Brenda

Friday, January 17, 2003 (Tallassee, AL)

Well I have good news and not so good news. I did, indeed, see him and actually got to watch the filming of that scene with the house fire for about 3 hours, but I didn't get to meet him personally. I first saw him when the actors were brought to the set in a van. Reportedly, they had been filming on a closed set by the large river that runs through both Tallassee and Wetumpka earlier in the day, so some other actors were in the van besides Ewan. They drove right past where I was standing, and there was Ewan, not 2 feet away from me! The van stopped for about half a minute there, and I just stared at Ewan sitting behind the driver and chatting with everyone in the van. Then they drove down to the house which I had scoped out earlier when the street wasn't blocked off.

Later, the van came by again and stopped again right in front of me. Apparently, Helena Bonham Carter had been left at the house when the van went up the street, so they had to sit there and wait as she walked up the street and got into the passenger seat. It was dark by this time and we couldn't see into the van very well as it had tinted windows, but the dome light came on in the van as she got in, and there was Ewan, sitting just behind the driver again and leaning forward to talk to him. I was told by a production assistant that they were taking the actors that weren't needed back to the first location where the trailers were and transportation was waiting to take them back to Montgomery. Ewan then came by again about an hour later and the van disappeared into the closed street. At first, I was in a spot about 4 or 5 houses up the street from the house being used for the shoot, and we watched a couple of rehearsals of the burning. A bunch of people were there at that time, including quite a few news people. It was funny because I quickly got pegged as that "woman from Atlanta" since I had been talking to some of the others in the crowd and told them I had driven down from Atlanta for the day just to see Ewan. While we were waiting around, I was interviewed by two newspapers (one of them was the Montgomery Advertiser, the one that has been giving us all the filming locations and other scoops) as well as one of the Montgomery television stations. What a hoot! Look for the article in the Montgomery paper tomorrow and see if they mention me.

Anyway, it was REALLY cold standing outside like that. The locals were telling me that it was predicted to get down to 12 degrees Fahrenheit tonight, the coldest it has been in Tallassee in almost 20 years. What a night I picked to stalk Ewan! As I stood in that inferior vantage point, a teenager who lives in Tallassee came up to me and asked if I was that "woman from Atlanta." I told him I was and he quietly told me that he knew a place with a much better vantage point. He then proceeded to take me down a back alley to a spot where I was in a side yard of the house directly across the street from the filming house. I immediately saw Ewan standing not 50 feet away from me, smoking a cigarette and talking to Tim Burton. He was at that spot a lot during the first hour or so, then was at the burning house for much of the rest of the night. We could see everything perfectly, and we could hear him talking when he was calling out to other people, though we couldn't hear his quieter conversations with Tim and others. It's amazing, but you really can tell who he is by his walk! At first, some of the people were trying to tell me that this other guy was Ewan, and indeed, he did look quite a bit like him and had the exact same haircut and clothes, but he didn't walk the right way. I assume that he was Ewan's stunt double, because he did a few of the rehearsals carrying the dog out of the house. All I had to see was Ewan walking one time to confirm that this was really our guy. It was quite fun and educational to watch all of the filming activity.

In the 3 hours of work done tonight, they got about 10-15 seconds of the finished movie down on film (and that’s assuming that the scene actually makes it into the movie rather than ending up on the cutting room floor.) Ewan did quite a few rehearsals in the beginning with a very large stuffed dog. The real dog was a St. Bernard, and this stuffed dog was about twice the size of the real dog. Ewan did some funny moves with the stuffed dog, carried it around on the porch in all sorts of funny ways, threw it across his back and did a little dance, etc. I think he was partly bored and partly freezing to death. Regardless, he amused all of us who were watching. They brought out the real dog shortly thereafter, and she lay around just a few feet from us for a while. Then they did some rehearsals with Ewan and the real dog. He held the dog in his arms, usually like a big baby as the dog was on her back and Ewan cradled her. He would come out of the house carrying the dog and run down the steps to a crowd of onlookers who applauded him as the firefighters rushed up the steps behind him. After a few rehearsals, they went for a take and the first one went pretty well. For the take, Ewan took off his coat and had on a red sweater with a dark horizontal band across the chest. Coincidentally, I had worn a red sweater as well, so I matched him :) The house had apparently been treated with asbestos paint or something similar that was non-flammable as the house itself didn't burn when they turned on the flames.

