Danny Strong

Recount, the film written by Danny Strong about the 2000 presidential election, is currently filming in my state — at the scene of the crime. I had the pleasure to spend all day today playing a member of the press as an extra for the film. I have never done anything like this before, and I now have a much greater insight into the many comments we have heard about how actors spend all their time waiting for lights and cameras to be set up.

But the fun part of it was being an arm’s length away from Kevin Spacey and Ed Begley, Jr., on repeated takes as they walked into the state’s Supreme Court building. Ed Begley, in particular, was so very nice to the extras, reaching out to shake their hands between takes, smiling and saying high to them when the handshaking wasn’t possible, etc. Truly a nice guy. In other scenes, I was equally close to Tom Wilkinson, who is playing James Baker, and Bob Balaban, an actor I first became aware of through Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice, but he’s been in many films. His name has always slipped my mind (I’ll not forget it now), but he’s one of my favorite character actors.

What was more fun was meeting Danny Strong. Since I’m not a convention-goer, I figured I’d never actually meet any of the Buffy actors. But he was on the site, and I saw him here and there between takes. Then, there was one fairly long wait between takes, and he was taking photographs of the set. I was talking to another extra, and then I turned, and there he was a mere inches in front of me, with his back to me. Well, I couldn’t let the moment pass, so I said, "Thank you for writing this movie." He turned, and I told him I was a fan, and we ended up talking about 15 minutes about the film, the election, etc. A couple of other extras also entered into the conversation, talking about their memories of the protests in Tallahassee back in 2000. Anyway, I think he was genuinely surprised to have someone single him out, as I don’t think anybody else among the extras knew who he was (I also saw him introducing himself to a couple of the actors, so I’m not certain even they knew who he was). And, of course, most people were there to try to have an opportunity to see Spacey or Dennis Leary or Laura Dern (the latter two were not at the site today). He was very nice and easy to talk with, and I really enjoyed the moment. He did make a comment about the writers’ strike — that just now when he’s just beginning to get recognition for his writing, he has to go on strike. (Fortunately, the strike won’t hold up the film.) Anyway, from the way he talked, it sounded as though he has left acting behind (permanently?) for his new career as a screenwriter and producer. [ETA: He didn’t say he was not pursuing acting anymore; it was just my impression after the very brief conversation that he was more interested in pursuing writing and producing.] The conversation came to an abrupt end as the director called for the cameras to roll, so that was the end of that.

I signed up to work as an extra on Tuesday, as well, so maybe I’ll have more tales to tell. But, I wanted to let people know that the film is well under way. The director for today’s work was Michael Hausman, who is executive producer and who held that position on Brokeback Mountain, Gangs of New York, and the Firm, among other movies. He’s in his 70s, but he has more energy than the people working for him. As the extras started losing energy (we were dressed for what other people think should be "fall" clothing—for any place but Florida — and we were baking in the heat of the afternoon), he did all sorts of things to keep us involved and laughing, including, after about 13 hours’ work, dancing a little jig to some old Chiquita bananas jingle.

The company worked very well with the extras. While the hours were long, and it was getting late into the afternoon before we got a break for lunch, they brought bottles and cups of water when it became apparent that many of the extras were suffering from the heat. The lunch was quite good, with plenty of food to go around, and they offered numerous thanks for our work throughout the day.

Lots of talent all around, and they are also picking up on some of the outright wackiness of the election and the protesters in Tallahassee back in 2000. It looks like it’s going to be a good film, with interjections of humor. Look for it some time next year on HBO.