|
PROLOGUE: Friday, September 14, 1984
After a stop at my local all-night bookstore for emergency literature,
I was up packing until the limousine picked me up at 6:30 AM.
I shared the limo with Keith Charles, Janet League, and Kim Hamilton.
We all made the plane and were greeted with dinner (your choice
of Curried Chicken L'Aeroplane or Mystery Fish) and the movie.
Since I had not slept for a day or two, I was dozing soon after
the opening credits, and the last thing I remember was Doris
day and Jimmy stewart riding in some sort of cart in a foreign
country. It was to be a prophetic image. I also slept through
the Bermuda Triangle.
At the Marriott Hotel (Sam Lord's Castle),
I unpacked my 24 books, 26 tapes, Walkman, speakers, clock, watercolors,
blank books, scripts, stuffed doll and framed photographs. (I
had not yet learned that life as I knew it ran on batteries and
that Barbados has very bad battery Karma. I ran out within three
days.)
Day 1: Saturday, September 15
I acquainted myself with the Marriott complex in daylight, swam
in two out of three pools, ate in the Wanderer Restaurant (the
name makes sense when you try to find the place), watched Susie
Pratt and Jay Hammer run screaming around the grounds followed
by a camera crew on golf carts and some familiar faces from the
studio, as perplexed hotel guests looked on. Hours later, John
(Whitesell)-the director, told Michael Woods and me that our
big scene was rescheduled for eight days later. That left us
with one quick scene to be shot with the two of us, plus Greg
Beecroft.
Wandering early down to the set, I had
to convince one of the crew that I was indeed part of the show.
Then I was accosted by a vacationing 5-year-old. "Are you
going to be an actress?" she asked. "Just between us,"
I said, "I thought I already was one." The scene was
jogging towards the beach where I found Khin-Kyaw Maung dozing
in the sunset and heard those three magic words behind me: "It's
a wrap."
Day 2: Sunday, September 16
I awoke at 3:45 Am and went for a swim. (I thought about my dream
that night, which was that I'd ordered a typwriter from Room
service and they'd sent a miniature non-electric with all the
keys out of order.) After hair and makeup, we were driven by
bus to our first site. Breakfast-out-of-a-bus was fairly inedible,
but at that hour, who's hungry? Once there, David-the-Costume-Designer
and I discussed shoes. Survival won out over fashion, and Annabelle's
high heels were traded for Harley's New Balance running shoes.
All morning Michael and I sprinted down
a dirt road, with Carrie Nye and Khin-Kyaw close behind, driving
on the wrong side of the road witha right-handed steering wheel.
On one take Michael tripped, rolling to the side of the road.
I stood still, stopping right in the path of the oncoming car.
Carrie skidded to a halt a few feet from me. Scared for Michael,
I was unaware of the danger to me, but Carrie was to have recurring
nightmares after that of running over her friends.
After lunch we moved the equipment to the
cane field, where I spent the next several hours on my stomach
in the mud. I'd missed the lecture on Bugs Indigenous To Sugar
cane, so I catnapped, unaware between scenes until the crew got
worried and came over to rescue me. At sundown Michael and I
were running through the field hard, our shoes picking up seven
pounds of mud apiece, far away from camera nd crew. As we crashed
to the ground for the sixth time, we found we just couldn't get
back up. Looking at each other in despare, we thought, there's
gotta be an easier way to make a living.
Day 3: Monday, September 17
I awoke at 3:30 AM after some four hours of sleep. We were bused
to a new site--the church and graveyard. Between scenes, I dozed
on the gravestones, apologizing to the 18th-century corpses whose
eternal rest I was disturbing. Carrie, however, was using the
tombs as though they were chaise lounges, posing for Mario-the-Still-Photographer.