They had rigged the house with gas lines that fed to strategic spots around windows, doors and the porch as well as beside the house. When they were ready for a take, they would turn on the gas just a bit and pyrotechnic experts would manually light each pilot light. Then they would turn up the gas and the flames would shoot out of the windows and around the door, lick up to the roof from under the porch, and burn artificial bushes beside the house. It really did look quite realistic! Once this first take was over, however, it seems that one part of the house was still burning, so they had to get real firemen to come in and get it to stop burning. It took a few minutes and they had to pull out a board in order to get to the fire, so it took even more time to repair it for other takes.

During all of this time, Ewan was standing in front of us, talking to Tim, smoking and drinking coffee. I desperately wanted to shout his name and get him to come over to us, but the production assistant who was "guarding" us had told me that this sort of behavior just didn't fly on a big-budget movie set and that we all needed to stay quiet or we could be asked to leave since we were extraordinarily close to the filming. Believe me, I kept my mouth closed, but I kept sending telepathic messages to Ewan. (They didn't work, though.) Once they were finally ready for the second take, they began to have problems with the dog. They had already turned on the flames and the film was rolling, but Ewan called out that the dog was unhappy. (We could hear a lot of this activity through the walkie-talkie that the PA near us was carrying, and he kept us informed of the progress as well. He really was a very nice PA!) They tried to calm the dog and did try a take, but Ewan stopped on the porch because the dog was trying to twist out of his arms. Then they turned off all the fire again and it took a while to either calm the dog or call in its "double". There were about 15 or 20 of us in that side yard, and by this time we had all been together for a few freezing hours, so we got to be quite friendly. One of the guys was an extra who is going to be shooting a bank robbery scene with Ewan in 10 days, others had seen all of the cast members in and around Wetumpka as well as in Montgomery.

Several had talked to him and commented on how kind he is (well we already knew that, didn't we?) They also told me that Eve and the girls are with him and that they have rented a house in Montgomery and Clara is going to a private school there (Montgomery Academy) while they're on location. And in what I think was the funniest bit of information that I learned, they told me that Ewan has rented a big Dodge pickup truck to drive himself to and from the shoots because he had refused a chauffeur. I would love to get a look at him tooling around in his pickup truck--how utterly Southern!! One lady told me he had driven himself to Wetumpka the first day of shooting and had gotten lost and was just riding around the town in his truck until he found the right place. The thought of that sight just cracks me up for some reason. As I said, many of us bonded from the experience of freezing together, and I learned that I shared a last name with one lady and her daughter. This lady has an inside scoop on where some of the filming will occur, so she is going to send me the information when she gets it from her "connected" friend. She left before the shoot was done, but then came back with a large cup of hot McDonald’s coffee for me.

What a sweetie! And she said she's sure we'll see each other again since I do plan to return for some other shoots and she and her daughter go to as many as they can manage (they live in Montgomery.) Anyway, back to the dog. I don't know if it was the unhappy dog or its double that was used for the next couple of tries, but each time they yelled action and Ewan came out of the house, the dog would start trying to get out of his arms. Sometimes he would make it part of the way down the steps, sometimes he would get all the way to the crowd that was applauding him, but the dog always looked like it was ready to bound out of his arms at any time (stupid dog--I had offered earlier in the day to play the role of the dog and I certainly wouldn't have been trying to jump out of his arms!) It took a lot more calming of the animal, but finally, after about 30 minutes, they were able to do 2 or 3 more takes, this time with a much calmer dog. We speculated if they had tranquilized the dog to make him behave, but who knows? When they called a wrap on the shoot, I tried to get to Ewan, but he was moving fast to get to the van. If he hadn't been relying on someone else to get him back to his truck, he might have been more prone to stick around and talk, but it had already taken quite a bit more time than they had anticipated, it was freezing cold, and others were riding in the van besides him, so he couldn't keep them waiting. I'm sorry I didn't get the pictures that I had taken with me autographed, but I will try again. They're going to be there until April, so I should have more chances, especially if I keep getting to know local people who have inside knowledge. One guy saw him fishing all by himself at the river one day this week. Another went to one of the local colleges and saw him learning to play baseball for a scene he has coming up in a couple of months. It seems that Ewan is doing a lot of the location work on this film, so I might have a better chance to see him then rather than in a studio setting. Also, one of the location scouts told me that he is often rehearsing stuff even when he isn't in a scene, so just because he may not be on the call schedule doesn't mean he isn't there anyway. My hunting has just begun!

