|
Author:Felicia I haven't been posting much and I have yet to post my keanu experiences when I was an extra. So here's one. (or part of one). ************** SPOILERS **************
Well, Here I was on a bright Saturday afternoon in Chicago, at one of the places they were filming Hardball. This was on elevated train platform on the west side. Keanu's character is supposed to be visiting the predominantly (or all) black neighborhood near Cabrini Green. I was one of the background people, obviously, since I wasn't starring next to Keanu in this particular film :) They separated us into two groups on the platform while they continued to set up the cameras. then the Casting people went through and chose certain of us to sit on the trainm in various cars, and certain of us to stand on the platform, both sides of it. I wanted to be on the train because Keanu was going to be on the train, but I got a pretty good "saet" anyway. By this time, the crew had probably figured out that I wanted a close up of Keanu. I had been around the set a while, and got to know a few crew members, and would just filter around and watch things being done, watching scenes being filmed. When I signed up to be an extra they put me to work so I couldn't just stand around as freely as before - because I was told by one guy that he figured I was one of the parents - go figure, which was why he didn't bother trying to put me in one of the scenes before on that first day (some people think I am old enough to have a 10 year old kid while others think I am 15!). Actually, the first day I went there was strictly as an observer, but that's another story. This particular day, this one particular Background Casting personnel decided I was to be on the platform. He and another guy that had been placing me here and there both moved me around on the platform until I was in a spot on the side where the cameras were, and where the action was going to be. Little did I know how close to the action I truly was. So, I am standing there with my black pants and blue and green jacket, and my grey bag witha book in my hand and the director starts yelling down at us, tryingn to get someone's attention. So he says something like, "Hey you young lady." And we look around like, 'who is he talking to?' So he repeats himself until lo and behoild he says, "The lady withthe gray bag." So when he says this I am nervous because I am thinking what on earth did I do wrong? But he just moves me aorund and has me stand closer to the edge of the platform. Now, I can be pretty unobservant at times, so I did not realize that there were two cameras. The director is behinda camera way down at the other end, and basically, he had me stand right in the line of the shot of the camera. BUT there is another camera just behind me and to my right. THIS camera would be filming Keanu as he got off the train. Of course I didn't realize this until I saw his Stand in standing like two to three feet away from me on the platform!! Now I was really nervous! Who can explain that? Side note - I saw his extra temping at an agency I used to work for in Chicago! Pretty cool! Cute too. Anyway, so he's standing there and they are trying to get the shot together. But then the time comes for them to replace him with Keanu and here he comes, hanging around the area and then stands in his place - THREE FEET AWAY. Cool. So, I am trying my best NOT to make eye contact with him because I am so extremely shy all of a sudden. But I do notice how beautiful he is, and even more so when he smiles. Sweet. Other extras have said how he just starts talking to the people around him, and one extra that I knew mentioned how he spoke to someone on the train with him. But not fe (that's me by the way), fe had to turn into some shy school girl - like I was ever really that shy when I was a school girl. Oh wait, I was! the stories I could tell... And it was so bright and sunny, just imagine how such beauty from nature enhances such an experience! Well, anyway, they srart filming. The train rides into the station, he gets off, pauses in the doorway and walks past me, then I get on the train. This goes on for a while, of ocurse, but in between shoots he's just standing there. He rarely moves, even when they are not fixating the camera. And I stand there. I look at his chest, his feet. He is to my right, facing me, sometimes actually turned in my direction. He is really close. But instead of being normal and maybe smiling or something, I look every place but his eyes. I look to my left. I look towards the sky. I look at the ground. I look to my right past him. I turn around and look behind me. Mostly I look down or straight ahead. But never directly at his face, although I can see it. It's like I was overwhelmed. But then that has happened before with a guy, but I don't remember it seeming to dramatic, ever. And at one point some guy behind my, to the left, is talking to Keanu, so he is looking in my direction, but taking to this guy and he cracks a laugh and I am startled so I look up at him and then quickly look away. Actually, it was really funny, the whole situation. It's like something you think only really happens on TV shows or in books or something like that - but here I was, three feet away from Keanu, (who should recognize me by now since I went to all of their concerts in Chicago, and stayed for autographs, and have this big red afro), and I am way too shy to even LOOK at him. HAA HAA. ************** SPOILERS (End) **************
But next time I think I should have gotten myself under control and maybe I won't be so overwhelmed. But I can be SUCH a dweeb sometimes...
