10/18/22
Newletter131
The Crack of Dawn
Having been an extra in Evil Dead, Crimewave, Evil Dead 2, and Darkman, Sam Raimi asked me if I’d like to be an extra in Army of Darkness (1993) and I said sure. The film was being shot in Acton, a rocky, desert area just north of L.A., where hundreds of movies have been shot. The first day I was a villager standing beside Embeth Davitz at the edge of a pit hollering, “Kill him!” That was easy enough, so when they asked if I’d like to return as an extra I said yes. My next time there was a night shoot and I was one of many skeletons composing the army of darkness. The skeleton outfit was made the FX guys at KNB (Kurtzman-Nicotero-Berger), whom I would get to know much better on Hercules. The costume was a black, wool, one-piece body suit with bones glued to the front of it, and a black hood with a skull affixed to the front of it that allowed very little visibility from within. It took about 20 minutes to get wedged into outfit. But KNB’s big mistake was not putting flies into the suit. Me and fifty other skeleton extras were expected to stay up all night, but never pee. That ruled out coffee. As extras do, we sat around for hours as it got colder and colder in the desert. We were finally assembled – 50 shivering skeletons who all had to urinate – along with twenty skeleton riders mounted on horses. Barely able to see out the eye holes, on action we all attacked. Running amongst 50 sight impaired skeleton extras, plus 20 sight impaired riders, was mayhem. And that’s what we did all night long, as it got progressively colder, and none of us could pee. The few times I saw Sam he couldn’t have been nicer. My friend Bruce saw me in my costume and laughed at me. As the sun began to rise and shooting concluded, Sam specifically asked me to come back. Irritated, grumpy, cold and desperately having to pee, I said, “Are you out of your fucking mind? I did my bit in this movie; I’m done!” Sam wasn’t responsible for the lack of flies in the costumes, but I didn’t care, I was miserable and angry. So Sam never asked me to be an extra in any of his movies again. I did however get him to be an extra in Lunatics: A Love Story.
My buddy Rick Sandford, the professional extra, was in many, many movies. He was in something with the actor, Dan O’Herlihy, probably best-known as the boss in the first Robocop (ED 2000, the early stage robot cop, mistakenly fires 10,000 rounds into an executive, then Dan O’Herlihy says, “I’m very disappointed”). Rick Sandford had exactly the right question for him. Brilliant Spanish surrealist director Luis Bunuel very oddly made a good Technicolor version of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1952) starring Dan O’Herlihy, who really gives a full-fledged performance and was nominated for an Oscar. Unsurprisingly, he lost to Marlon Brando for On the Waterfront. Then Dan O’Herlihy is rarely seen in movies or TV for the next 20 years. So Rick asked, “What happened?” O’Herlihy shrugged and said, “I set my price too high.”
Here’s a wonderfully stray memory. I just looked it up and it was 1974, so I was 15. I went to see McQ (1974), one of John Wayne’s last movies, with my father. As we came out of the theater so did Bruce Campbell and his dad Charlie. My dad and Charlie had never met. My dad and I both lit cigarettes. The Campbells didn’t smoke. But we stood in the lobby of the Telex Theater and discussed the movie, and all four of us were completely satisfied. Sure Duke was old, but he pulled it off. He did his version of Dirty Harry, but with a grease gun. We all liked it. We were satisfied customers.
Good day. In New Zealand, good on ya.
On ya mate!!