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

This whole day has had an air of the surreal because I shouldn't have gotten the chance to meet Ewan in the way I did. However, a series of events all fell together in a certain way so that at just the right time for this miracle to happen, I was in the right place for that precise moment in time, and suddenly there I was, having a private conversation with him far from all the craziness of the fans stalking the town for him. I was due another day of comp time and had asked for it to be today with the idea that I would go to Alabama for the bank robbery scene. However, I got progressively sicker and sicker with a miserable cold toward the end of last week, and this week I've felt horrible. I watched the weather report last night and knew that rain was predicted for today, and I knew that rain would interfere with this bank robbery scene since there was outside stuff to film. When I went to bed last night, I had just about decided that I shouldn't go today because the weather was lousy and I felt lousy. But when I awoke this morning, I had this strong feeling that, if I didn't go, I would miss my chance to meet Ewan. I don't know where that feeling came from except for God, and even though I felt horrible and sounded even worse with all sorts of congestion, I finally convinced myself to listen to my inner voice and got in my car. I had originally planned to leave really early, but with all of my indecision, it was 10:00 a.m. before I finally got away. We are one hour ahead of Alabama time, and I knew it would take two and a half hours to get to Wetumpka since you have to go all the way to Montgomery to get to the road that goes there. So I wasn't going to get there until 11:30 Central time, much later than I would have liked since I had to be back in Atlanta for a work obligation by 6 p.m. Eastern time..

When I did arrive, I drove straight to the historical center of the town where the filming was going on and found a parking place close by. I tried to get a decent vantage point for about five minutes until a nice security guard pointed out my best place for viewing and I went there and parked myself. The building being used for the bank set was in the center of the main part of town, and people were watching from all around the intersection that is in front of it. All sorts of late 70's cars were parked in the area near the "bank" and many extras were lined up outside the bank like they were waiting to go in. At first I thought that the extras were just waiting to be called in, but I realized when they called "rolling" that they were set up this way as a part of the scene. A couple of us on "my corner" were amused by this one poor extra whose job it was just to sit in his old car that was strategically parked. Poor guy--his back was to all the action so he couldn't even watch the fun. He just had to sit there all day and stare at nothing. I was told that I had just missed their long morning break when Steve Buscemi had walked through the crowd going back to their trailers. I also learned that I was staked out on the corner directly on the way to the trailers (the production assistants referred to this as base camp) from the filming site. I figured I had it made since I knew that Ewan would have to come by there to get to his trailer. I was wrong. For each take, we heard a couple of gunshots and shouting and then Steve and Ewan ran out of the bank to the red car parked in front.

They did this a few times and then they started some filming inside the bank. During the times in between takes, I talked to the 3 or 4 people on my corner and learned that one woman was from Wetumpka and knew quite a few of the extras, production assistants and other local people associated with the film. She was videotaping the takes and had some good close-ups of Ewan running to the car. After about 30 or 45 minutes, they called lunch break, so my new friend, Kathy, and I went across the street so that we could be right in front of the bank building when everyone came out to go to lunch. One of the PA's who was a friend of hers came by and we asked if Ewan was still in the building since a couple of vans had already loaded up people to go to lunch and we wanted to make sure we saw him. He went in to check and returned quickly to tell us that Ewan was already gone. We couldn't figure out how he had gotten by us, but we decided to walk over to the restaurant they were using for lunch. Kathy said she worked at this restaurant as a bar tender and needed to pick up her pay check anyway, so we decided to try to stroll in. Well that worked just fine. We went in and saw all the crew eating in there. Kathy saw some people she knew and we went and sat with them. They worked in one of the downtown businesses and told us that they had been invited to lunch by the production company as compensation for the inconvenience of filming around their workplace.

