Everybody Hates Actors

I called the infomation line and heard that Damien's call time would be at 7am. That's early! We would need to get up at 4am. It took us 2 hours to get to Paramount Studios. I'm always surprised to see how many cars are in the parking garage that early in the morning.

Today was a confusing day. They were shooting in Studio 17 and holding for the parents was in Studio 18 (where part of CWW was shot). That is a huge holding area and it was freezing. Damien is out of school for the summer and a few other kids were also out of school. They waited with us while all the others (about20 students) went to school. It seemed like a long wait but they finally took the kids from holding and the school to film.

Most of the productions seem to have their own golf carts to get around. I spotted the EHC carts and had a good laugh!

I went inside to check out the set but it was surrounded by walls. There would be flashback scenes so there were several different sets. Damien and the others seemed to be gone for hours. When he finally returned he was very excited because they had sat him next to Chris in the school and he knew he'd be on camera. But not much later we learned that there was a problem with lighting and the scene would be reshot. They took only half the kids this time, Damien not included.

Though Damien was called onto the set a few more times, he was always waiting by the side and never actually filmed. He was a little disappointed at the end of the day.

While sitting in holding another Mom and I began chatting with a Dad of one of the child actors. Turns out his son worked as a surfer on Surfer Dude and also the Dad himself dressed up as Madonna for a funny scene with Kevin James in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. That will be fun to see.

Damien's haircut for Surfer Dude.

Well, it was a long day for Damien and he really made no new friends this day. He was teased about his hair but what the boys didn't know is his hair needs to stay this way till they are done with him on Surfer Dude.


When Damien was leaving they asked him back tomarrow and he agreed. We got home at 10pm, ate dinner and now off to bed. Up at 5am for a 7am call tomorrow.

Another EHC job

Today we get a call from Damien's manager. Not only does she want to know if Damien wants to work on Everybody Hates Chris this Thursday, but also asks us who exactly is calling us for these other jobs. (Charlie Wilson's War and Surfer Dude.) I told her that I'd rather have her handle any jobs Damien gets because when someone just calls us out of the blue, things can get confusing. I gave her the casting companies name.

For instance, we were waiting in the parking lot one day for a van to take us to Surfer Dude and an hour later I finally had to call my brother. He then called his friend, who was working on the set, to get someone to send us a van. We were lucky to know someone to call or else they might believe my son was just late. With our manager involved, we can just call her and she straightens everything out for us. I believe she called the other casting company. I just hope they still want to use Damien in another scene in Surfer Dude.

So Damien accepted the job to work on Thursday. We'll need to call her hotline Wednesday night for more info.

More Matthew McConaughey Photos

Oops! I forgot to add these photos of Matthew McConaughey on "Surfer Dude."


The house and jeep used for a scene in Mexico (Surfer Dude).


Alexie Gilmore and Matthew McConaughey on the porch of the house before they run down to the beach. I found this photo on the internet which proves that I need to buy a long zoom lens for my camera!



Shooting the love scene on the beach. That's Alexie (left) chasing after Matthew (center) when they run from the house. The cameramen on are the right.


Matthew McConaughey and Alexie Gilmore kissing on the beach (left).

Matthew McConaughey on Set

I've noticed that some Matthew McConaughey fans have been visiting this site, so I've decided to post more photos. Most of these photos aren't very good and I'm sure the paparazzi has much better ones online but at least these aren't the ones you can find online or in magazines any where else.

Lunch. Damien is holding a cup in front of his face. Matthew is sitting at a table behind us and looks like he's sitting in the pitcher of fruit punch!

Setting up for a love scene on the beach with Matthew McConaughey and Alexie Gilmore.

Can you see Matthew McConaughey on the porch? He's wearing his now famous black and white striped shorts. Alexie is in the center front keeping warm in her black sweatshirt.

You can't see Matthew McConaughey in this shot. This is the love scene on the beach. I kept my son back behind the little fence. The beach slopes down so we couldn't actually see Matthew and Alexie.

This is the beach where Matthew McConaughey hangs out in Surfer Dude. One of those small dots to the left is actually him. Too bad I don't have a paparazzi camera with those super long lenses.

Taken during filming, Matthew McConaughey is carrying a log to the bonfire while his new friend (known as "The mexican boy") follows him dragging some wood for the fire.

Matthew McConaughey is in the center waving those two big plant branch things! lol They are setting up for the shot. The guy crawling on the left is erasing footprints in the sand.