Author:Janet "Keanu has left the area. Move along folks.... nothing left to see." Well, the shoot that was *supposed* to happen a couple weeks ago (and that I mentioned in a previous post) outside my place of employ just finished. At this exact moment they are breaking down the set and packing up equipment. The good news is that a co-worker of mine shot a whole roll of film of the set action. The bad news is that they wrapped while I ran back inside for a new roll of film! With the new roll in hand, I stepped out the front door of our store and Keanu was just entering a black limo right in front of me..... he sat down, closed the door, and a police officer waved the driver right into Southbound traffic on Clark St. Keanu actually waved to my co-worker (who at this point was holding an empty camera! ARGH!) as they drove off. ************** SPOILERS **************
The scene shot was a *very* short one. Keanu's character basically walks into a barbershop to make a payment to a bookie and walks right out. That's it. The equipment trucks started arriving about 2 PM today (merely 3 hours ago). One camera, no outside lighting, very minimal equipment inside the barbershop. They had about 8 extras on hand as passersby that strode past the shop during the action. They set up what little lighting there was and did all the camera measuring using Keanu's double. Didn't catch his name but he was wearing a white t-shirt and black suit. He was several inches shorter than Keanu actually is but his coloring and hair was very similar. Keanu came right to the set in costume (no trailer was brought). For this scene he was wearing scruffy dark blue jeans that were too long, black canvas "deck-like" shoes (think Keds), a dark green t-shirt, a medium green print shirt over the t (left unbuttoned), a shabby glack leather jacket, and sunglasses. Clean shaven, hair short and tousled :::::::sigh::::::::: The sum total of his work for this scene consisted of rounding the corner to the shop entrance, walking into the open door of the barber shop, taking an envelope out of his jacket pocket and handing it to the barber inside the shop. He then exits the shop, walks past the window and gives a quick wave to the barber (who is now standing in the window counting the money that was in the envelope). Ta da. They did this routine a few times to rehearse, then they shot maybe 4 or 5 takes altogether with the camera rolling. That's it! Keanu graced our presence for maybe a half hour TOTAL...... in fact, it was probably closer to 15 minutes. Keanu was smiling between takes, talking with a few of the crew members, seemed in a fine mood. He certainly didn't have to work too hard or deal with difficult circumstances at all. There were a few dozen spectators across the street but traffic was kept moving the whole time and aside from the prohibited parking areas, there was little evidence or disruption to the normal flow of things in the neighborhood. I did confirm with a crew member that they are planning to wrap the movie by the end of this week - by Friday if possible. The equipment trucks were heading to Wrigley Field for some work there this evening. ************** SPOILERS (END) **************
From:Chicago Tribune Since this somehow has turned into the place for daily Keanu Reeves updates, we feel obligated to tell you that he surprised "The Matrix" co-star Laurence Fishburne by showing up when Fish was honored as part of the Chicago International Film Festival. Fishburne, who premiered his directorial debut "Once in the Life" at the Music Box, was given a Career Achievement Award.