We kept looking around for Ewan but couldn't find him. When her friends were finished with lunch we all left the restaurant just as Richard Zanuck was walking in, so we got a good look at him and said hello. Kathy pointed out the parking lot with all the star's trailers just beside this restaurant, so we walked over there to see what we could see. Since it had started raining fairly steadily, we went to a place that had an awning so that we could get out of the rain. It was directly across the street from the trailers (Ewan’s is on the right in the picture, Buscemi’s is on the left), and there were 4 or 5 folks there. I recognized a couple that I had met in Tallassee when we watched the house burning scene being filmed, and the guy told me that Ewan had just gone into his trailer a couple of minutes earlier. Two guys who were there said that Ewan had come over to them and signed autographs for them, but wouldn't let them take his picture as he was in costume and that's not allowed. I almost cried to think that I had been sitting in the restaurant right beside this parking lot looking for Ewan while he was outside signing autographs. We stayed there for the entire lunch period hoping that Ewan would come out and talk to us, but a really nice security guard told us that he had gotten in trouble with one of the production assistants because he had let Ewan sign autographs before, so he didn't think he would be able to get away with it again. He also told us that we had to stay on our side of the street. Finally Ewan came out of his trailer, but he walked away from us and went into a bigger trailer that looked like some sort of production office. We got a casual wave from him but no more. Then Steve Buscemi came out of his trailer right beside Ewan's and went into the same production trailer. We saw Tim Burton pass by a couple of times and met Richard Zanuck, but no Ewan. After another 10-15 minutes, Buscemi came back to his trailer and looked at us and smiled as he gave a big wave.

It was still raining pretty heavily, and we wondered if they would call an end to the shooting. But about 5 minutes later, Buscemi came out of his trailer and was walked under an umbrella to one of the waiting vans. Soon thereafter, Ewan came out of the production trailer and got into the same van and they drove toward the set again. They came right by us and both Ewan and Steve waved and smiled at us as we waved back. So Kathy and I walked back to “our corner” and started strategizing about how we were going to try to get a closer look. One woman who was there is the president of the Alabama Star Wars fan chapter, and she said that she had watched the filming for a while that morning from the Chamber of Commerce building directly across the street from the pretend bank (it’s the one with the gray-green awnings in the picture. The bank is in the center part of the red brick building.) She said that they had to keep their curtains closed, but that you could see fairly well by peeking out from the cracks in the curtains. We went over there and were told that we could stay for a while so we watched a couple of takes in this way. We could see into the building in between takes, but they always closed the doors for the takes. I saw glimpses of Ewan and could hear the gun shots every once in a while, but it was a less than satisfactory way to watch. So we went back to our original corner and did some more brainstorming. We still couldn't figure out how we had missed the stars when they went to lunch until Kathy remembered that the building had a back door. She said that she had done bar tending at some parties in that building in the past, and she bet that was how they sneaked the stars in and out.

So we went in search of that back door, and it was there that the miracle happened. We walked away from all of the action, toward the block behind the town square. When we went around the corner, we saw a small group of people standing at a door under an awning that projected out over the sidewalk. Since it was raining pretty hard again, we went over and asked if we could just stand there out of the rain and the production assistant said we could. We were just beginning to make friends with this PA when I looked at a man standing there with his back to me and I just froze. It was Ewan. I was just staring at him and whispering to Kathy, "It's him, it's him!" Then I heard a sweet voice with a slight French accent and looked to his left and realized it was Eve talking to a PA while Clara was talking to her Dad. I was absolutely bowled over. I've got to interject here, friends, that photographs do not do Eve justice. This woman is absolutely gorgeous! And I do mean stunningly gorgeous! And her voice has a lovely lilt to it. I was just overwhelmed with how lovely she is, and I could fully understand why Ewan was thunderstruck when he first saw her years ago. She may not be a typical classic beauty, but she has an air of elegance and self-confidence that is almost palpable. Anyway, back to me being thunderstruck. I just stared for several seconds, then asked the PA if it was okay to approach him. He cautioned that I shouldn't do so while Ewan was talking to someone, but I told the PA that I would never dream of interrupting him when he was talking to his wife and daughter.

