Last summer I worked for several days on the movie When In Rome as an irate Roman mom/wedding guest. The movie stars t.v. vets Kristen Bell (Heroes, Veronica Mars fame) and Josh Duhamel (All My Children - Leo, Vegas fame). Oh, and Don Johnson (of Miami Vice fame) plays Kristen's dad! My how time flies.
We had to pretend we were in Rome, as typical upscale Romans, celebrating a wedding and the filming took place in one of the older ornate buildings (I believe it was the former Children's Services court building) in downtown Manhattan. I wore a simple pretty dark sky blue dress with a plunging neckline and had my hair done up in a beehive so high and stiff that when a scene called for some fake champagne glasses to fly and break, some pieces went into my hair and STAYED there, I had to pluck them out. To add to the authenticity, I went to my costume jewelry box and put on a necklace from which hung a ruby stoned crucifix and a big gaudy ruby ring.
Let's just say I was hard to miss. We worked an initial couple of days then came back for four days work which were punctuated by the director falling ill and having an emergency surgery, having the production crew actually go to Rome to film some scenes then called us when they came back to finish shooting the scene. We shot those days as overnight shoots and it threw off my body clock for a good couple of weeks after finishing the shoot before going back to normal.
So imagine my surprise when I see a casting call this week for a re-shoot, and they want to shoot a summer exterior. Visions of walking in summer clothing of thin cottony material, and without a coat, hat and gloves, makes me shiver. Then I think, this is a paycheck. Do I put my health on the line in order to pick up a two day paycheck down the line while not having any health insurance coverage? Thus the life of a BG faces one of its many challenges.