Author:CINDY PEARLMAN From:Chicago Sun Times No red or blue pills are involved. There will be no wire stunts. But if you happen to notice a tall, serious man walking down Michigan Avenue today next to a hunk who can contort his back into strange positions, you haven't entered the Matrix. "Let me just tell Chicagoans right now, if you see me walking with Keanu, it's not that you're in an alternate universe," Laurence Fishburne says from New York. "You're just seeing two cats walk down the street." An Evening With Laurence Fishburne 6:30 tonight Music Box, 3733 N. Southport Tickets, $11, $13 (312) 332-FILM It's a bit freaky to think a Morpheus and Neo reunion could happen over Ann Sather cinnamon rolls. But consider: Reeves has been in town filming "Hardball." Fishburne jets in today for the world premiere of a movie he wrote, directed and produced called "Once in the Life" at the Chicago International Film Festival. The gritty drama is about the friendship between estranged brothers whose wrong decisions have plunged them into a life of crime. 20/20 Mike (played by Fishburne) is a street-smart criminal and schemer who wants to get out of the life after that proverbial "one last job." Torch (Titus Welliver) is a strung-out junkie. Fishburne makes his directorial debut in the film, adapted from a play he wrote called "Riff-Raff." What surprised him about directing? "How good I was at it," he says and then bursts into warm, rich laughter. "Honestly, I felt right at home. But I was nervous the whole time. I'm still nervous. And I will be until the movie comes out." "Once in the Life" is the kind of pet project Fishburne can do since the blockbuster success of "The Matrix." He is signed for two sequels, which will film in Australia, Los Angeles and Chicago. And the sequels are about . . . what? "I'm sworn to secrecy. If I tell you, I won't have to kill you," Fishburne says. "I'll have to kill me by jumping off the building." The 39-year-old jumped into his craft early on. "Acting is the thing that picked me. I didn't pick it," he recalls. "I was always just an actor by nature and my mother saw that in me." Notoriously picky even back then, Fishburne notes, "I rejected the first three auditions she picked." He was 10. After nabbing a role on the soap opera "One Life to Live," he made his movie debut in 1975 in "Cornbread, Earl and Me." At 14, he was sequestered on the set of "Apocalypse Now" (1979). "The other actors treated me like I was 40, which was nice. But it was a very, very chaotic set." Afterward, Fishburne couldn't get a job for almost two years. He rebounded with the role of Cowboy Curtis on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse." In 1992, he won a Tony for "Two Trains Running." He nabbed an Oscar nomination for playing the brutal Ike Turner in "What's Love Got to Do With It." (1993). Other acclaimed roles include "Searching for Bobby Fischer" (1993), "Higher Learning" (1995) and "Tuskegee Airman" (1995). His three children can't watch all of his films, but they're heavily into "The Matrix." "Their friends will say, `My dad is an accountant. My kids can say, `Well, my dad is Morpheus.' I'm pretty good at show and tell time." Fishburne doesn't fret that such a large character will blot out his smaller films. "I will be remembered fondly and best by some people for `The Matrix.' But I'm young and I have a lot of work to do. They might say, `That cat was also Othello. He was in `Boyz N the Hood.' And hopefully, people will remember the work I do in my own films." Speaking of his own film, he'll be sneaking glances tonight at the others in his row. "What I really want to do in Chicago is sit in the audience and watch my movie with the people," Fishburne confides. "I've never really done that for myself." Hey, maybe Keanu can pull some strings and get a ticket, too. "Kiki is always welcome," Fishburne says. "I'll have to invite him. And we can just disappear into the crowd because Keanu is a very private, shy guy and so am I." Morpheus and Neo watching a flick and not getting some second glances? Maybe in an alternative universe.
From:Chicago Tribune Sighting: After finishing a recent meal at Gibson's, Keanu politely gave the thumbs-up sign to piano player Megan Curran before leaving the restaurant. Unsure if the gesture was in lieu of a tip
From:Chicago Sun Times (http://www.suntimes.com/output/zwecker/zp051.html SEEN ON SCENE: Tempo, the popular 24-hour-eatery at Chestnut and State, has become quite the home away from home for "Hardball" co-stars Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane, spied (separately) during breaks in filming.
Established since 1st September 2001 by 999 SQUARES. |
