The Episode: The Case of the Cryptic Creature
My Character: Alex, witness to the sea monster
Who My Scene Was With: Shirley
Number of Filming Days: 1
Total Hours Spent on Set: 8

In Episode #23, The Case of The Cryptic Creature, Shirley investigates a supposed river monster, whose baby is stuck in the school's sewer system. I (aka Leslie Wolos) played Alex, an eye witness to the monster, who gives Shirley a description of the monster. I only had to go through one audition for the part, before they called to say I had it. The role was originally to go to a boy, but for some reason, they gave the part to me. *shrug* I wasn't arguing...

September 11, 1997 - Red River, near Brandon St.

At precisely 6:55 AM, I arrived at the set by the river in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. That meant getting up at 5:30 in the morning, since I live in a town outside of Winnipeg. I was taken to my dressing room, which included a couch, a washroom, and a TV. (Talk about feeling important) The wardrobe girl came and showed me what to wear, then at around 7:15, I was taken to the hair and make-up trailer.

The hair lady put my hair in two braids, which looked kind of funny, but I wasn't about to argue. I was called for a rehearsal as soon as she was finished, so my make-up would have to wait.

As I walked down to the docks, I was introduced to Meredith Henderson, who plays Shirley Holmes, and John White, who plays Bo. Both of them are really great - I was surprised to see that John wears braces, though.

Once we arrived at the set, I was introduced to my personal assistant, Alice. Her job was basically to make sure my make-up wasn't shiny, and to help me out if I needed it (she was wonderful). For safety purposes, Meredith and I were given lifejackets before we could walk onto the docks to rehearse. For the first little while, I stood around with Meredith and John, having a little conversation about how much we both love Los Angeles and the Back To The Future Ride at Unversal Studios with John.

After rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing, Meredith, John and I were taken back to hair and make-up. We took turns getting ready to film while we listened to the Tarantino CD. The trailor was covered with hair products, every kind of make-up you could imagine, and pictures of the cast.

Finally, at around 8:00, we were called down to the docks to film. It took us six takes to film the extras walking off of the boat. Then, the cameras had to be moved and we filmed my scene with Meredith and John. It went fairly smoothly, except for once, when we kind of got mixed up as to which lines came first.

We got a break after that, so I sat down in John's chair (it had "Johnny" written on it with "What do you mean Barq's has bite?" above it) and munched on a muffin and drank an apple juice. They had a whole bunch of stuff for the taking set up.

Then we started running through rehearsals for the close-ups. Since the sun had moved, they had to move the camera over, and in order to create the same effect of Meredith standing higher than me, like in the first few takes, Meredith had to stand on a box. It looked rather silly, but on screen, it worked. Filming the close-ups only took 3 takes. Next, they filmed another scene with Shirley and Bo, then we broke for lunch at quarter to one.

Lunch consisted of a buffet, including ribs, rice and veggies. I was quite impressed. I finished with 1/2 an hour to kill until I had to film again, so I wandered over to where Meredith and Annick Obonsawin (she plays Alicia) were sitting on the docks. I sat down and the three of us dangled our feet in the water, talking about our middle names (Meredith's name is Meredith Janet Ann Henderson) and how we like The Tea Party. Then we spotted some ducks, so Annick (who usually gets called Nicki) ran to get some bread for us to feed them.

My last scene was filmed out on the river in the boat. My acting teacher from the previous year, Frank Adamson, was playing Captain Fergie, so it was a lot of fun. We went around and around on the river, pretending to see a monster while they filmed us. Then, it was all over and I checked out at 4:00 in the afternoon.