Huck & Catherine & Paddy
Today’s blog will be divided into two sections: Friday and Saturday. In each section, I will talk about what I got up to on those days. I got up to some interesting shenanigans. Welcome to Monday, by the way. Let’s talk about all the people I rubbed shoulders with.
I have talked about the movie/TV extra work I do as a side hustle before. It has been a lot of gameshows and a TV series or two. I recently signed up with another company that recruits extras. I got a job with them and was excited to see what it was like to work with them. That was Saturday’s job. On Friday, I went to Ashford Studios in Wicklow for the first time for a job. I have been to Ardmore Studios before. I was expecting pretty much the same setup. What I wasn’t expecting was getting lost on the way there. This sounds like I am pointing fingers, but it wasn’t my fault. The address sent out wasn’t where I was meant to be. I got to the right place eventually. I have to be a bit coy about the production itself. I had read a few things before. Long story short, we were led up these narrow stairs as we were brought onto set. We were told to stop suddenly, and one production team member called, “Catherine, would you like to come through?” I turned around, and Catherine Tate was standing right behind me. The scene itself was pretty brief. I had to literally sit at a restaurant table and talk to the wall. After the scene, we were led back to where we were kept. A few minutes later, a crew member told us we were wrapped for the day. I had a call time of 7 am, and my day was wrapped up before midday. That’s Hollywood, baby.
On Saturday, my call time was a little later, 8 a.m. I was to report to RTE Studios. Luckily, it's not too far from my house when I am driving. The only issue was that I couldn’t park in RTE Studios, so I took the bus. I arrived at RTE Studios pretty much on time. My character was a crew member on a fictionalised version of The Late Late Show. I assumed that it would be a cheap knockoff, but no. I was on the actual Late Late Show set with the actual Patrick Kielty, interviewing an actor who was playing an actor on a fictional TV show. It was trippy. I touched the desk. The actual Late Late Show desk. Don’t tell anyone.
Like I said, my character was a fictional crew member on the show. I was dressed in all black; I had an earpiece and a lanyard with a fake name (William Burke, by the way). I had the whole shebang. Before you ask, yes. I was asked three times by other extras questions about the production I had no idea about. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of the lanyard. That is also very much Hollywood. Thank you for reading, and thank you for your time.
