I won the 2008 Dexter Walk-On Role competition.
Some weeks later, I received a letter from an agency to say I was the potential winner. Just fill in some legal forms. I did that, and soon after they said I won! I would be informed about a month before I would go on. They said I could bring a friend. I asked around and my friend Suzanne said she loved the show so when I invited her, she was thrilled.
Finally, the week before, they said it would be the 29th and I would stay in the hotel the night before. The day came and they picked me up in a stretch limo! (Note my cool Sketchers 'skull' shoes in the photo - click to enlarge.) It was a great ride through the Hollywood hills and the hotel was fancy indeed. I took a stroll down Rodeo Drive and bought a nice bright pink top from one of the more reasonably priced stores.
The day arrives!Next morning, I packed and had a fancy breakfast at the hotel. At around 11am I was dropped off by a town car at the side gate of Sunset Gower Studios. I called my contact and he took me to an office where I filled out some W2 forms and non-union form. I asked him if it will be a victim role and he said "No only walking role." I guess if I were to be a victim it would have probably been real acting role. He then instructed me to go round the side to where the wardrobe trailer was.
WardrobeI stood in line for my costume, had to wait for the regular extras to get theirs first because they had pre-organized clothing for the different 'days' of the production. I met a few other extras, most of whom were going to be detectives and cops. I did recognize a couple from the show.
Then suddenly the earthquake happened! The wardrobe trailer was rocking left and right like a banshee and the door closed shut on the wardrobe woman! People were discussing it even while it was still going on, the event lasting around 10 seconds or so. One of them asked me if I'd experienced others in LA because they'd recognized my Australian accent. I replied that I had 2 previous times. The fact that there was an earthquake whilst I was on the Dexter shoot was an event to remember indeed!
The wardrobe woman gave me some khaki capris and also gave me a striped handbag. I got to wear my own pink top I bought on Rodeo Drive. She loved my skull shoes so I got to keep them too.
I finally caught a glimpse of the main actors as they came out of their trailers and milled around - Jennifer Carpenter, Lauren Velez, David Zayas and Rita's little boy Preston Bailey. I also saw a couple of little people whom I thought were from another show.
Studio 16I was introduced to the PA and he took me inside when the outside beacon light stopped flashing.
I met up with Suzanne and watched the action in Rita's House set. We viewed the shoot from outside the actual set, in a tented monitor area. There was Michael.C.Hall (Dexter) acting out a scene with Jimmy Smits (Miguel). We noticed immediately how good Michael.C.Hall was. He performed his lines without a hitch and even varied them a bit to give the director choices to work with. The technicians gave us both some directors chairs up close to the monitors so we could view it better. It was as if we were watching a Dexter episode, over and over!
Lunch
At 1:12pm we broke for lunch and walked to the cafe. Michael informed us we had to be back at 2:12 - funny how he was so exact about it. I ordered a club sandwich and an ice lemon tea. Some of the extras were at the table. They asked us if we had recognized them and I said I remember the older guy who looked like a detective. When our lunch arrived, my sandwich was so tall they were betting I couldn't get my mouth around it. I had to split it in two to eat it. We also spoke to the lighting guys (gaffers).
After lunch we went back to Rita's House set and walked round to the entrance to watch them set up the lighting and camera. They were using stand-ins for Michael and Jimmy. Earlier I had wondered why one of the guys looked just like Michael. I thought he was a stunt guy!
We walked round the back of the house and to our surprise, saw the two little people I had seen before in the beds! The guy said "Get out, we're working!" - He was joking, because they were both in bed!
The stand-ins moved out and Michael.C.Hall and Jimmy Smits moved to their marks and rehearsed the scene.
We ventured around the side of the set and sat next to the Director and Script Supervisor. Here, we could view the actual shots in the monitors. There was also a guy sitting next to us with his own monitor. We asked him what he did and he replied he was the focus puller and used a remote device and viewed focus through the monitor.
The scene took hours because apparently it was one of the pivotal scenes of the season!
Finally the scene was over and Suzanne had to leave. Her husband was there to pick her up, and they were off to the hotel to enjoy the second night's stay. It was now around 5pm.
Police Station SetI followed everyone into the set. I saw out Dexter's blood splatter lab - cool! Most of the extras were to walk down the aisles to serve as background traffic while the scene was shot. I met a few of them and recognized others from lunch. I also met a couple of women dressed as detectives who looked familiar and a guy who was playing scrabble on his cell phone.
The Second Unit Director and I discussed my walk-on role. He said I was to follow Dexter down the corridor. "How about we make you a visitor, going to meet someone. You'll need a visitor's card." He took me to the Props guy who had someone give me a clip-on visitor's card. The Props guy was a cool bloke and we got chatting. I mentioned to him that I used to be a Props person on a kid's TV show back in Australia called "Humphrey". He said he knew that show - but was only kidding.I also met the Practical Special FX guy and we discussed FX work and he showed me some amazing quicktime videos of stuff he'd taken during his time on film productions. There were cars smashing into each other, explosions and cars shooting up ramps and flipping over. He said this job was really cool too because it was so relaxing, working the elevator doors.
I watched them do a scene in a meeting room where Lauren Velez explains a case which they have to work on. Also present were Michael. C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, David Zayas and C.S. Lee.
I approached David Zayas and tell him who I was and why I was there. He said "Hi, I'm David" and shook my hand. He was friendly to me thereafter which was nice.
Finally, my shot was ready to go! I had to simply wait for Michael. C. Hall to walk past, then count 3 seconds and I followed behind him. After several takes, the shot was done! It was the end of the day and we finished at 9pm - a long day indeed!
End of DayI went to the wardrobe dept. and dropped off the pants and handbag, then went over to the side entrance and handed in my work forms. Finally the limo came to pick me up and took me back to Burbank.
Finally the limo came to pick me up and took me back to Burbank.
I never got a chance to have anyone sign autographs for me which was a little disappointing as I had brought some awesome props for them to sign. The first are some Ice Truck Killer chunks and below is one of the bone saws used on set. But the opportunity to see everyone doing what they do best was a privilege in itself.
So, if you want to see my 15 seconds of fame - check out episode 5 "Turning Biminese" of the 3rd season of Dexter!
A BIG THANKS goes to Showtime for the fantastic prize and to Matt Bonatti for doing all the legwork to make it happen, and thanks to the wonderful cast and crew for being so great!
