The Trial and Error

Date: June 2009
Job: The Trial
Location: City

I’d like to take you back. Back to a time when I was a mere, green, fledgling extra. Back to a time when…
MY FIRST GIG WAS A SPEAKING PART!
Yes, that’s right. I scored what every extra hopes for-a speaking role-on my first job! How did I do it, you ask? Can they gauge one's talent from a photo on a casting website or was it just a fluke? The latter, no doubt. Here’s what happened:

I arrive at the location, the County Courthouse, ahead of the appointed time, as advised by my agent. We’re doing a docudrama on a big trial and I’m the jury forewoman. I have been reading some background notes on the case that I got from the internet, on the train. I meet a man called Rob who knows nothing about the job but has been doing extra work for years, so while we wait for the crew to set up I fill him on some background and he entertains me with stories of his extra work over the years. (I hear some of the same stories a few months later when we meet on the set of a TV commercial!) He tells me he’s nervous. So far, I’m not.
The crew is quite small and the atmosphere relaxed, which is not exactly what I expected, but suits me fine. I am given my lines, which basically consist of ‘Guilty’, ‘Not guilty’. (There are several defendants). I feel quite at home on set. I have seen lots of ‘behind the scenes’ footage of films, but still I am surprised that I am so relaxed. I try to pretend that I have done this a hundred times and realise I may have pulled this off when two of the crew tell me I look familiar. They ask me what I’ve done lately and was I on ‘Rainer’ (which, I discover later, is another docudrama). I answer with deliberate vagueness, lest they discover I am a novice, saying the last thing I did was a long time ago. (Thirty years, in fact!-I was in a short film). We film several shots from different angles and I pretend I am a jury forewoman in real life, rather than trying to act the part. This naturalistic approach seems to be what they want. In fact, when I am called back to do another half day’s filming a couple of weeks later, the director has to tell one of the actors playing a lawyer to ‘pull it back a bit.’ I use some things that I learnt in my screen acting course earlier in the year, like adding a look or something at the end of a take (which the director comments on favourably!), and giving something for the other actors to work off. So I listen attentively in the jury box as they film the lawyer (Rob) giving his spiel and he rewards me by looking at me and laughing when they film me listening to him, and I have to really control myself to keep a straight face. Thanks Rob. (But it’s okay, because they didn’t use his shots in the final cut! However, he did get paid twelve times what I did, for about four times the lines!)
It’s all quite civilised and we have lattes and yummy cakes and biscuits for afternoon tea. I chat to one of the crew, the art director, about his film making.
When I leave I feel on top of the world. I’ve just done my first professional acting job! I leave the courthouse and walk though the city streets in my high heels and smile at a strange man in a suit who smiles back. I feel good.
Na na na na na na na.

EPILOGUE
When I get called back I wonder if it’s because I stuffed up, but I am assured I ‘was fine’. This time there’s a bigger crew and more actors playing lawyers and jury members. There are even some actors who I recognise! And I’m acting alongside them! One poor man, who looks the part with his white hair and beard and lawyer’s gown, looks terribly nervous and cannot do his lines with any sort of conviction. He’s obviously an extra with no real acting ability. After all, simply signing up to be an extra is no guarantee of any skill! I feel for him, though, and try to will him to get it right, to no avail.
Later in the year I scour the Green Guide every week to see if the docudrama is screening. I am going to be on TV! With lines! But it appears I’ve missed it. Finally, months later, I discover a blog that informs me that the film screened all around Australia, but not in Victoria due to legal reasons. (I do get invited to a private screening in March however, and now have a DVD of the film.) Anyway, after six months of being an extra all I’ve seen of myself is a reflection in a window and a figure in the distance!

One day I will be seen.

PS: Update
You can find The Trial here:
www.movie2k.to/movie.php?id=265568&commentpage=2