The OC, Part II

The second day on the set of The OC was pretty much more of the same. I hung around with my guys and pretty much just had fun. There was no band, so it was a lot of pretending to walk around the bar and talk to people.

For those of you that don’t know me, I am a moron. Especially when it comes to women. Sometimes the moron part of my brain takes over and bad things happen. A quick example of this was the time that I was temping in Chicago and there was an extremely attractive girl working in the office. I never talk to strange women when I am temping because I feel that it is kind of sleazy. But one day I happen to ride down in the elevator with her. Since it was just she and I, and it was after hours I decided to introduce myself. She told me her name, shook my hand, and then it happened. I opened my mouth and the moron took over.

“My, that’s a very manly handshake you have there”. I am not kidding.

She said thank you, but I saw on her face that I had become the guy who told her she had manly hands. I never spoke to her again and she never spoke to me.

Fast forward a couple of years to the set of The OC. There are a lot of attractive women there, but there are two that especially stand out. A blonde and a brunette. Now the brunette was every bit as good looking as the blonde, but all of the guys were hitting on the blonde. I guess blondes really do have more fun.

Now to book yourself on shows to be an extra you have to call the casting agency. A lot of times you are on hold or it is busy, so if someone gets a casting agent on the phone, they just pass the phone around and you get on a show. Well my friend got through and after he booked himself, he passed the phone to me and as I was booking myself, the blonde sat down next to me and asked if she could have the phone right after me. She booked herself and went to sit down. She and the brunette were sitting close to me and my three friends. Two of my friends were trying to remember her name, when the brunette leaned over and told us her name. So my friends thanked her and introduced themselves to the brunette. They both stood up and shook her hand. I was sitting a couple of feet further from her and I decided that I there were too many hands coming at her so I played it cool and stayed in my chair.

“I’m Bryan, I am not going to shake your hand, but I’ll just…..” and then it happened.

I had been holding my hand up in a kind of wave and when I finished my sentence I bent my hand at the wrist and gave her the finger pointed like a gun. As soon as I did it I dipped my head in shame and everyone began to laugh at me and ask me why I did that. I could only tell the truth. Because I am a moron. The brunette laughed also, but I could tell that I had become THAT guy once again.

At lunch, my friends and I had a discussion about whether the hand gesture I had given the brunette would be a deal breaker if I had given it to her in a bar, or another “pick-up” situation.

So I asked her when I got back. Both she and the blonde agreed that it was not a total deal breaker, but if a guy did that then he would have dug himself in a hole and would have to do a lot to get out of it.

So I raised me head knowing that I was only a partial moron.

One other funny thing happened that day. The night before we had shot a scene on the catwalk above the club. We were all in a line and two of the principal actors were on one end of the catwalk having a conversation. I was on the other end of the catwalk so you probably couldn’t see me very clearly. The A.D. told us to remember who was on the catwalk so they could match the shot the next day. I was standing next to a guy who was Johnny Talkative the whole night. Every time they told us to be quiet, he would ask me a question about something. Not wanting to get in trouble I would just mumble “I don’t know”. So the next day they announced that we would be matching the catwalk shot from the night before and for everyone who was on the catwalk to go into the sound stage and wait against the wall. I saw Johnny talkative milling around and made sure to steer clear of him until we get up to our positions. Somehow between waiting to go up and actually going up, he disappeared. I was up there and they asked me if anyone else was next to me. Not wanting to get him into trouble I said “No”. They ended up shooting it from a different angle so me, and the guys on my end, were not needed. For some reason I had to know where Johnny Talkative went. I was obsessed with it. But I couldn’t find him. I looked everywhere and he had disappeared. I finally ran into him a couple of hours later. The following is the conversation I had with him.

Me “Hey man, where did you go? We were up on the catwalk and you were supposed to be standing next to me.

Him “Dude, I don’t know what happened”

Me “Oh, because they asked me if there was anyone else up there and I didn’t want to get you in trouble so I didn’t tell them you had been up there last night.

Him “Oh, man. I don’t know where I went”

Me “Cause I saw you right before we went up and I was looking all over for you”

Him “They must have place me someplace else”

Me “Oh, they put you on the floor of the club”

Him “I don’t know. I really can’t answer that. I don’t know where I was”

Me “Oh, cause I kept thinking you must have gotten lost or something”

Him “No. I didn’t get lost, I just don’t know where I was”

Me “You don’t know where you went?”

Him “No. Take it easy dude” Laugh.

Even though I was not satisfied with his answer, I knew that he was incapable of giving me an answer to that question.

I kind of hoped that he snuck off to get high, but I am afraid that he really didn’t know where he was an hour ago.

And that ended my second day on The OC.