Day 27 Shooting- Cry On Cue

I had a makeup test with Jacquie a week in advance, so I got to see her with her face painted up all red.  She has this joker grin and the makeup turns it into something truly horrific.  Of course bugging her eyes out helps too.  She’s playing the part of Daniel’s dead sister, Rebecca.  It’s a tough role and it’s mostly to scare the shit out of Daniel and the audience, but she’s also this symbol of guilt that runs through the movie.  We came up with this really messed up background for her that lead to the suicide, it’s just criminal that we might not see much of it on screen.

Jacquie was very warm and professional that night.  Damien was a lot more focused.  He hadn’t been smoking or drinking, which I thought would make him nuts.  Jacquie had met Damien before under ridiculous circumstances.  I guess she needed help fixing her VCR or something electronic- I think David was supposed to help her, but he had to bail and then she was stuck with Damien, who made a pass at her and of course didn’t fix shit.  So she had already had a taste of the Damien experience and wasn’t worried- she was more amused then offended.

I remember I got protective when Damien was saying, "You’re just a whore" in terms of her character and I said something like,

"Hey-watch it",  because I misunderstood.  Damien tends to get aggressive when he doesn’t mean to, but Jacquie knew that he was just joking around about the character.  He was running lines and he tends to get worked up if he does them too much.

Jacquie got her face painted up downstairs while we set up.  When she came back with her bright red face, Damien said something like,

"Oh shit, that’s terrible" and laughed.

So in this scene, Damien is taking a call on his headset, but he’s actually ranting to his dead-sister.   We see her red face in the background- in a reflection of a mirror.  She’s crying and he’s yelling at her to stop it, that he was only trying to protect her, etc.  Madness.  Then a supervisor comes on the line and starts barking at Damien like,

"What the hell are you doing?" since he’s supposed to be taking a routine call.  That voice will be added later.

I told Jacquie that I wasn’t going to hold out until she cried. 

"If it comes, it comes, but I don’t want all this pressure to be on you,"  Or I could’ve been a real dick,

"Sorry everybody!  We’re just waiting for JACQUIE to CRY, she just isn’t cooperating!  Guess we’ll be hear all fucking night!"

When the camera was rolling though, she turned on the waterworks.  I don’t know how she did it.  I was worried about the tone on set, if I should stray away from joking and would I have to tell Andy to keep quiet.  In the end it was better that we kept it light and only get serious when the camera was about to roll.   I wanted Damien to get more emotional too because he was looking too amused in earlier takes. 

"This is that kind of state of mind where you’re walking home from the bar and you’re talking to yourself on the street and the emotion is just flowing out of you- that kind of thing."

Damien hit some strong notes about the third take in and then I wasn’t planning on a close-up of Jacquie, but there was a take where Damien was losing focus and I sort of zoomed in on Jacquie and she gave the camera something beautiful.  It was a devastating moment for her and something wonderful for the camera.

"Only two people can cry on cue, do you know who those people are?  Jacquie and Cher."

(Jacquie and Damien laugh)

"So now you gotta represent and stand up for our gender."

A couple of times Damien had to ask his roommate to turn down the volume of the television downstairs because it was leaking into the set.  It went up again a second time, extremely loud and we started to wonder if it was on purpose.

Andy was patient and diligent.  He’s allergic to cats too, but he made it through the night.  I swear cats are going to sabotage this film- three of my main actors are allergic to them and that doesn’t include Andy who h  elps me out all the time.  Anyway, Andy was cool because there were several times when I made cutting motions with my hand because I didn’t want him to talk and he didn’t take offense by that.  I didn’t want to come off like an asshole.

Damien’s other roommate Kathleen, (this short pretty blonde that played the ghost in Gothika) was poking her head in and she seemed genuinely interested in the project and what I was all about because she had all these questions.  She watched the shoot a little bit too.

When we were done with Jacquie’s angle, she excused herself and washed her makeup off.  Then she got her things and walked home because she lived three blocks away.  She should’ve kept the red face on, nobody would think about getting near her.

The end of the night was annoying- Damien had this other roomate- Chris I think, hanging out in the room, drinking a beer, making all these stupid jokes.  He asked if he could stay and watch.  Damien said it was up to me and I told him he could if he kept quiet because I needed Damien to focus,  He said of course of course, and still slipped in some stupid comments.  Then he got bored and talked even more but by then we had almost wrapped.

(email to jacquie)

"jacquie I could kiss you.

you gave me something very beautiful last night and I can’t thank you enough for it.  I wasn’t planning on a close-up, but I caught something really special and you were in the fucking zone the minute I pulled focus.  It’s an amazing shot and just devastating, my eyes just got wide and I had to rewind it because I couldn’t believe it- I watched it on a big screen- you look fabulous- I love you, thank you so much for inspiring me."

i think I want to ignore actors who tare themselves up about a performance because they never see what I see- sure they might not have been feeling what they should’ve been feeling, but it’s what ends up on screen that matters- plus those emotions are amplified since we’re up close and personal and maybe what I mistake for subtlties is an actor struggling to get into their special place.

-Marty-