Happy new year!
About three or four years ago, I was at the US Ambassador's house in Suva for a party. I don't remember the purpose of the event but I remember meeting the executive producer of Anaconda 2, which was just about to begin filming in Pacific Harbour. I was in a group of people and began talking to a gentleman standing next to me. I remember asking him "Are you involved in this movie as well?" to which he replied "Yeah, I'm the director." I wouldn't have recognised Dwight Little from either of the Coen brothers if I met them on the street but I nevertheless remember feeling a bit foolish after the exchange.
Shortly afterwards, the producer and the director got into a little discussion on their own and I overheard the producer say something like "Dwight, I think Jonathan would be a good addition to our board of directors." I had been in Fiji for a relatively short time at that point so I thought to myself "Hmmm...I could get into the idea of being involved with different initiatives in this country." I didn't inquire more about it at the time but they asked for my business card, I gave it to them and then went home that evening wondering if I had a future in the film industry.
I got a call a week later from one of the production assistants on the movie. She told me that the director and the producer really wanted me involved in the production. I played it cool. "Sure, I'd like to offer my assistance. What can I do for you?"
"Well," she said. "We'd like you to be one of our board of directors."
As my mind raced with images of myself jetting back and forth on a Gulfstream V to California for important meetings, she followed up with the line "It's one of the key SCENES in the movie."
Oh, ok. I suppose that'll do.
Weeks later, I was on set in Pacific Harbour inside a gigantic tent and for the first and ONLY time since I've lived in Fiji, everything I saw was organised and appeared to be working perfectly. I've never seen the kind of professionalism exhibited in Fiji by that Australian film crew as what I saw those days on set.
Now...unlike all the "extras" on the film, my role labeled me and the others in my scene as "actors". I didn't get my own tent but pretty much every other need was catered for. I constantly had people coming up to me asking me if I needed anything. I had a double who stood-in for me until they were ready to shoot and I pretty much spent two full days on set with the real actors in the scene. It was pretty cool insight into both the way films are made as well as the job the real actors do. I was particularly fascinated with the role the director, Dwight Little, played setting the tone for the film and communicating his vision for the way he wanted things to go. He was undoubtedly the man in charge and whatever he said was the rule. That written, he was approachable, collaborative and calm.
Here I am in a still shot at the boardroom table. I'm just to the right of Morris Chesnut's shiny head.
The irony of this photograph and the overall scene is that eight or nine months earlier, I had left New York, boardrooms and business suits in a hurry. Here I was right back at it but this time, my boardroom was actually the corner of a massive air-conditioned tent in the jungles of Fiji. Was surreal.
The production van would pick me up at 5.30 in the morning from Suva so I could get to Pac Harbour and have make-up and hair done by 7 a.m. when we started filming. Effectively, 95% of my job on set was sitting around waiting for other things to come together, whether it was setting the lights properly, getting the camera lined up, organising the sound, etc. I'm amazed more actors aren't obese given the amount of food thrown at them.
When we finally got filming, I was into it. I sat next to KaDee Strickland, a beautiful southern girl. Others in my scene included Morris Chesnut, Matthew Marsden and Dennis Arndt. KaDee was lovely and extremely friendly as were all the actors. They seemed to be a real tight group as well. Morris Chesnut seemed a bit standoff-ish at first but warmed up quickly. He had his beautiful wife and kids around as well. Matthew Marsden, who I remember from "Black Hawk Down" had a Macintosh in pretty bad shape. We spent some time working on it to get it back working. We even had a few follow up email exchanges. Very cool guy. The man who plays the lawyer in my scene is an Australian actor named Peter Curtin. He was very mellow and we spent a lot of time talking about the industry. He's the one with the line about viagra. When we first began filming, he was pronouncing the drug differently then the way an American would say it. Nothing a little voice coaching couldn't fix. His proper pronunciation of the pharmaceutical is something we worked on together. Peter, if you're out there reading...now you know how to order it properly at the pharmacy. ;p
The impetus for this blog post was my finding the film clip of the boardroom scene as I was cleaning out my hard drive. As you watch it, notice the slight shifting of my head from left to right as the scene moves along. Notice the expressions on my face. I was a pharmaceutical executive in a New York City boardroom getting ready to send a group of people to Borneo to find the fountain of youth. I was fully in character.
Unfortunately, the bastards left my name off of the credits. The only proof I have of my involvement is this clip. Thank goodness for YouTube.
