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Courtroom scene from "Body of Evidence". |
| Lillian Lehman is the judge, and Willem Dafoe is the attorney. I'm a juror in the back row, 4th from the left of the picture. |
I mentioned earlier that the head shot that was taken by a photographer turned out 99% of the time to be not of much value in obtaining work. The one exception was when I was cast for the feature film "Body of Evidence". Kathy called me and told me that my head shot was sent, along with several others, to the director of "Body of Evidence", Uli Edel. They were looking for 12 extras to be jurors in the courtroom scenes of the film. I was subsequently called and told that I was selected to be on the jury. It was a call that would require my full time work for about three weeks.
The funny thing about me spending three weeks playing a juror in this movie is that I had actually been called to jury duty just before getting this assignment. I had my jury duty postponed until after the work was completed.
As it turned out, I averaged 14 hours a day, 5 days a week from Monday, May 4, 1992 through Friday, May 22, 1992. "Body of Evidence" was a movie starring Madonna and Willem Dafoe. The scenes I was in were courtroom scenes where I was one of twelve jurors. Madonna was the defendant accused of murder and Willem Dafoe was her attorney. It was an intense three weeks, as all the scenes shot during that time were courtroom scenes. The jurors didn't have to be on the set all the time, because the scenes were shot from many angles, some of which didn't include the jury. Quite a few extras besides the jury were there from time to time during the three weeks, mostly as courtroom spectators, bailiffs, a court clerk, and a court reporter. Since we were working so many days in a row, we got to know each other better than on most shows.
The atmosphere on the set was typical for a feature film. Feature films generally have big budgets and spend a lot of money, except when it comes to extras, where they pinch pennies. "Body of Evidence" was no exception. Scenes are shot many times in comparison to TV, so the work could get tedious. Extras were isolated in a holding area when not being used, and the holding area was far enough away from the set where we didn't have to worry constantly about being quiet. The cast was reasonably friendly, except for Madonna, who was always accompanied by a bodyguard. Except for the long hours and days without a break, it was not unpleasant, especially in comparison to "Dave", which I'll discuss in detail in the Chapter 9.
Madonna was isolated in her trailer at all times when she was not actually working. Her bodyguard escorted her back and forth between her trailer and the set. I got a chance to talk to the bodyguard during the lunch break one day, as we were both in line at the commissary. He was an off duty police officer who was hired to serve as Madonna's bodyguard only for the scenes shot at Culver Studios, which is where the courtroom scenes were shot. He did not particularly like being Madonna's bodyguard, but said he could use the extra money. The only time she did let her hair down was the time that I mentioned in Chapter 5 where the extra took a picture of her. I was told that Madonna didn't even greet the stand-in who replaced her when scenes and lighting were being set up. She used salty language as a matter of course, but no worse than some other people on other shows. On one day her ex husband, Sean Penn, came to the set for a visit. He sat through the shooting of a scene and went with Madonna to her trailer during the lunch break. This was the only time I saw her walking around away from the set without her bodyguard.
The biggest surprise to me about Madonna was that from my untrained eyes she seemed to be a much better actor than I had thought she would be. She messed up once in a while like all actors do, but she knew her lines and seemed well prepared for the scenes. She took direction well, handling constructive criticism from the director with apparent humility. What particularly impressed me was that Madonna was able to shed real tears in a scene where she was supposed to break down and cry on the witness stand. Actually she did it for two or three takes one evening before she said she couldn't do it any more that day. The next morning she was able to resume the crying scene.
One of the friendliest actors on the show was Lillian Lehman, who played the judge. She has often played a judge on TV and in the movies. I heard that she ran an acting school when she wasn't acting. She always made it a point to visit with the extras, particularly the jurors. When the extras had pizza brought in for lunch during the last day, Lillian was the only actor that joined us, which I thought was beyond the call of duty and very nice. She posed for pictures that day with anyone who wanted them. It turns out that I had worked on a TV movie, "In My Daughter's Name", on which she had also worked. I was in one scene in that movie as a highway patrolman investigating an automobile accident in which a character played by Donna Mills was involved. Lillian played a psychiatrist in the same movie. I had a tape of that movie, which she borrowed to take home to show a friend.
One of the things that affected me during these three weeks was that I had double vision due to what turned out to be a "vascular accident" on the Saturday before I was to report to the set. What I subsequently learned from doctors was that it was similar to a minor stroke except that instead of a broken blood vessel in the brain, it was a broken blood vessel on a nerve in the eye. I had to wear a patch so I could focus without double vision. I removed the patch when I was on camera, but the worst part of it is that I was sensitive about how cross eyed I looked. I even asked Willem Dafoe at one point if my drifting eye had been distracting to him when he was addressing the jury. He replied that he hadn't noticed it. It was probably not that apparent to others as long as they didn't concentrate on my eyes for a period of time. I finally was able to see a doctor after this job was finished and learned that the double vision would go away by itself over five or six months but that I needed to control my blood pressure.
