This day was the biggest surprise of all. It all started with a phone call while I was in the car with my daughter's fiance and his mother on the way to celebrating an early Mother's Day. Since everyone was moving in on Mother's Day, my daughter suggested we celebrate early and asked if it would be all right for her fiance's family to join us because they were all so excited about my being in the movie. It would be great, I told her.
Well, the teenagers wanted to listen to their music on the way to the restaurant, they went in my daughter's car and I went with her fiance and his mother. His mother was so excited, after seeing the pictures, that I didn't think we'd be able to contain her in the car. Try to imagine her excitement when my phone rang and it turned out to be the assistant A.D. for Leatherheads, asking if I would be available in the upcoming week to return for some editing work on the film. I thought the woman would have a heart attack because she thought it was actually George Clooney, himself, making the call.
I let the A.D. know that I had to be in Lewisville on Monday afternoon but that I was available anytime after that. He said he'd get back to me with all the information after everyone had checked in with their available dates. When we got to the restaurant, they couldn't wait to tell my daughter about the phone call. The expression on all their faces was priceless.
I have to admit to being a little nervous, initially, because I thought that I had done something wrong and now they would have to redo the scenes because of my ineptness. In less than a heartbeat, I realized what an incredibly arrogant and self-indulgent thought that was, since the easiest thing on earth would be to simply edit me out of any of the scenes; right? So, I just relaxed and spent the weekend looking forward to seeing everyone, again. (poor me)
I was given reservations at the Hampton Inn, again, but one floor up. This was an easy entry back into the process because my pickup call was 11:25 in the morning and I could catch my beauty sleep. (Something I desperately need!) Everyone was so nice when I returned to the set and welcomed me with big smiles and open arms. Jonathan Pryce came into the makeup trailer, he greeted me with a hearty hello and a hug and then we settled down to be transformed.
Poor Jack Thompson is the one that had the biggest turnaround. His plane had just landed in Sydney, Australia, when he got the call from George, so he simply walked to the other end of the terminal to get onto a return flight. Just one way to Australia is a 26-hour journey so when he walked into the makeup trailer he had just flown a round trip of 52 hours and, of course, still had the return flight to Australia to look forward to. George arrived and immediately went over to Jack and apologized profusely. It was fortunate that everyone had the same thought, you do everything you can to make a film come out exactly the way you want it. While returning to redo some filming can be difficult, it reduces the problems once editing is finished. Films last forever and there are only too many people willing to point out mistakes. I will be eternally grateful for being part of a filming process where there was enough money to make it the best it can be.
There was a lot of readjusting throughout the day so RZ and I had a chance to visit and get to know each other a little bit better. I was able to give everyone a copy of the pictures that were taken last week and, when I told RZ about the way the pictures, I inadvertently said website rather than the webpage and I thought she was going to faint. So I quickly let her know that I had not, in fact, put the pictures up on the web but had simply placed them on a private webpage so that some members of my family would be able to see them.
Jack Thompson told me he expected to be seeing more of me in the future because GC likes to use the same people whatever he can in films. I hope I haven't let him down and that I do hear from him again sometime in the future. When it was finally time to go, RZ gave me a big hug and told me how much she enjoyed my work. She said, "believe me, I looked at your close-ups during the filming and it was really great, in the professional sense," and I should be proud of what I did. I hope she was being more than kind because I really didn't want to let them down.
The day was fairly long and there was a hot meal waiting downstairs. Imagine my surprise to discover that it was after four o'clock and almost time to go home. This was such a wonderful experience, and would love to repeat; but if that doesn't happen, I have great memories.
Then next time you see Leatherheads, look for the gray-haired Commissioner's secretary (Don't check your popcorn!) -- that's me.
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