Hey fans! Mike here. More stories from my journey called LIFE!!!! So today we had the wrap party for "Trust Me" (I flew in from Vancouver where I will be filming Alien: Genesis for the next 6 weeks, just for the day). It was awesome and very sad and emotional for all of us. I have never bonded so much with a cast and crew in my career. Everyone got incredibly close (maybe too close LOL...but I will discuss that at a later time lol). This was definitely a very strange, fun, and CRAZY shoot, to say the least. So many things went down and we had so many obstacles yet we soldiered through them and got the film made.First off, our director Deirdre O'Hara had to leave the project during pre-production after learning she and her husband were expecting a child. This is their first baby (she is in her 50's) and she has been trying to have children for FOREVER and finally has (I have known her for YEARS, always meeting for potential projects, mainly back in 2003 through 2007). I am sooo happy for her. She promoted the writer of the film, Kathleen Roberts (Eric Roberts' daughter, Julia Roberts' niece) to direct. At first she was nervous but she took on the task like a champ! Kat (my nickname for her) was so confident, poised, mature, and prepared. Even though she is only 29 years old and never directed a feature before, she carried herself as if she's been doing this forever. She is so smart and talented it is scary. And she has BIG plans for herself. She wants to make one more film, a sci-fi action thriller, then she will be going into politics. She wants to be the first female U.S. President. She is already going to law school. She is AMAZING (not to mention breathtakingly gorgeous, but that's another story lol).
The shoot was plagued with problems from start to finish. Deirdre's Irish crew stayed on after she left, but that quickly changed when the low budget film ran out of money. Half way through production, we suddenly realized we only had enough funds for principal photography and nothing else. Meaning all cast and crew that stayed on would continue to work for free (including myself). Most of my time on set was hanging around behind the scenes and gaining weight and I did not shoot my brief footage until the end of July so I did not mind. I promised Deirdre and Kat I'd see the project through and I did. But many on the crew could not make that sacrifice, even if they wanted to. None of them were legal American citizens and were only here on work visas, but if you are not getting paid, then technically you are not "working". Sadly, one by one the Irish crew members all started quitting and leaving back to Ireland. One of the few to stay on was Neve O'Reilly who has duel citizenship and I found out she is an actress as well. We became close friends and partied alot together. I got her a role in my Oliver Stone film "The Devil's Double". Anyway, we had to replace them with very inexperienced local people willing to work for nothing. We even had some actors helping out as crew at certain points. It felt like a student film at times lol. This slowed down and complicated production heavily. It's so interesting to go from big studio films that have more money than GOD...to a shoot like this. It definitely gives you perspective on how far you've come.
Also, we went through three different DP's. The first cinematographer Vanessa Chang left around the time we lost our money citing a "family emergency" as the cause. We originally suspected it was just an excuse she made up and that the lack of pay was really the issue. We were wrong. It turned out she really did have a death in the family afterall. Our second D.P. Kyle Brachmann took over, but she did not last long. It was around this time Kat came down with pnuemonia and missed 3 weeks of filming. Her boyfriend (and the film's co-producer) J.L. Bayez (whom I became INCREDIBLY tight with) took over as co-director while she was out, sharing directing duties with DP Kyle. When Kat returned it was clear she rushed her recovery just to be there to finish the shoot but she was obviously not 100%. She could hardly walk upstairs without being out of breath and often would have coughing fits where she had to be sent off set to rest for a while and get hooked up to a machine that helped her breath. At this point Kyle took it upon herself to take a little too much control of things and both Kat and J.L. realized Kyle was trying too hard to be "in charge" of the film. She was fired and we promoted young and energetic camera assistant Morgan Matlock to D.P. He spent much of the shoot making everyone laugh but he turned out to be an inspired choice as cinematographer and took on the job with great work ethic. He was efficient and made everyone wish he was the D.P. all along. Kat and J.L. "co-directed" the film together for the final weeks of the shoot.
But the film wasn't all hard times and struggle. We had an INSANE amount of fun, especially during the first half of the shoot while I was still gaining weight, Kat was healthy, and the Irish crew was still on board. Those Irish sure know how to party (and drink). Despite the dark tone of this very serious film, we found ways to keep it light on set and to be honest....I have NEVER been around so much sex and debauchery on a movie set...IN MY LIFE! I mean, EVERYONE was hooking up with EVERYONE! Literally. Even people who were in relationships. Not sure how much I can talk about but it was insane. There was also these two Turkish guys who act in the film, my character I play works for them. Their characters run a torture porn site. Well lets just say they were so intense and got so into character, even off camera, that it scared people who were not sure if they were just "acting" or not lol. I even had a weird on set rivalry with one of the actresses who plays the high school bitchy popular girl. We got along fine the first week or so of filming but a Facebook request that clearly was taken the wrong way (maybe she thought I was making a move? lol) suddenly made things awkward between us and we found ourselves avoiding each other on set and playing very weird and crude pranks on each other. I'm 27 years old. I should be above these childish games. People who act like she did will not last long in this industry. Grow up people! I regret stooping to her level.
All in all, despite the drama, we all really had such a great time and it is a shame everyone has to go their separate ways. Meeting Shaenece Richards was a honor and she is going to have such a tremendous career. Jennifer Lawrence too. Great actress and very interesting gal. One thing is for sure...this film changed my life as did the people I met while filming it. I hope I can work with Miss Roberts again and I pray that she, J.L. and I can remain friends for some time, but as these things go in Hollywood, a film set is like a forced family where you bond for 3 months just so you can get it all done, then never see each other again and I know from experience how hard it can be to think you really found a friend but it was all fake. Hopefully that isn't the case here. Definitely more stories to come from this one soon...but until then I am off to outer space with Ridley, Charlize, Bradley, Anya, Idris, and the gang for a while. Also, I hope you all enjoyed the If I Had You trailer. Can't wait for you all to see that film this October. Peace!
Til next time,
-The Chameleon
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