But I did as much as I can and felt at the end of the morning as if I'd really worked properly for a change. I even got a little starring shot later on (as the worlds greasiest sperm - don't ask). It wasn;t a job for those keen on personal space either since we were all jammed togther in a thirty person in 5 square foot huddle for much of the afternoon, really confusing passers by, who must have thought a really strange fully clothed orgy was going on. weird.

Oh well. I did win for once at the evenings game night so hurrah for that.

A
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