Stand Up To Cancer PSA Diary: Day One

In a whirlwind typical of commercial shoots, information came very suddenly and very late and there was little time to prepare. I had gone in two weeks ago for an audition for a PSA directed by THE David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac) and breathlessly found out two days ago that I booked it. We didn't find out until the night before where or when it would be or what would be asked of us. I do not like these situations given my nature, but I was thrilled about the opportunity and couldn't wait to begin.

It turns out there were four segments we had to shoot in four locations in one day and had to report to Bryant Park at (of course) 6:45 am. We were outfitted with ID cards with a number on it, had our picture taken and were then arranged around the Bryant Park Grille where I was chosen off the bat for stand-in work for Hizzoner Mike Bloomberg! (We're the same height).

Mayor Bloomberg showed up, I gave up my seat to him-- and then by a twist of fate was chosen to go back to the table and actually be seated in the chair opposite as if we were best friends having a casual breakfast. It was awesome except I was really hungry from racing to the set after oversleeping and drugged to the gills with allergy medication. I did my best to seem spirited and he offered his condolences for my line of work. He could have just sat there and not said a word, but he was very nice and made an effort to chat with me--despite the fact that every time I hazily answered a question of his he'd say, "What? I can't hear you." He did say when we finished that he hoped to see my name in lights one day though, so throughout the day when people asked me what it was like to have the New York City Mayor for my scene partner I told people, "He's a prince."

We did another segment along the Bryant Park sidewalk cafe area where I was now facing away from the camera; the dues you pay for having just been featured in the last shot. The guest of this segment was Susan Sarandon (Moonlight Mile, Enchanted, Bull Durham). I was too far way for any schmoozing to occur but she seemed cool. She's always been a model celebrity to me (in the pro-actively socially conscious sense) who's used her fame for the betterment of the world, and so it was no wonder Kate correctly predicted she of all the stars would be doing this, too.

After we finished that one we went to the main concourse of Grand Central Station and tried to pretend to be busy straphangers while a sea of real busy straphangers milled and seethed all around us. We did a zillion takes of stopping what we were doing and taking a moment to address the camera, following suit with the guest of the segment: Lance Armstrong. This was even less intimate than with Mrs. Sarandon since he was up in a balcony somewhere and none of us ever saw head nor hair of him. From there we went to Central Park.

Cutting to the chase a bit, Ed Norton (who repeatedly said, "Hey, Fincher!") and George Carlin taped their moments. In between taping these, myself and a few others were chosen to read the pretty amazing copy over a teleprompter. I was having worse allergies now (I couldn't really breathe out of my nose without doing 20 jumping jacks) despite having taken a ton of benadryl so I was basically paranoid, dehydrated and having palpitations imagining only getting through the first line ("We used to have the wildest dreams...") before being cut ("We uthed to hab the wildetht dreabs..."). I tried to remain calm. It came my turn and I did my thing for about four takes and then we basically wrapped for the day. It was really, really cool. I also thought the teleprompter was going to do me in since I can't read for shit past an arm's length, but it turned out I could see fine. The lens is right behind the clear plate with the words on it so it looks like you're looking straight into the camera anyway (yes, I know, that's the whole point I've just never done it before). Over pizza I got to shake hands with the director (whose personal film language and aesthetic I've long revered) and got some nice compliments from some other people. The crew and the heads of all the departments were awesome without exception and treated us well.

All in all it was a pretty amazing foray into on-camera work with some amazing (and amazingly generous) movie people. I'm looking forward to the rest of the shoot!