It was like living a completely different life for 1.5 weeks, a life where I had only one child and she was "in the movies". Even though she was only an extra (which is the lowest species of appearance there is, unless you are dead, I suppose), she was treated like a star because she was specifically chosen to fit the movie (being an amputee). We flew in on Tuesday evening and a "limo" (Lincoln Town Car) picked us up to drive us to the hotel. Everything was paid for, by the way, including taxes and all gratuities. Our limo driver told us the last guy he had driven was Russell Crowe.
In the morning we met everyone else they had flown in, all of whom were amputees (mostly congenital) from all over the States. It was easy to tell who was in our group :) We had a bus waiting to drive the kids (and their parents) to their initial costume fitting and hair and makeup evaluation. Then we had to get work permits for the parents who hadn't planned on their kids actually getting into the movie (silly people) and then we had to open Coogan accounts for our kids. Apparently a long time ago a kid named Jackie Coogan made millions and his parents spent it all, so now any child in the movies is required by law to have 15% of his earnings go into a "Coogan Trust Account" where it will earn a pathetic amount of interest until the child is 18 and liberates the money into the real world once more. When we were done with all the running around the kids jumped into the pool, which became a ritual each day from then on (until the kids got their hair dyed the following week). Inga became quite a good swimmer!
The next day the wind was so strong (see photo) they had to close down at least one highway in LA and the set blew over on Mystery Mesa, which is where the movie was being filmed. So we all went to downtown LA and shopped, each amputee determined to spend everything they were earning as fast as possible--and Inga was no exception.
That evening busloads of Afghan people checked into our hotel and the hotels around us (our movie was using up 3 entire hotels). I was told there were 600 Afghan extras in the movie, and over a thousand extras up on the Mesa. There have been few times in my life when I have truly been the minority race...and the rest of our trip was one of them. The amputee children stood out even more now, and everyone knew about them because the other extras were there to provide background for the hospital scenes. No one was a stranger in the elevator. "Are you in Charlie Wilson's War?" a tall, dark man in a beard with a mysterious-sounding accent would ask. "Yes, are you?" I would politely ask in return. Duh. After the first night, by mutual unspoken consent, the political incorrectness of stereotyping was suspended. If you were white and missing a body part, you were in the movie and in the hospital scene. If you were darker and staying at the hotel, you were an extra for the movie in general and maybe even a principal. If you were a white male and wore a business suit, you were probably very weirded out by everyone else.
On Saturday we went to Universal Studios on a VIP tour and saw all sorts of things that were interesting to us but would probably bore you. VIP means you skip to the front of lines, and get 25% off of things you buy. I like it. Inga made her first official purchase using her own money that she had earned and paid taxes on. She bought a dog in a purse (these are very popular) with two different outfits. Brad joined us toward the end (see his blog, I don't know how to make that cute little URL thingy that gets you there just by clicking on the words) and patiently helped her make her decisions. He also carried around a huge stuffed bear that Inga did not win at a game she played, but that people gave her anyway because she thought she had a fighting chance against a whole group of grown-ups. Go, Brad!
We spend the night at Brad's apartment, Inga guzzled root beer and watched the Incredibles, and we went to church and made friends. I won't really say much more than that because Brad basically covered it in his blog.
Monday Inga didn't work--they didn't need the amputees, but they did pay them :)
Tuesday we went to the set to get Inga's hair dyed, and we stayed all day and did school (basically they sit the kids down in the middle of a large tent and tell them to concentrate but no one does because all sorts of interesting things are happening everywhere), and Wednesday we went back and got makeup done. Some of the guys who worked on her had also done Pirates of the Caribbean, and they were very good at making everyone look maximumly disgusting. At first Inga freaked out, totally convinced that they were going to need to cut her up to make her look as awful as the others she had seen walking around in blood and gore makeup--but they were really good with kids, and by the end she was asking for more.By the time they were done, Inga looked horrible, in a cute sort of way. It looked totally realistic, even up close.
The kids got all decorated and then went to the holding tent, where they stayed in school all day, waiting to be called. One by one they "timed out", which means their allowed time on set (according to age) was coming to an end and they had to go back to makeup to take everything off. Before Inga timed out she was chosen to go to a scene involving a lot of hospital beds so she could be convincing background. They had a nurse attending her and were making a big fuss over her, but there was light filtering in from a window in the tent that made her skin shine. In the end she was pulled out by the director, who spoke rather rudely to her because he just wanted to hurry up and shoot the scene and once he decided her bed should be empty he wanted no delay. Inga did beautifully, she did just what she was told and waited quietly on the side while they shot the scene. Meanwhile everyone came up to her apologizing for the director and saying what a great kid she was, and after the scene was shot the director himself came by and did his version of an apology, and told her she was too beautiful to use for a scene like that. Inga bought it hook, line, and sinker, the vain thing.
Oh--I forgot to mention that while everyone was fussing over Inga and the nurse in the bed, Tom Hanks was waiting in the sidelines right next to me and another mom and we got a chance to talk just a little. He really is nice. He tickled Inga's toes as he passed by her bed, but she didn't notice.
Well, back to the timing out. We were scheduled to fly out on Thursday, but had not shot our actual scene. We were told it was cut. Apparently they had to do a lot of that sort of thing since they were so behind. They asked if anyone was able to stay and everyone said they could. They chose three kids from our amputee group to stay on for another scene they had in mind which they hoped to shoot the next day, and Inga was one of them.
Unfortunately Inga had made a lot of friends, and was unhappy the next day when she got up to go to the Mesa and only two others did, both of them significantly older. She was a trooper, though, and held well through the scene (which is one with Tom Hanks entertaining the amputee kids). She didn't eat breakfast ahead of time, and they had whisked her off to makeup when the kids arrived, so she worked for 6 hours before she ate anything (thank goodness for that law that says children must eat a major meal 6 hours after they arrive on set!). She ate a huge amount of very fancy food afterward (the amputees got to eat in the crew's tent, which has really amazing food). She kept her makeup on, just in case, but after lunch we found out they didn't need to do the scene again since the original had been so good (they call it a "one-shot wonder"). We were told by someone who saw it that the director actually cried it was so perfect. He came out afterward to thank us for coming out and to say what a great group of kids we were, which I understand is very unusual for him (he is apparently a very well-known director).
We returned home happy and healthy and exhausted (and in another "limo"). It was great fun doing the movie and Inga already received a check for last week's work. Her hair is slowly turning blond once more, and she misses her friends, but she is a normal child again. I am looking forward to December 25, when the movie comes out, to see if that scene actually made it after all.
Pavel is getting baptized this Sunday. Kind of fitting that it's Pentecost Sunday, isn't it? In honor of the occasion I pulled out these REEEAALLY cute outfits my mother got all the kids and made sure everything fit and then I couldn't resist, I had to take a few pictures. Getting five kids to all look cute at the same time is impossible! Honest. I cleared my camera, took over five hundred photos of the kids, and not one has all five looking good at the same time. The one I put on this post is the best it gets.
Inga asked if she could read tonight before she went to bed. Andrei asked if he could practice the cello tonight before he went to bed. They are growing up! (and they don't want to go to bed).