The PA seemed to relax when he realized I wouldn't make any horrible scene, so he turned his head in the other direction and teased, "Hey, I'm looking over there", thus giving me permission to do what I wished when it was appropriate. As I said, I had no intention of interrupting the conversation, but suddenly they all stopped talking and four sets of eyes turned to me. Ewan smiled and I told them I didn't want to interrupt, but Ewan said, "No, no, it's okay" so I asked if he would mind signing a couple of autographs. He said sure, so I got out the photos I had printed on photo paper. I told him that a dear friend in Italy had sent the picture to me and asked that he sign one for Roberta and one for me. Then I let my Wetumpka friend have a copy of another photo I had printed out and he signed that one for her. While he was signing, I was holding the photos and his hand was under mine to steady them as he wrote. Holding hands (sort of) with Ewan--nice! We chatted about all sorts of things--how much he was enjoying this location, Southern hospitality, the Borgia project, Nora and Moulin Rouge (2 of my favorite movies that helped me keep my sanity last summer while laid off), the sweet note and picture I got from his Dad last summer when I sent a fan letter.

At one point, Clara asked Eve a question quietly and I heard her say something about photos though I think she was talking in French as well as speaking very quietly. However, neither Eve nor Clara seemed to mind that I was talking to Ewan, and I just had so much to say! Then I gave him some brochures about various concerts coming up with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (where I now work as Assistant Director of Education) and explained to Eve and Clara that we have lots of great family and children's concerts on the weekends. I gave them a couple of copies of my business card and told them that I would be happy to get them tickets if they ever wanted to come to some of our concerts. Ewan kept saying "Brilliant!" as I was talking about the concerts (I just love how he says that word) and thanked me several times for the offer of tickets. He told me I was very kind, and I told him I just wanted to be able to give something back to him through my work when he had given so much to me through his work. He reached out and took my hand to shake it and said that it had been a pleasure to meet me, and I was struck with the intensity of his gaze. The whole time I had talked to him, he had been looking right into my eyes and I could tell that he was giving me his undivided attention. He played with Clara's hair absent-mindedly at times and she was obviously enjoying their closeness and Eve was very pleasant and relaxed, as well as patient. Then he went back inside the building for another take and Eve and Clara went with him. Kathy and I were left standing there with big, stupid grins on our faces. The 2 PA's were really sweet and congratulated us. We stayed there for a few minutes more and watched the filming on a monitor just inside the building. Kathy was hoping to meet Steve Buscemi when he came out for a smoke (the PA's said he did this every once in a while) but a security guard eventually came over and asked if we were there to meet someone. When she learned that we weren't official people, she very kindly said that we really weren't supposed to be there. We asked if we could go across the street and watch and she said that area was restricted as well.

So it seems that we were in an area we weren't supposed to be in at the very moment that the security guard was gone and Ewan was there and was able to take some time to talk with us. It really was a miracle. In looking back on the experience, it's funny the things I recall. I was watching his hands as he signed our pictures and saw that he had a small injury on his right thumb, like something had hit his finger and taken a gouge out of the skin. I watched his eyes as we talked and realized he was really paying attention to me. I thought his wig was hideous, though nowhere near as hideous as his Emma wig, and it was quite interesting to be so close to him and see his makeup. We couldn't take pictures because he was in costume, but I don't even care. I got to have a personal conversation with him, and I'm just amazed that it happened. I found out today that they have a big scene filming in Wetumpka again next weekend, Feb, 7 and 8 and I think another one is planned for February 21 and 22 or sometime around that time in Wetumpka as well. I encourage anyone who wants to make the trip to go for it. Even if you don't get to see Ewan close up, you'll probably see him as well as the other stars well enough to get some good pictures, and you'll enjoy watching the work of filming a movie. And who knows, you might get lucky too. The folks of Wetumpka are really nice, and their town is lovely, especially with all the renovation they did for this movie. They'll help you find the best places to watch, will answer your questions, and will take good care of you. I also learned today that they have built an entire town somewhere in the middle of a lake, so I assume that is the town of Specter. Helena Bonham Carter is playing the part of the witch-like woman who becomes Edward Bloom's mistress. This set is closed, however, and no one but production people can get to it. I'm assuming that they will do some location shooting at Huntingdon College as well since they have signed an agreement to do so. I'm thinking that a lot of us are going to meet our guy during this shoot. Everyone I've talked to has raved about how open and accessible Ewan is.

