An extra's experiences on I Saw the Light
"Let me just start this off by saying that while this trip to Shreveport, Louisiana may well have been the most awesome experience of my life it was incredibly expensive. And if I hadn’t the promise of seeing a certain blue eyed Brit I would never have made it.
I’d been saving up for a trip to London which I’d planned on taking over Christmas. A sum of almost $1500 dollars to be exact and I spent every bit plus a bit more. Now, I’ve been an extra in four other movies (check out my IMDB if you want to know what), all of which filmed in my area, so I regularly follow casting calls on Facebook and a few other places. When a casting call for “I Saw the Light” came up I knew I had to apply. I applied at the end of September and was called to film for 4 days (originally 5 but one was cancelled) and took two weeks off of work to fly down to Louisiana.
My first day of filming was November 11th. I was so excited about it that I hardly slept the night before. I arrived to check in the morning of and waited eagerly to go to set so that I could see Tom. When we finally get to set, which was a beautiful theater, I learned that the scene we were to shoot was when they announced Hank Williams had died. Of course, this meant that Tom wasn’t going to be there. I was crushed! At this point, I was thinking that perhaps I’d made the trip in vain. A few other things had happened to add to this but I won’t get into that.
We spent all day doing our thing and around 10 pm a man walked out on stage that I hadn’t seen all day. I was sitting in the very back of the theater and while wearing my contacts (they turn my eyes such a lovely shade of blue from the dark fudgey brown color they are) so my view wasn’t great. The man had dark hair and carried a guitar. He dressed very plainly; dark colored hoodie and jeans. At first, I thought nothing of him, just another stage hand, until people started shaking his hand and this man was just causing a general ruckus. I looked around but not many other people were there. We were on break and mostly everyone had gone out to the lobby for pizza. I was too lazy and too tired for pizza so I’d stayed seated in the theater with only three other extras. I took a better look at the guy and recognized the ugly white loafers. Holy shit, it was Tom! We wrapped right after that so not much to tell on this day.
I wasn’t needed again until the following Monday. I had so much time to kill in Shreveport, which is a nice city but small and lacking on activities.
Monday, we filmed in a very cold venue. The entire day was spent shivering! I paced around the theater like a nut trying to keep warm while reading Pride and Prejudice. A view people teased me saying it looked like I was trying to learn lines. I wasn’t amused.
When Tom came out for the first time on Monday, he wore that cute little outfit that someone posted to Instagram. Shame on you! He sang and his voice sounded marvelous. He never stopped singing. He entertained us all day long with the song he was singing for the movie and also “Movin’ on Over”. I’m not really sure if that is the name of the song but it is the same one he sang at the Wheatland Music Festival.
Tom showed his first signs of being a rehearsal junkie when he made us rehearse how to clap and cheer for almost twenty minutes straight. He kept going over and over what we were supposed to do and how he wanted us to react. Then, he’d check with someone backstage and reappear with either new instructions or a confirmation. Once, he was so enthusiastic about getting us to cheer that he popped a button on his shirt! He exclaimed, “Shit, you guys made me pop a button!” and dashed off stage.
The rest of the day passed pretty much in the same manner. Tom would sing, we would cheer, the director would yell cut, Tom would keep singing and we’d keep cheering. At the end of the night, we switched up how we’d been placed and I got to (finally) move to the front row. I was shaking inside because I knew being this close and from watching Tom all day that we were going to make eye contact. The director yells action and it happens within three seconds. Cue heart stoppage for yours truly. I smiled at him and his attention was gone. However, it was back again in a few seconds and I completely fangirled; huge cheesy smile, little drool, and shaking. If they caught me on camera here it will look like I am a completely devoted, perhaps a little stalker of Hank Williams. The night ended way too soon and Tom thanked us all for being so devoted to his performances. He said that our performances make his better and that he wouldn’t be able to be as great without us. Thanks Tom but I think you could have a terrible case of gas and you would somehow figure out to make that part of the character because you are fabulous.
