A "Grey's Anatomy" Afterglow

Three days after being - correction: *working* on the set of "Grey's Anatomy," and I still have that afterglow.

My day there is more than words can say. It's a little hard to describe it without jumping up and down and exclaiming "and then...! and then...!" It was hard for me not to do it THERE!, but I did have to remain professional, of course. And I'm a pro at pulling off "professional."

So, to professionally describe my first working day as an actress, it started at 7:30am when I arrived at Prospect Studios in Hollywood. As I headed to the wardrobe trailer, the first person I saw was Sara Ramirez ("Dr. Callie Torres"), who was coming out of one of the trailers. We looked at each other, and for whatever reason, my brain decided to be confused as to whether or not to say "hi." So, after an internal shrug, I continued onto the wardrobe trailer. There was a short line as the other background actors waited to check-in and have their wardrobe checked out. The costumer was a short, possibly French man with very little patience. "Do you have another scarf? It's blue? Can I see it? Oh, it's in your car?" and with a flip of his head, "Come back at 8; I thought you were ready." As the next actor was called up, he and the check-in guy learn that the actor has an 8am call. They're turned away, and the guys ask if any of us have a 7:30am call. None of us did, so of course, we're scolded for being at the studios early. Great start. We checked in, got our vouchers, and were sent away to fill it out and told to come back at 8am.

Not knowing where to really go, I made a bee-line to a park bench next to the "General Hospital" stage. A brunette girl about an inch shorter than me joined me a moment later. Within minutes, we were talking, and she told me of the other shows she's done background work on since August. [an aside: One of which was "Gilmore Girls." Being a GG fan, I had to ask how the experience was. Sadly, it wasn't the greatest. They don't feed the background actors, and from what I heard from someone else, Melissa McCarthy ("Sookie") doesn't have as nice a personality as her character. When the background actors were coming in for a scene, she rolled her eyes and said "Here come the cockroaches."] My new friend-for-the-day's name was "Ryan" (it was spelled in an unusual way that I don't remember).

Lining back up for wardrobe to deal with the ever so delightful costumer at 8am, I get pushed aside once again when he tells us that he will deal with "bandaged victims" (that's me!) last. The reason was because we would be entering the scene with dirty clothes, so instead of the clothes that we brought, we would be borrowing from the wardrobe department. My costume = punk jogger = tan-ish jogging jacket and dark brown cargo pants.

Once in wardrobe and meeting one more background actor, Manford, we ("Ryan," Manford, and I) decide to grab some breakfast after seeing person after person come in with scrambled eggs and such. Breakfast was less than stellar, but it was food, and at least we wouldn't pass out on the set.

Soon after, a girl, who I'll just call the coordinator, came in to inform us of the scene we were about to shoot. There's a huge disaster (news has leaked as to the sort of disaster; google it!) and tons of people are rushed to Seattle Grace Hospital. The first scene we shot was in the waiting room where we're waiting for news on our loved ones. Apparently, even though I was a "bandaged victim," I got no bandages and I wasn't hurt that badly! Dr. Alex Karev (played by Justin Chambers) comes in to give us the news. This is one scene where I might have some good screen time.

The next scene shot was with T.R. Knight ("Dr. George O'Malley"). Another scene where I could possible be seen. I was close to T.R., and we were both bent or kneeling talking to some kids.

The final scene had Justin Chambers and a guest-starring female doctor. They're standing in front of two bulletin boards with pinned pictures. I go up to one of the boards and take one of the pictures after one of the actors exclaims "This is Fatima!..." and exits. Justin Chambers was standing right next to me when I grabbed the picture.

These scenes were shot over and over again from a million different angles and kept us there to about 9pm.

Now for the inside scoop and such. Justin and T.R. both seemed like very down to earth people. Being near them in scenes, we ended up making eye contact, and both of them smiled at me...Justin added a wink (ha!). And yes, he is married and has 5 kids in Catholic school. Someone at my last work place told me she met T.R., and he was the sweetest, most humble guy. He's a good friend of one of her friends, and they met at party. When she told him that he's on one of her favorite TV shows, he pretended he didn't know what show she was talking about.

I loved working on the "Grey's Anatomy" set. The crew all seemed very nice (with the exception of the costumer, who's rumored to not be so nice -- I personally had no problems with him and vice versa) and they really seemed to enjoy each other's company and the work that they do. The background actors I met (we formed a nice circle in the holding area ~ I was part of the "popular" crowd ;-)) were all very cool and no flying egos, as there shouldn't be! I also felt very comfortable in the environment; everyone was in shock that it was my first time. I don't know what that actually means, but I've taken it as a compliment.

**Expected Airing...after doing some googling, I discovered that this storyline is following a 3-episode story arc. My assumption is that the big disaster is going to occur at the end of the first episode of the story arc, and the "aftermath" of worried and disgruntled friends and family will be the second episode. And that should be my episode. However, I could absolutely wrong about this...so, you should just watch every episode till you see the scenes I described earlier. The expected dates are: Thurs., Feb. 8th; Thurs., Feb. 15th; and Thurs., Feb. 22nd at 9pm on ABC.**

A New Year

It's surprising to see that my last blog was in October! How can that be??? Oh. Right. I got a full time QC job. Wow, that seriously took over my life.

New in my life for the new year:

~ No longer chained to a full time job; I am freelance and lovin' it, baby!
~ Headshots!!! Finally have professional headshots of which I can be proud to hand over to casting directors, agents, managers, homeless guy on the street - no, wait. Take that back. That's a little creepy.
~ Taking control and freeing my creative self! Sounds so California, huh? Yeah, well, for the first time in a long time, I'm feeling the most "me" and feeling very positive of the future.
~ A warm January! (I'll ignore the 30-40 degree temps we had yesterday)
~ Serious plumbing problems. Last week, the bathroom. This week, the kitchen. Oh joy.
~ An interview for another freelance QC job...and closer to where I live!

In the works for the new year:

~ More acting classes. I'll be starting an on-going soap class taught by my wonderful instructor from the 4-week class at AIA Studios. He's a casting director on Y&R, has such a positive attitude and a joy to work with!
~ Subcategory on the acting ~ performing for commercial agents to land an agent. Yikes! I gotta find some script.
~ Teaching piano to kids (and considering adults) for extra cash and another creative outlet. Gotta read up on some boring piano teaching manuals.

Hope everyone has a safe and HAPPY 2007!!!