Owies

I filmed a few night scenes last night for Checkmate, most of them involving getting beat with a candlestick and thrown about. It was fun though doing stunts is always a bit nerve wracking. I am not exactly the most coordinated person, not to mention the fact that I am inherently flinchy. So every time I saw the candlestick coming at my face it took all the strength in my being to not jump back and run away screaming. I was super paranoid I was going to get hit in the face and break a nose or something so I kept practicing it and of course, that went well nothing happened.



And after all that fuss when it was my turn to pretend hit fake hubby on the head with a picture frame we had it perfectly choreographed. We practiced and rehearsed like so many times that my neck hurt from holding it at a strange angle while swinging the picture frame up. When it finally came time to get an actual take they turned on the fog machine and I guess after being flung around when it came time to hit Luis with the picture frame I think the fog messed up my depth perception and I clocked him on the head with the frame. Lucky for Luis I am not very strong and the angle I was laying in made it even more difficult to put any muscle behind my hit but it made a horrific noise.

It would actually have been a great take had my face not instantly flashed total horror at having hit him. Maybe they can salvage that take by taking my reaction out somehow. I felt terrible. I really do blame the fog though, it made me totally disoriented. AND it is toxic for your brain so maybe I was high on the fumes or something.

This morning I had the first read-thru for As You Like It. It's a good, relatively short version of the play, and went quickly as most comedies do luckily. It was alot of fun and there were yummy chips. I am playing two different characters and it should actually be quite fun. They are gonna be wacky I think. My director, Jeffrey Morris, is very into doing lots of movement work and really developing characters through a collaborative, thoughtful process as opposed to just shouting Shakespeare at people.

Am very tired and am going to get some rest before a very full day of filming both tomorrow and Monday. As well as hopefully going to see the final performance of Pounding Nails by The Theatricians.