Wow, whadda couple of days. We are both dead tired, but so ecstatic about it. We couldn't have asked for a better experience. The people from the studio were so professional, the other extras we met were amazing, and Colin Farrell was such a gentleman - even when I nearly broke his nose. I'm not kidding.
Loads to tell you, and a few pictures - but we signed confidentiality agreements, so I have to keep mum on certain things. And keep certain pictures from you. It's not fair, I know, but I'd like to potentially work in this business. I'd like to keep a trustworthy presence here, y'know? *wink*
Our call time for the first day of shooting was 7:45 am. My mum was kind enough to dogsit for us and drive us closer to the city to catch public transit to Pinewood Studios. Arriving just in time, we didn't have to worry about the kufuffle happening in wardrobe, so we headed straight to hair and makeup. There was about 250 of us all getting ready for the shoot! My hair was blowdried, nothing fancy, my own makeup done with a neutral look. Lynda, a wonderful hair stylist, grabbed me and asked me how I felt about beehives. Well, let me tell you ...
Everyone's career in film starts somewhere, right? Looks like Nick and I are off to a potentially good start - with background acting work on the set of Total Recall starring Colin Farrell at Pinewood Studios in Toronto!
Nick and I had answered a Craigslist ad looking for "clubby/seedy/funky people" to fill a street scene in New Asia, where it's "always raining in this part of the world". We were asked to bring our own clothes in rust and earth green tones - about two thirds of my own wardrobe - for the costume folks to take a look at and see if there's anything to use. They liked just about everything I brought, which I'm told makes the process a whole lot easier on shoot day. Here's what we got:
:: khaki green three-quarter length sleeve jacket, H&M (gift) :: Mandarin-collar olive green button-up shirt, Alfred Sung :: rust brown dress pants, Ricki's :: paisley pashmina scarf with gold thread detail, gift :: knee-high brown 'leather' wedge-heel boots, gift (not pictured) ::
Funny enough, this is stuff I wear on the regular, so I'm just gonna look like myself!
I've been reading up on the movie itself, being it a remake of one of my favourite Arnie movies. The original concept of Total Recall came from the short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, written by Phillip K. Dick. The story is a mesh of reality, false memory and real memory, all in the mind of Douglas Quail, a simple and ordinary man who would one day like to visit Mars, a plausible vacation destination of the future. Since he is, however, a simple and ordinary man, he can't afford it, so he gets the next best thing - a mental vacation courtesy of Rekal Incorporated, offering "extra-factual memory" to fulfill his dream. As the "Mars memory" implantation proceeds, the staff at Rekal reveal that Quail is an actual government agent with a brain full of dangerous secrets. Frightened by what they may have stumbled across, the staff at Rekal hurry him out of the office, where Quail finds more physical evidence to support that his Mars 'memories' are actually real. The government puts a bounty on his head, but he manages to make a deal: he returns to Rekal to have his memories of Mars suppressed and replaced with "heroic wish-fulfillment" false memories as compensation. As the Rekal staff prepare to implant the memories, they uncover an older and different set of suppressed memories that reveal the unbelievable events they're about to implant to be actually true.
In Mr. Dick's story, Quail doesn't go to Mars. Arnie's "Quaid" does in the 1990 film. I don't think Colin will be going, though. From what I understand, this remake will be closer to the short story than a frame-for-frame remake of Arnie's sci-fi action adventure. I've always been into this stuff, and I'm crazy excited to be a part of this. Hopefully, I won't be on the cutting room floor when this is all said and done.
But if we're going to remake this film again, maybe we can see something along the lines of this:
Source material from Wikipedia.org. Those guys are the best, yeah?