They say that he is a regular feature tooling around town in his big black Dodge pickup truck (that image still strikes me as hilarious. Quite a far cry from his motorbike!) I do think that he is probably easier to get close to on days when he isn't filming. When he's filming, he's watched over very carefully by the PA's and he's kept pretty busy. So you might do best to try to see him on an off day. Go for it friends! Go fishing! Saturday, February 8, 2003 Well, no major Ewan adventure today but fun nonetheless. I knew that something was amiss when I approached the historic area of Wetumpka this afternoon and there were no "Fish" signs. During filming days, they always have these little signs posted at various spots with arrows marking the direction of the filming. It's cool, sort of like a secret code for those of us who are "in the know". Well, no signs today, and as I drove into town, no crowds, no trucks, no crew, no nothing. Traffic was moving normally across the bridge that was to have been the site of the shoot, so I just drove over to the area where the home base and all the star trailers are located when they're in Wetumpka. Nothing there but that shiny red Dodge Charger car that was featured in the bank robbery scene. There was a security guard looking closely at the car, so I drove over to him and asked where the company was. He said that everyone had packed up fairly early that morning and driven back to Montgomery because it was "too sunny". He further explained that it had been cloudy yesterday for the first day of shooting that scene, so they needed the same weather to finish the shoot.

What was funny was that it was quite cloudy at this time, and we both chuckled about how they had been too impatient. Had they only waited a while, clouds were moving into the area by the afternoon. Anyway, I enjoyed getting a very close look at this car, especially after being told that Ewan had been in it earlier in the day. It was interesting to see the tow bar that was attached to the front so that it could be pulled by a camera car while the actors were sitting in it. Since they didn't have to worry about keeping the car from running into things, they could focus on their acting and looking like they were driving. Apparently, this same car is used later in the movie with Finney and Cruddup (they used it in a scene yesterday in which it was driven by stunt drivers who had to spin it around in the middle of the main intersection--the tire marks are still there), so we'll see a lot of it. There are also specially-mounted posts all around the car for camera mounts. Since the town was pretty much deserted, I could walk everywhere and take pictures. The big house on the hill was totally accessible (except for locked doors so that I couldn't actually go in) and I walked all around it, looked at the parts they had built especially for the movie and saw the swimming pool that had been added as well. I got lots of shots of the river, the bridge, the house, the businesses in downtown that have been renovated for the movie and the old historic cemetery that may be used for a couple of scenes. I also talked to some wonderfully friendly people, two of whom I remembered from my cold night in Tallassee 3 weeks ago.

One old guy was so cute. He had been an extra in the bank robbery scene and played the part of a security guard in the bank. He was looking for someone in the movie's production department because he hasn't gotten his paycheck yet (extras get just $5.15 an hour, but it can add up with 16-hour days like he had that day.) He talked about his experiences during the filming that day (that lovely day on which I met Ewan.) He said that Ewan had to get a big bag at one point and run out of the bank, but during one take he hit this guy in the leg with the bag. After the take, Ewan came back to the guy and asked if he had hit him, and the man teased him, "You almost broke my leg there!" and laughed. He said that Ewan was quite apologetic and kept apologizing all day. So sweet! Look for him in the movie. He'll be the security guard who has to get down face-first on the floor, and he said that he stood beside the big American flag that was in the bank. I saw this flag quite a bit when I was watching the filming from across the street in the Chamber of Commerce, so I felt like I had a small connection to this sweet old guy.