My most vivid impression was of the local actor portraying the
donkey cart driver. It was his first TV appearance, and he was
freaking out. Again and again we reheared his lines with him,
until even the chickens and donkey had them memorized. "Since
you have come ot the island, nothing is the same. Since you have
come to the island, nothing is the same." Later, dressed
as a nun, I played soccer with the Bajan ("Bajan" means
"from barbados") equivlent of Boy Scouts, as the light
faded fast. By the time John yelled, "It's a wrap,"
it was dark.
|
Day 4: Tuesday, September 18
When my alarm went off at 1 AM after four hours of sleep, I was
not as crackers as you might think. It was as though it were
wartime, and we all had to be brave. Confronted with Sue-of-Makeup
and Debbie-of-Hair, who remained cheerful on less sleep than
I'd had, what choice was there? We were shooting the romantic
beach scenes in the dark between Michael and me. When we weren't
being attacked by the ocean waves and sharp coral, we were being
roasted by the fire, but still, these were my favorite acting
memories on Barbados.
Day 5: Wednesday, September, 19
I awoke at 3:45 AM, and after changing into a nun, arrived at
the day's site--the crane Beach Hotel. After running up and down
a lot of steps and dodging a gang of spiders, my scariest moment
came, jumping off a cliff into the ocean. Gail-out-Producer offered
to jump in first, and Debbie stood by with a Harley wig, ready
to jump in for me, but it became a matter of honor to do it myself.
Michael, unafraid of heights, made it easy for me in the end--he
just grabbed my hand and pulled me with him. Susie and Jay took
over then, shooting their pool fantasy all night, but several
of us got to return early to the Marriott. I was to meet Carrie
at the Wanderer for dinner, but I made the fatal mistake of lying
down on my bed for just a minute--and the rest, as they say,
is history.
|
|
Day 9: Sunday, September 23
Wet again. Back in the ocean, having a particularly rough time
being washed ashore take after take, Michael and I at one point
bashed our skulls together. What made it challenging was that
Jim and Annabelle were supposedly having the time of their lives.
We got a chance to recover later when they shot Claire and Fletcher's
shipwreck party. Carrie Nye was determined to crash the party,
and showed up at my room that night disguised as Lena Horne.
I threw on a jumpsuit with palm trees on it that I rarely have
occassion (or the nerve) to wear, added a large hat and sunglasses,
and together we found our way to the party. The 70 Marriott guest
extras were having a good time, but the crew and production staff
were having a GREAT time, dressed primarily in coconuts, bannanas,
etc. Lena Horne was a big hit, and soon they were into a rousing
rendition of "Goatbusters." ("When you're comatose
on barbados, who do you call? Goatbusters! Baaa-baaa.")
I ate something that violently disagreed with me, so I returned
to my room and novel. "Little Gloria--Happy at last"
and read until 4AM, then dreamed all night of dolls and Vanderbilts.
Day 10: Monday, September 24
This was the big Cave Day. So big, in fact, that by dinnertime,
some scenes were cut due to lack of time. Among those cut were
the scenes where Annabelle is terrorized by killer crabs. You
can imagine my disappointment. The cave itself was incredibly
beautiful and nearly impossible to shoot. The climactic event
was the fight to the death between tony and John Young, which
Greg and Khin-Kyaw had been choreographing for days. By that
time, however, carrie, Debbie and I were back at the Marriott,
having our own wrap party.
Epilogue: Wednesday, September 26
I got a wakeup call at 7 AM from the technical crew to join them
on the beach. I'd had three hours of sleep, and hadn't begun
to pack for the 9 AM bus, but I considered my priorities carefully,
then threw on my swimsuit. BWIA was, eleven days later, still
flying, which we took to be a good omen. The food was the same
(why mess with success?) and once again I chose curried Chicken
L'Aeoroplane and left it untouched. Once again I fell asleep
as Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart rode off in a cart, and when I
asoke, Doris was being interrupted in the middle of "Que
Sera, Sera" so that we could land. The crew was hurling
empty Crackerjack boxes (provided by Richard-the-Set-Designer)
at the screen. My Crackerjack prize had been a "fortune"
which read: SOMEBODY'S ABOUT TO TELL YOU WHAT IT ALL MEANS. I'm
still waiting.
|
