My Lion(ess)

 I am on a couple email lists to be an extra. A TV series called Lioness is being filmed in Fort Worth. I submitted my interest for several opportunities. They emailed me back right away and explained that they were wanting me to audition for the part of 'mom!' 

This would be considered a 'featured extra,' meaning you would be in the actual scene and not just in the background. One of the main characters in the series is a doctor. He comes out and tells the parents that their daughter didn't make it through surgery and the mother faints. I was to send in a video of me fainting to audition for the part. 

In the initial email they also said if I had a husband or boyfriend that I could send a picture and he could actually play my husband in the scene. Abe and I thought it would be fun if we both could do it together. So I made Abe a profile on the site, and told them he would be willing to do it with me.

The day before the shoot Abe asked if I got an email from them. I said no, did you? He did. They wanted him to play the part of dad! I was like, "No way does he get to be the dad and I get to do nothing!!" But that's exactly what happened. 

Abe wasn't sure if he should go without me since being an extra is my thing and not his. But I told him he needed to go just to say he did it. I felt like the girl who just got dumped and was sitting at home feeling sorry for herself while her ex was out living his best life with his new girlfriend, or in this case, his new tv wife.😓

When he arrived, they bussed them from parking to an actual hospital. He then was sent to wardrobe. They gave him three outfits to model and took his picture in each.

He also went to hair, which is funny because he doesn't have a whole lot of hair to style.

As it turns out, there were three men there that the casting company was interested in playing the part of Dad. After getting dressed with wardrobe, they took each guy's picture in each of the three outfits and showed the director, who then picked one to be the dad. Unfortunately, Abe did not get picked. But they said he could stay and be background. At this point he had already invested a few hours, so he stayed.

It didn't take long for Abe to figure out that there is a whole lot of sitting around when you're an extra. After the extras had been sitting for a bit (as in hours), Abe suddenly woke up in his chair. No one was there! 😧 I get a good chuckle when I think of the other people who were waiting. First of all, he was probably snoring. Second of all, you know they were perplexed when it was time to leave; I'm sure they all looked at each other  like, "Are you gonna wake him? Because someone should. We shouldn't just leave him. But I'm not gonna wake him, you do it." No one chose to do it, so he just sat sleeping in that chair for who knows how long. 😆

After waking he walked outside to a tent to see if the group of extras were there. They were not. However, steak and salad was being served so he sat down to dinner. I'm pretty sure that meal was for the talent and not the extras, because extras get food like sandwiches and chips. But he walked in with confidence and nobody stopped him. Then he went back inside to a still empty waiting room.  Finally he found someone to ask. The group had traveled upstairs to a holding room. 

During filming the camera kept changing angles, and Abe thinks in the end he probably won't even be in the background. Such is the life of an extra. The night before and that night he kept getting texts about it. He was in the super secret "extras group chat" that I was not a part of. Like in high school and you just want to be a part of the group with the cool kids. 😐 One of the last texts was about the $150 he earned for a day of filming. If you wanna check it out for yourself, he will be part of Lioness Season 2, episode 4.

[May 22]