The two people I remembered from the house-burning night told me that an article about me had appeared in the Opelika-Auburn paper as well and showed me a copy of it. I still think it's a hoot that I was interviewed for all of these things simply because I drove from Atlanta. Big deal. I can drive for an hour in Atlanta and still be in Atlanta, so 2 hours just isn't that much of an issue for me. It takes me 2 hours to get home from work sometimes if the traffic is bad! Anyway, these two people were the ones who were mentioned right after my little paragraph in the Montgomery Advertiser article that featured the picture of Ewan rescuing the dog. They have gotten lots of good video footage of lots of these things, so they're going to send me a copy of the son's tape. He has a lot of the footage of things that I've seen being filmed, but I couldn't take still photographs during the takes because the production assistants were afraid that my flash would go off and spoil the take. Hence, they didn't allow any pictures during a take. But video cameras have no flash, so anyone with a video recorder could film the takes. Can't wait to get that footage. I drove down to Wetumpka using a different route today and saw some lovely swamp countryside. Pam and Caleb (the video folks) said that they had been down to the "cave" area where they've been filming the scenes with a giant (the one who is "tamed" by Edward Bloom.) Originally, the crew had thought they were finished there and people were allowed to go onto the set and even take some of the props. Then, after viewing the dailies, they decided that they needed to film again there. Oops!

They're going to have to replace the props and fix some of the things that got damaged with people “touring” (looting?) the set. This past week, they also filmed the final scene in which Billy Cruddup throws Albert Finney into the lake and he turns into a giant 7-foot fish. It's been awfully cold to be throwing people into the lake. I'm sure Ewan is glad that this happened to his character when he was older so that Finney had to play the scene. Otherwise, it would have been yet another movie in which Ewan gets dunked! In addition, they've done a bit of pickup work of scenes that weren't finished from earlier Wetumpka shoots, so the little town has been hopping. Every shop has got Big Fish Fever. There are t-shirts, bumper stickers and lots of talk about being extras. Just about everyone seems to be a part of this movie. Today I talked to a shop keeper who had his fitting yesterday for a 1950's outfit that he will wear during a big parade scene being filmed there in 2 weeks. This will be a big 2-day scene, but unfortunately I can't go to that shoot since I'll be in New York. Oh well, at least I'll be seeing Baz's La Boheme and singing a lot while I'm there, so it will be a fun weekend anyway. I'm still trying to find another connection who can tell me about other location shooting. I've got the fever, too, and I want to see as much of the filming as I can possibly work into my very busy work schedule. And I still haven't given up hope that Ewan and Eve will decide to take me up on my offer to comp them some tickets to the Atlanta Symphony (yeah, right, don't hold your breath there, kid!) Tuesday, March 25, 2003 I had a couple of comp days off work, so headed to Montgomery for a mini-vacation. I knew that the BF crew was filming at Huntingdon College this morning, but I couldn't get around the tight security at the college and never even got close to the filming there. I don't even know if Ewan was in any of those scenes, but it didn't matter anyway since I couldn't get through the security guards.

The guards did tell me that they would be filming in another location this afternoon, but would give me no more information than that. Boy, these guys are lots tougher than the production assistants on the film! After I couldn't get near the filming, I went to the production offices, left my photo and filled out an application to be an extra. I probably have no hope of being called, but at least I tried. Now that my schedule is getting a little more manageable, I might actually be able to get away if called. Anyway, I knew from the extras hotline phone number that Aja gave me that they were filming in a local neighborhood this afternoon. I bought a Montgomery map and located the neighborhood, then went out there. This was a fairly new neighborhood with homes only 4-5 years old, but they were relatively unadorned houses that could pass for some of the new neighborhoods that were built during the 50’s. It was easy to find the specific street on which the shoot was to take place because they had closed the street and just about everyone there had taken the day off work to be home for the adventure. Everyone had lawn chairs in their driveways to watch the action and it was like a giant block party. I was welcomed by the group and quickly became one of the gang. I had with me a gift bag containing a few items for Ewan’s birthday next week, and I had made a few colorful Happy Birthday signs that I put on a yard stick. I also had bought three very colorful balloons to tie onto the bag in an attempt to get noticed. This got me noticed quite a bit by the neighbors as well as by the crew, but sadly, not by Ewan. When I arrived, they had just begun filming a scene in which Edward Bloom returns home from military service.