Two of the extras on the jury performed above and beyond the call of duty, and I don't think their efforts were adequately recognized by the powers that be. Both had valid reasons for missing quite a bit of work and yet went out of their way to be responsible and show up when needed. The reason it was important to have the same people there is that five days of courtroom activity were being shot, not necessarily in chronological order. The same jurors had to be there, you couldn't have them being replaced and then returning, because that is not how the use of alternate jurors works.
One of them was a man named Tim, who happened to be the son of Jeanne Crain. Jeanne Crain was a glamorous actress who had starred in several movies during the late 1940's and possibly the early 1950's. Tim came into work one morning and told us that his brother had committed suicide. Nevertheless he showed up for work and didn't miss any work except for the hour or so that the funeral took place. They worked around his absence by only shooting shots that included the jury from a distance. They had another extra, who was similar in size to Tim, sit in his place. In fact I was complimented for leaning forward at one point and "hiding" Tim's replacement, although I hadn't done it on purpose. Tim's niece, the daughter of his deceased brother, accompanied him to the set after the funeral, and was subsequently cast as an extra. Tim felt that would help divert her mind from the tragedy. I've heard that she later became a regular extra on "Baywatch".
The other was a man named Tony, who was a long time member of SAG and AFTRA that had worked in radio and done voice-overs during a long and varied career. Tony's mother had a heart attack which, as I learned later, eventually resulted in her death. Tony also missed very little work and got very little sleep, spending most of his non working hours with his mother. He was replaced during the little bit of time he did miss by the chauffeur for the director, Uli Udell. This driver had an amazing resemblance to Tony.
Because these two showed a great sense of dedication and responsibility during difficult times, the movie saved thousands of dollars by not incurring the cost of re-shooting scenes with different jurors, should these two have had to be replaced. Although every effort was made to accommodate them, I don't believe their effort was adequately recognized. After all, they were just extras.
Another thing I remember about Tony was that one day the AD came looking for him and said that Madonna had asked for him specifically to provide an eyeline for her when she was being filmed in a close-up on the witness stand. Tony was surprised and pleased when this happened.
I probably could say something about all of the other jurors, as they were all interesting people. I worked on subsequent jobs with many of them. But I'll limit further discussion of these jurors to two, although I may refer to others in later chapters.
One was Peter, a member of SAG who was selected to be the jury foreman. Peter was a retired actor who would read the verdict at the end of the trial. From the point of his reading the verdict he would have to be paid at the rate that day players, or actors, get, which is more than ten times what extras get. Before that they only had to pay him extras pay. For that reason they intentionally made the reading of the verdict the last day. Peter was quite annoyed by this tactic, which he considered to be chintzy.
The other was Paula, a young and attractive brunette. Paula's husband was an actor who had been a regular on the TV show "All My Children". She got a lot of attention from the cast and crew and as a result some of the other female jurors resented her. She seemed to be able to have some privileges the rest of us didn't have, such as changing clothes and relaxing in a private trailer, while the rest of us hung out in the holding area and changed clothes in whatever nook and cranny we could find. I personally liked Paula, as I liked all the jurors. Months later, while working at Universal Studios on a sitcom, I saw Paula. She told me she had a speaking role as a cocktail waitress on "Married With Children". I later watched the show, and apparently her lines had been edited out, because she was there as a cocktail waitress, but none of her lines were heard on the air.
Other things were going on at the studio while we were there, most notably a Pepsi commercial. Michael Jackson was there, and it amused me that some of the older female extras that were working with Madonna every day were awe struck when they saw him. I saw him twice, once as he walked by, surrounded by bodyguards. The other time, he was by himself driving a little cart with some children in it. I was walking down the alley toward the rest room as he drove toward me. When he saw me he turned his vehicle around and went the other way. Later he drove his cart by our holding area, waving to the women who were yelling "Hi, Michael". A few times Michael Jackson's double walked by all by himself, a contrast with Michael and his entourage.
Also working on the Pepsi Commercial was supermodel Cindy Crawford, whom I hadn't heard of at the time. One day Tim, the juror I discussed earlier, came back to the holding area excited because he had run across her and asked her to have a picture taken with him. Tim proudly displayed the Polaroid of Cindy and himself.
Since we were shooting five days of courtroom scenes, we had to have five changes of clothing that had been pre-approved by wardrobe. Usually we only had to have at the most two or three changes on any given day. Because of the long days that provided no opportunity to go the cleaners, wardrobe took care of cleaning and laundry when necessary. They have overnight cleaning services available.
On the last day we had to have all five changes with us. The reason for this was that they were planning to end by shooting a lot of close ups of the jury. I wasn't looking forward to this because it meant constantly changing clothes in the evening when we were all tired. During a break from this shooting Willem Dafoe asked us if any of us had ever been on real jurors. I responded that I had been on the jury of a murder case, and I think one other had been on a jury. Dafoe asked about our experiences and related his experience of sitting in a New York courtroom for a month in preparation for this role.
As it turned out the location manager cut off the close up shooting after only two changes of clothes. They wrapped early because the cost of paying the crew a lot more overtime was becoming excessive. I had mixed emotions, sorry about not getting more close ups, but tired and ready to go home without having to change clothes any more. Thus my longest continuous single job ended.
This page was last updated on September 13, 2003
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