Yesterday was fun! In case you don’t keep up with my posts, I got to work as a background actor on “How I Met Your Mother.” I’d have to say this was 10x cooler than Melrose because the actors on this show are actually, not to be rude, well-known actors and have talent.
I got in at noon and we got to watch Neil Patrick do some shirtless scenes (score!). I swear, he makes a woman want to get a sex change. Hottie! Stacy Keibler was a guest star and it was cool to see her in person. She has a fabulous body. Every man in there was staring at her.
So I guess I should jump ahead and get to my point. We had four costume changes and the setting was Manhattan in winter. Considering it’s always at least 65 degrees here, heavy coats are nonexistent in my wardrobe. Therefore I hauled it to the Beverly Center to get a few heavy “winter” items so I could realistically play a bar patron in New York City. The most amusing party of this trip was the “Hunky Santa” spectacle going on. No, regular Santa Claus does not suffice here in Los Angeles — they must have a sexual, shirtless Santa with 12-pack abs and bulging biceps. And elves? Forget about it! They have the candy cane girls (aka chicks in bras and panties) doing contortion and aerial work, suspended from the sky. It truly is a sight to be seen.
Anyway, we shot HIMYM on the 20th Century Fox lot which was AWESOME! I was thrilled to even see a set of that caliber because with Melrose we always go to this po-dunk sound stage in Van Nuys that could be considered the ghetto.
We shot in MacLaren’s Pub where the five main characters always go to chat and hang out. Watching on tv it appears dark and pub-ish; in real life, there are a million lights and cameras. I know I should have been prepared for that but it’s still crazy to see everything “behind the scenes.”
Basically here’s the juicy stuff:
I sat behind Neil and Jason (Segel) for most of the scenes we shot.
I have no idea if you’ll even see me but I’ll warn you guys of the episode when it premieres just in case.
At one point they mention some funny things about a celebrity wanting to be on the show but said they should stop saying stuff like that because a “blogger” was on set. For a second I kind of freaked out and then instantly slapped myself in the face and got a grip, realizing this little horse-and-pony blog is nothing compared to the likes of “real blogs” out here.
Neil is just as charming and funny in person.
Jason was talking about what he was doing when he wasn’t on set: answering phones. I thought that was weird but then overheard him talking about how fun it was to say: “Hey, this is Jason, how may I help you?” and hear people freak out. He mentioned a voicemail he had on his phone in which it directs people to an e-mail, healthtronics@gmail.com. I really didn’t know what this was about, so I came home and told Valentina… and we decided to google it. Lo and behold, this is what he is referring to. Go ahead, call him. We did. It goes straight to voicemail but who knows, maybe you’ll get a personal phone call from him or even an e-mail. DISCLAIMER: he is basically soliciting sex in this song he sings. We were not calling to give him sex, but more allude that we might if he called us back (except not).
Okay. This is the most embarrassing thing of them all. During our second costume change, I checked my cell phone and believed it to be turned off. It is really horrendous and humiliating if your phone goes off during a scene – albeit a lot of the “professional” extras would bring their cell phones on stage which I thought was rude and inappropriate. Turns out an iPhone starts ringing during a scene. They stop production. The director waits until it finishes and then resets the scene. The phone rings again. Except it’s not ringing, it’s an alarm. My alarm. My alarm that will ring even if I turn off my phone because that’s how spectacular the iPhone is… even when it shouldn’t be making a sound, it will! So the guy who was in charge of all of us went upstairs, found my phone, turned it off, brought it down to set and threatened for someone to claim it. I was so terrified that I almost peed my pants. Then the girl in front of me was like, “I think it was my alarm!” And then I’m like, “yeah, me too!” And then all of a sudden the guy comes over after hearing this and asks if it was mine. I asked what type of phone it was and he showed me and I was of course humiliated. He told me everything was fine but to turn off my alarm in the future. He was actually really cool about it and thank God everyone was on a break for that whole interaction because I would have hated to have been called out in front of Neil and the rest of the cast.
Point being? I will always turn my alarm off before I ever hit a stage again.
It was a long day but all in all the cast was phenomenal and appeared to have a close relationship. They were celebrating their 100th episode so that was fun to be a part of!
Kirbie Johnson 