They were filming behind the location house and there were giant fans generating the wind needed to blow laundry on the clothes lines that they had put in for the shoot. All of the houses in the vicinity of this location house had been given TV antennas and clothes lines, and lots of additions had been made to doors, shrubs, etc. to make the neighborhood look like a 1950’s area. We couldn’t see the scene because they were behind the house, but we heard all of the calls for “action” and “cut.” I watched Tim Burton throughout the filming as he was sitting across the street looking at a monitor during each take. They did several takes of this scene, and in between takes, Ewan would come out to the driveway beside the house and chat with the crew as he smoked. He was dressed in a spiffy military uniform, and at times he posed for pictures with various crew members.

During one of the breaks in between takes, I saw Ewan walking out toward the street and my heart almost stopped as I thought he was coming out to talk to all of us sitting across the street in the driveways. Then I realized he was going out to meet a woman carrying a toddler. Turns out it was his nanny bringing Esther to the set to spend time with her Daddy. It was so sweet to see how he scooped her into his arms, showered her with kisses and cuddled with her for a long time. He sat beside the house in his director’s chair and held Esther as she played with his face and obviously charmed all of the crew. Then she got down on the grass and played at his feet for a while. He repeatedly kissed her on the top of her head, played all sorts of games with her and generally doted on her. Some of the neighbors tried to take pictures of all of this, but the PA’s quickly instructed them to put their cameras away as Ewan doesn’t allow photos when his kids are present. He obviously has the crew well-trained on this restriction. When they called Ewan for another take, the nanny let Esther walk around on her own. Being the inquisitive little toddler that she is, she explored the neighborhood, coming out to the street and then walking across it to the yards on the side where we all were sitting. She has that cute little Frankenstein walk that toddlers have, but she is a little girl with a mind of her own, and she went toward everything that looked interesting. When her eyes caught the balloons on Ewan’s gift bag, she headed directly for them. I said hello to Esther and told the nanny that she could have one of the balloons if she wanted it since the gift was for her Daddy anyway, but I think the nanny thought I was a stalker or something because she gave me a skeptical look, refused the offer of a balloon and eventually steered Esther back across the street, away from all of us who were watching the filming.

She is such a lovely little girl with Ewan's blonde coloring and his smile, and she seems like a very happy kid. The second scene they filmed involved a comical routine of synchronized grass cutting. Edward Bloom was standing in the middle of the street wearing a uniform advertising his lawn care company. All down the street there were men in similar uniforms cutting the grass of about 7 or 8 yards. As the scene began, a little cub scout kid went up to Bloom to get his autograph. He signed the paper, patted the kid on the head, and then looked down the street as all of the lawn care guys simultaneously cut the grass from the houses out to the street, then along the curb, and then back toward the houses again, all in perfect unison. There were a number of extras on the set today, and most of them were never used. They included lots of adults and kids, and even a group of about 10 cub scouts. These little guys were very disappointed when they were told that the scene in which they were to appear had been changed and only the one cub scout would now be needed. I think they really wanted to appear in a scene with “Obi-Wan,” and their moms seemed pretty annoyed about the wasted time as well. The kids wanted to know why the little cub scout in the scene was getting an autograph as they had been told this was forbidden to do. They didn’t seem to understand that the little guy was getting a pretend autograph in the context of the scene. They just thought he was breaking the rules. There was a third scene that was shot late in the day. In this one, Bloom’s wife (played by Alison Lohman, who looks remarkably like Jessica Lange) goes out to the mailbox at the curb and gets a letter telling her that Edward is dead (at least, this was what the crew told us was happening.

All we could see was her going out to the mailbox and then screaming as she read the letter.) They filmed this scene several times, and I was amazed that Lohman’s voice could hold out for this long as she really did some gut-wrenching screams. After everything wrapped for the day, I was still there holding the balloons and signs and gifts, and Ewan was gone, so the assistant director (who was very kind to me all day) took the package and promised that he would take it directly to Ewan's trailer and leave it for him. As I was saying goodbye to my new friends in the neighborhood, Tim Burton was about 2 feet away from me wrapping up for the day with the crew. He looked in my direction and said hi and smiled. He can be a bit surly on the sets I’m told, but he was kind this time.