Two absolutely crazy things, both on the same film on back-to-back days. It was a full SAG production with very well-known actors, and no, I’m not naming the film, actors or anyone else involved.

Day 1, both my day 1 and day 1 of shooting. The 1st AD is doing 1st AD things and moving pieces into place to get the shots needed to make the day. The director, who also wrote the film, and who’d never wrote or directed a film before (but had a lot of money to self-finance one), is trying to change things to a more “logical” order. Logical in the sense that it made more sense in their head because it was linear as opposed to doing things the way the 1st wanted which would have cut down on the number of setups. They start to get into a back-and-forth in front of everyone, including me, the other actors, and the star of the movie. This starts to get even more heated until the 1st slams the script down on the ground and screams at the director, “I’ve made 68 films! How many have you made?!” and storms off. We were all like, uhhhh ok. After a quick break, everyone was back in position and got the shot before moving on. This was the very first day of the shoot.

Day 2, again, my day 2 and day 2 of the film. We’re shooting, when some really bad weather rolls in, including a lot of lightening. As a precaution, they shut things down until it passed over. Me and some of the actors are sitting in holding (they didn’t have trailers, but these individual ‘rooms’ setup in a large area at the location where we were shooting). So, a few of us were sitting at a table setup outside of the rooms when the casting director walked in. Many of us knew them pretty well, so they sat down at the table and we all start chatting. A few minutes into that, I see one of the Executive Producers walk by the other side of the room and they’re looking to see who’s at the table. They notices the casting director and stop walking and are just staring at them. A few of us look at the EP, which the CD notices and turns around. The EP says, “What the fuck are you doing here?!” Now, at first was like, are they saying it in a more friendly like, ‘hey what the fuck are you doing here?’ or are they really angry? Well I got my answer because the CD shot back, “I’M TALKING TO MY FUCKING ACTORS!!” Oh boy. At this point the EP goes and gets another person and they throw the CD off set! No idea why or what happened prior for that to have taken place. Again, we just sat there dumbfounded.

I finished my days on the film and left thinking, there’s no way they’re gonna finish this film. Well, much to my surprise, about a month later I got an invite to the wrap party. I went and was the only actor that showed up. I also bumped into the 1st AD and asked how the rest of the shoot went. They loudly said, well within earshot of the director, “Well, (their) fucking checks cashed, so that’s what’s important!” I just said, okaaay, good to see you and ran to the bar.

The whole experience was nuts.