Adios Senor/Senorita

So someone got fired today. This doesn’t usually happen. This is the thing that tabloids usually create to sell more tabloids (but are usually never true). From the beginning of the day, the situation was tense. For the past week and a half the actor/actress has NOT been getting along well with the director. Actually, he/she has not been getting along with almost everyone. I do concede that the person did become much, much better after a few days, it was all a disaster waiting to happen.

Last week, I personally had a hellish time accommodating the actor’s very specific dietary requirements. We are not shooting in Manhattan, which means my usual array of restaurants, markets, and corner deli’s on every block are not at my disposal. Eventually I settled on having a driver go into the city and pick up and order that would easily take an hour to get back to us.

Ok, ok back to the story. This morning, while the actor is in hair/make-up, the director approaches me and asks when he/she will be available. I say about an hour, he says that he wants to see the actor in his trailer. After an hour, the actor runs to his trailer but he doesn’t answer. He doesn’t answer because he is asleep. Here is where the fun starts. Now, I have to call his assistant on the walkie-talkie so that she can then call him so that he can then call her back so that she can then tell me on the walkie-talkie that the actor can now come to his trailer. Make sense? Completely retarculous? Yes, yes it is. The director finally wakes up and then makes the actor wait. (This is all an ego game, as is most of what I deal with. Who can make who wait longer, who can be the last one to set, blah, blah, blah). And now we have it, the meeting. The actor goes in, and this is the fun part.

Shouting. Aaaaaand some more shouting. Doors slamming. Screaming in my general direction about getting the executive producer downstairs immediately. This is the point where I calmly get on the walkie (at least that’s how I’m telling it. Others on the crew say I sounded a wee bit tense) and ask for some help from the producer. The following three hours ensue with more shouting, cursing, the smoking of many cigarettes by said executive producer and the director, and the actor’s boyfriend/girlfriend arriving to take them home.

Finally, before the actor leaves, the director asks me a few more questions. One of which is how are they doing. Another asks what is going on in their trailer. And last but not least, after I say that things are obviously not the best, he tells ME to tell the actor to go home. He told ME to say that. Go tell them yourself! Who the heck am I?? Certainly not the person who is going to tell anyone that they are fired from the set and to get the hell out.

Next up: Who gets cast now? How much time did we lose from the scenes we already shot with the fired actor? (I say we add at least 5 more days. At least.)

I also know I have not been posting much and for this I am sorry. I need to try harder. I’m not that busy.