I know they are shooting an airport scene and a marketplace scene. Damien should be in one or both scenes. Fingers crossed that he gets to work with Matthew McConaughey again.

Matthew McConaughey

Forgot to mention that yesterday Damien found a wallet on the beach. Luckily he saw who had left it there and ran after him. The man handed him a twenty dollar bill! Damien felt bad and was sure this man thought he gave him a dollar or possibly a five dollar bill so we had to go and hunt down this man to ask him to take the twenty dollars back. We found him and Damien asked him if he knew it was a twenty and the man said Yes, go buy yourself something. Wow! Damien was totally shocked and of course didn't return the wallet for a reward but the man was nice enough to insist and he explained how if his wallet wasn't returned, how much trouble it would have been for him to replace. We walked back to the fishermen who told us, Don't you know who that is? Gulp! No. It was the director of Surfer Dude, SR Bindler! Now Damien wants to frame his twenty dollar bill! lol

Matt walking to the set.

We spent a lot of time with the four fishermen. Only three are here in the photo. The beach was beautiful and the men were all really nice. We shared email adds so we could swap photos.

The fishermen.

We weren't needed back on Thursday but the fishermen were. They sent me this photo taken with Matthew McConaughey.

Matt and the Fishermen.

Being a photo double meant that Damien had to watch Mario's scenes. Matt was really nice to the boys and Mario and his brother have to be the nicest boys I've ever met!

Matt and Mario.

The paparrazi were everywhere! I had to take a photo of them for a change! ha!

The Paparazzi.

Surfer Dude - Day two

We left the house about 9am to make it to the set by noon. A van picked us up in the parking lot and took us to basecamp. The PA greeted us and told us that one of the big trailers was gone so two of us had lost our trailer for the day. The PA told us to hang out wherever we wanted, on the set or on the beach until they called Damien in to get his hair cut. We would just be there for 4 1/2 hours today anyway since Damien was leaving early to be in a school play (Oliver).

We mostly hung out with the fishermen again and sat with them at lunch. Lunch was great. We ordered from the menu at one window and pick it up at the next. They had a salad bar and desserts at the end of the table. Tables and chairs were set up outdoors with large pitchers of fruit punch. Before the hour lunch was up the PA came to find us. Time to cut Damien's hair!

Hair and Makeup Trailer. Getting his matching haircut.

Damien wasn't too happy because his hair wasn't long enough to donate and he knew this meant starting over to grow it again to donate to cancer victims. I sat in the "barber" chair next to my son which left two empty chairs on either end. While getting his hair cut, Matthew McConaughey came in and sat in the chair next to me, while Alexie Gilmore also came in and sat next to Damien. Both were having their hair fixed for shooting. I am starting to like hair and makeup trailers, this seems to be the place to sit next to the "stars" (see Everybody Hates Chris! lol).

Damien and Mario after the haircut.

After the haircut Damien was still sad, especially since they tried to slightly "poof" it out. They didn't match it perfectly to Mario's hair yet, they'd wait till Damien was needed for filming. We went to watch more filming on the set and heard that tonight they'd shoot the bonfire scene, which they couldn't get the fire to work quite right the night before. Before we knew it, we were told it was 4pm and time to leave for the play! Damien felt bad because they wanted to use Damien in the bonfire scene that night. Instead we drove straight from the set to the play, taking over two hours to get there and barely making it.

Dodger in Oliver.

The play went well and Damien remembered all his lines. Tomorrow's call for the set is at 11am.

Surfer Dude

Without hitting any traffic, we made it to set early in only 2 hours. When we reached the parking area we saw the usual signs that the production company put up but these didn't say "Surfer Dude". I thought maybe we were in the wrong place so I asked the security guard. He said that the paparazzi was looking for Matthew McConaughey and so they didn't want to use the actual title of the film. A van then took us to the set at a different beach about 15 minutes away.

Damien in his trailer

What a shock! Damien had his own trailer. It said "Boy Double" on the door. This was a first for him. This same trailer had rooms in this order: Matthew McConaughey, Alexie Gilmore, Scott Glenn, Damien, and the boy he'd double for, Mario Quinonez Jr.

Damien and Mario

(Mario just shot a scene "after" the fire)

It wasn't long till Damien met Mario and his little brother Tony. Turns out Tony was in an Eminem video (wearing a superman outfit and jumping on a bed). The crew on this set were so nice, along with Mario's Dad and the four fishermen. My brother's best friend, Rod, went out of his way to find us. Alexie Gilmore kept saying Hi to me every time we'd pass each other. Wow, she is absolutely beautiful and just as nice as can be. Matthew came up to us and shook our hands and introduced himself as "Mateo" (spanish for Matthew...though I speak no spanish). He is one nice looking guy!

