By Jessica Ostrander
Last June I had a unique opportunity to be featured in a minor role in the soon to be released film "Surrogates". I worked on set with the director Jonathan Mostow who selected me because of my background in physical theater and mime training.
I played the role of a out dated surrogate model employed as a meter maid who tickets cars as comic relief for the film. Working in costume with a mask designed by the special effects artist Howard Berger (who also worked on the FX for Chronicles of Narnia) proved to be a fun challenge.
Since the film has not yet been released I will not know if my scene made the cut until it comes out in theaters on September 25, 2009. The experience was very cool. I had an all expense paid trip to Boston for five days, worked in two location in downtown Boston, met several actors in the film, and got to rub shoulders with some really cool professionals in the film industry.
Howard Berger was probably the coolest. He took me under his wing as the newbie and showed me around. I didn't interact with the other actors on camera but was able to meet them off camera. When I was being directed on camera for multiple shots, as a instinct I didn't drop character between takes, to the amusement of everyone on set.
Working on film is a lot different than working on stage. The adrenaline rush that comes with performing for a live audience in a theater is completely absent. "Hurry up and wait" is the mantra of working on set. My favorite part: The food! Everything was exquisitely catered on set, and off set we ate at the Harvard Club, a definite highlight.
Plot of Surrogates (2009): Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop (Bruce Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.
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