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Episode #35, The Case of the Real Fake has Shirley trying to figure out if popular rock star Jake Bain is actually fake, like a new book with a mysterious author is claiming him to be. I played the president of Jake's fan club who was paid by the supposed author to protest against her. Day 1 - August 18th, 1998 - St. John's Ravenscourt School I arrived on location at 8:15 (my call time was for 8:45). Neither Meredith or John were there yet. I found the AD, Richard, and he pointed to my dressing room, which was the same one I had last time. (Cool, huh?) I changed into my costume, which consisted of a slinky purple dress with a matching sweater, big blue sandal-type shoes, and enough jewellery to sink a ship. After I was dressed and ready to go, I headed over to hair & make-up, which was in the trailor next door. They had different people in charge of hair & make-up this year. My hair was brushed and sprayed to avoid fly-aways, then my make-up was applied. I had purple lipstick and a lot more make-up than I usually wear. Yuck. I was ready to go much earlier than I was needed, so my mom and I sat in my dressing room to wait, since it had begun to drizzle outside. Not too much later, John poked his head in the door. (You must remember that their are 3 dressing rooms per trailor, all joined by a small hallway) He called out "Richard?" and I told him that he had just left. John smiled and said hi. I could hear Meredith's voice in the make-up and hair trailor beside me when Richard came to get me. He told me to head over to the mini-van which would take me to the set. I rode over with the lady who played Constance Quick (Jennifer Clement) and the guy who was playing Axel, the guy from Loose Lips magazine (Ernesto Griffith - he has the coolest hair). By the time we got to the set, it was raining, so a tarp had been set up. I went to go and sit under it, but the chair was wet. A crew member saw my predicament and immediately called out, "Could somebody get a piece of plastic for the actress to sit on? We need a piece of plastic - the chair is wet!" Another crew member responded by bringing over a piece of plastic and covering my chair with it. He also had a raincoat in his hand, which he wrapped around me. I felt so bad for making them go to such trouble! My scene was first up, so I headed over to the set to start filming. Everything went pretty fast, and I didn't really get to talk to either Meredith or John. I spoke briefly to Meredith while they were setting up - we talked a bit about how stupid I always look on the show and what we've been up to. Then she headed off to grab a drink. We filmed the scene in sections - first they got Constance coming out of the "hotel" (it's actually a school), then they filmed a close-up of John and Meredith, then they did close-ups on me. I was so excited - for the first time on Shirley Holmes, I had my own close-up! Last time, they only had shots of both me and Meredith. I had a break inbetween a couple of scenes, so I went over to talk to my mom, who was sitting by another lady. I thought nothing of it and chatted with them both for a while, then when the other lady got up to get a drink, my mom told me that was Meredith's mom. The two of them had been talking for a couple of hours now - I thought that was so cool. Meredith's mom has short blondish-brown hair and is very nice. They then filmed just my hands as a handed out the money - $20 bills, since they're green. I had to cover the money as best as I could, since the show is broadcast all over the world and they couldn't show it was Canadian money. My scene for the day was done all too quickly at around 10:30. The mini-van took me back to my dressing room and I got changed. I saw Meredith walking around and tried to yell 'Bye' to her, but she didn't hear me. Then I left. Day 2 - August 23, 1998 - The Shirley Holmes Studio 5 days later, I was on the set again, this time at the actual Shirley Holmes studios. I walked onto the lot (where the trailors are set up) to find a few of the actors sitting around, waiting, including Sarah Ezer and Thomas Milburn, who plays Casey Zee (I was also in a production of Hamlet with him). John's sister Andrea was there, as well as Sarah's guardian. I introduced myself and so did they. Richard came around and showed me to my dressing room, which was different from the last day. It was bigger this time, and it took up half the trailor. I was right across from John's trailor. (he has one to himself) Things were running late, so I ended up sitting with Sarah and Thomas for about 3 hours before we broke for lunch. Lunch was served right in the studio building. I had to put on a "lunch shirt" so that my wardrobe wouldn't get messed up, and we (being the actors) got to get our food first. I sat down at a table with Meredith, Sarah, Thomas, and a few other people. A man sat down in front of me. "You look really familiar . . . " he said to me, "Oh, wait, you're the girl with the webpage, right?" I nodded, very surprised that he knew that, and slightly worried about what he'd say. "It's a good page," he told me. Then he smiled. "I'm Meredith's dad. My name's Mark." I almost choked. I was sitting with Meredith's dad! My mom and I talked a bit with him, as well as with Nikki's (Alicia) mom, who sat down with us later. Nikki very often would come by to ask her mom something. The producer of the show, Norma Bailey (who also happens to be my best friend's cousin and my boyfriend's family's friend - small world, isn't it?) also joined us, although she didn't seem too interested in talking with us. John waved to me from across the lunch room, and that was pretty much the extent of my contact with him that day. For some reason, he always seemed to dissapear between takes. After I was done lunch, I stopped to talk to Kathy Driscoll (the casting director), then I headed off to get my hair & make-up re-done. Meredith was standing around the make-up trailor when I got there, so I chatted with her a bit. My mom came over and asked if she could take a picture of us, and we both agreed, but Meredith added, "I gotta stand on a stair - I'm too short!". So, she climbed up on the stairs of the make-up tralor, we put our arms around each other, and my mom stapped the picture. Then, I was called in to get my hair & make-up fixed. The guy who plays Jake was in there, too, along with the girl who plays Janie, and we had an interesting conversation about Jimi Hendrix. Finally, after waiting around for about 4 hours, we were called onto the set. The Shirley Holmes studio basically looks like a huge warehouse. There's the attic set, the kitchen set, and the Quazar cafe, with a big waiting area in the middle. We (being myself, Sarah, and Annick, and sometimes Meredith, but she was off visting other people a lot) sat on director's chairs in the waiting area until they were ready for us. Meredith and John each had chairs with their names on it, and so did Nikki (but hers was done by hand with tape) but Sarah and I had chairs that simply said "Cast".
To the left is the Quazar Cafe set being created, and that structure in the picture to the right is the attic We were shooting on the Quarzar cafe set, which is blocked off from the rest of the sets. It was pretty cramped, 'cause the set isn't very big, and there's a lot of crew to cram in there. I didn't have any lines in this scene, so I just walked where they told me to, then headed back over to the waiting area. I was needed again a while later, so I went back and again just walked where I was told to. After that, Sarah and I had a reeeally long wait until they need us again. It was supper time, and Meredith, Annick, and Sarah had already asked someone to get them food from Burger King (Meredith bit into her burger, then reacted with "EW!!!! Oh my God, I just bit into a tomatoe . . . ", then she picked the tomatoes off) so they were eating, but I hadn't known I could've gotten a burger too, so I was sitting there and was really hungry. Meredith's dad heard me mention I was hungry, so he told me that all I had to do was ask for some food. So, I headed over to Richard and asked if I could have a sandwhich. He told me sure, and asked what kind I wanted. I asked for my options and he told me "Whatever you want." I decided on turkey. A few minutes later, my sandwhich was delivered to me, slightly toasted and wrapped in tinfoil. Talk about service! We sat around for a long time, Sarah napping, Meredith reading The Memoirs of Cleopatra, and me flipping through a magazine. It turns out they didn't need us again, so we had sat there waiting for nothing. It was around 8:15 when we finally went home.
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