Matthew McConaughey and the starring boy, Mario

Soon the paparazzi found Matthew anyway. I'm not sure how the stars take it with all those photographers around. They were on the beach practically in the water, climbing down cliffsides and hiding in bushes. I'm sure there will be plenty of photos of Matthew in his black and white striped shorts in magazines today!Damien was told to watch Mario in his scenes with Matthew, so that he could recreate them. They didn't cut Damien's hair and wouldn't until they absolutely needed to use him. We watched all day and would you believe it, they never used Damien. They did tell us to expect him to work tomorrow though, so looks like that haircut will be tomorrow.

Surfer Dude

Photo of the beach where "Surfer Dude" is filming.

Well, it's been about a month since Damien's last job on Charlie Wilson's War. Still his manager hasn't called us for any more jobs but late last night the same people that hired him for Charlie Wilson's War called us about a new movie, Surfer Dude. This movie stars Matthew McConaughey.

Earlier today I was thinking I should measure Damien's height because he seems to be growing. I had to buy him bigger jeans for the length. So when this agency called and asked, Are you sure he's 4 feet 7 inches and only 72 pounds? I had to tell her I didn't really know. So she asked if I could measure and weigh him and call her back. Wow, has he grown! 4 feet 10 inches and 85 pounds! Well, it turns out that is the exact height and weight they were looking for to be a photo double for a little boy in the film.

There were only two problems and I had to call the agency back again to let them know how we worked these out. This job would take a week to film and Damien's last day of school is Tuesday along with a Play he's in, Oliver. The second problem is Damien's hair is too long and they'd need to cut it so he looks just like the boy starring in the film. Damien donates his hair to help cancer victims and he really didn't want to cut it, but after some thought, he decided he would donate some money from this job to cancer research instead.

So I called the agency back and told her Damien was willing to cut his hair but he did not want to let the school down and not show up for the Play. Since the Play would be at night, she called the Assistant Director of the film to see what could be done. She called back and let us know it was all settled, Damien would have half a day off on Tuesday so he could make his Play! Yay!

I will need to call later today to get all the details and will bring you up to date.

Okay, the update. I was talking with my brother about this movie and what does he tell me? His best friend is working with the crew. This is his friend that was also working on Charlie Wilson's War. It's nice to know that we'll know someone on the set.

We were given the information for Monday's shoot. Damien will need to be there at noon. This means it will probably be a late day. Not sure if we'll stay in a hotel or make the long trip back home. From the phone information it sounds like there will be very few people filming. Four men and the two boys. Damien is getting excited and also getting worried about the haircut they'll be giving him. I'll post photos on Monday night (if we come home).

Friday

Well, it appears that Charlie Wilson's War has wrapped up. We were hoping that Damien would get recalled so he'd have more scenes in the movie. When he was on the set of CWW, they told us Damien may be used again the second week of May. So even though some say it's wrapped, we still have some hope he'll be called in again. You never know with reshoots.

People are beginning to find out that he's doing TV shows and movies. He was approached by someone in Target the other day asking if he was on TV. My little niece Kory, who happens to be adorable, is now applying for a part in a major movie (along with Damien). I think she has a better chance at it since she's younger and this is really a part for a younger child.

My neighbor may start acting too and I'll be passing him all the info I have for adults getting started. Looks like he may drag one or both of my older son's with him. I wish he would. Extra money in their pockets and hey, what job out there also feeds you breakfast and lunch at no cost to you? Can't beat that. CWW sent Damien's check and tacked on extra for gas. All of Damien's money is being saved so he can buy the car of his dreams. If he had it his way, he'd own every game system out there. Oh wait, I think he already does! ugh

Damien's manager hasn't called us in a week but we're not worried. Actually this is giving him time to catch up on school work especially since he just switched to a private Christian homeschool program. This school offers classes which works out really well for him. He can easily take a day or two off whenever he needs to be on set.

My husband took Damien to see Spiderman today! Damien said he didn't recognize any of the kids in the movie. They both gave the movie a big thumbs up! I wanted to see it but have been too busy with my work-at-home business. I'm trying to get ahead in case Damien gets called for a job. We have our fingers crossed that he is chosen for a small part in National Treasure 2.