Moving on to Tuesday, November 18th. This was by far the best day of my life…..I mean trip. Tom was looking gorgeous and he was pumped. He was so excited to be on stage. He kept us entertained all day. I think he may be a little hard to handle sometimes because he just NEVER stops. He’s constantly doing something, constantly talking, constantly moving. I think perhaps the director caught irritated with him a few times because he just wouldn’t quit. I thought it was endearing. In fact, I know the director was irritated with him a few times because he would just be like, “OOOOKKKK Tom.”
Just like yesterday, he sang to us a lot. He sang “Movin’ on Over” a couple of times along with the song he was singing for the movie and a couple of other Hank Williams songs. Someone requested “Hey Good Lookin’” so he sang that song to her. She was an extra and he went right over and sang it to her like he was serenading her. I don’t know how she could bear to stand through it. I’d have collapsed. LOL!
During a break, while the crew was changing the camera angles, Tom came down off the stage to talk personally with some of the extras. He talked about how acting in the theater was completely different than acting for a movie and also how they were similar. He also talked some on recording the tracks for the movie back in September. The guys who’d been sitting next to me asked Tom if it was really him singing. Tom gave him a weird look and was like yeah. Later in the evening Tom was standing up on stage and he said, “A gentleman asked me earlier if I was really singing. He's gone now. (Audience laughs) No, he's not really. He's still here. I'm sorry. Yeah it is me singing though.” The guys beside me couldn’t stop laughing and was like I insulted the star of the movie and he’s never going to forget that. I am afraid you might be right.
Some other things Tom did during the shoot on Tuesday (I made a list so I wouldn’t forget)
-Asking about lunch. He asked us what we had for lunch. When we explained that we’d had takeout from a local barbecue place (which I thought was nasty btw) he said he’d only had a banana and he was starving. He said he couldn’t eat because “Hank was a cool 104 pounds” and he had to keep his weight down. The audience of course sighed, awed and felt his pain. One thing I thought was a bit odd was the fact that Tom only drank Coke from a glass bottle. I was surprised to see him drinking anything but water. However, every time he had a drink in his hand it was always a Coke in a glass bottle.
Someone in the audience asked Tom to tell a story while we were waiting. Tom laughed and asked what we wanted to hear about. The guy said tell us a story about England. Tom replied saying that England was very far away, cold, and wet. He went on to talk about a full English breakfast saying that he could really go for that right now and dreamily listed off the different types of food in a full English breakfast. When the audience laughed, he told us that he wasn’t kidding that he was so hungry. He even put his hand over his stomach for emphasis. This is when he talked about making a ham sandwich when we were done filming (we were very close to wrapping at this point). “Ten more minutes and I'm gonna have a ham and cheese sandwich. I'm gonna lay down a piece of bread then some smoked ham then a slice of cheese and more bread. (Some random guy shouts 'Tom, don't forget the tomato!') Ehehehe I won't sir now that you've reminded me"
The tomato brought in to conversation that Tom should play at the local farmer’s market on Saturday. He told us that Saturday was his only night off. The crowd haggled him telling him that he could play in the morning and have the night off. He politely refused every time.
For a while, Tom entertained us with jokes, very lame jokes, in an Irish accent. I cannot remember what they were, I wish I could. I think one of them was “How do you tell if someone from Ireland is having a good time? They’re Dublin over with laughter.” Seriously, they were lame but he was having a good time. He really liked to entertain us. That was his goal for the day I think to make us laugh and keep us busy. He did a few things in a Cockney accent as well and educated us on the way the English accent has changed over the last 100 years.
He wasn’t all play and no work though. We shot a couple of scenes and he worked hard at it. One part of the scene he got frustrated because the camera was behind him and the arm movement while strumming weren’t big enough. He was worried about getting the fingers right and making them big even though the camera couldn’t see it. After a couple of takes (like 10) he finally got it right. “That is how you fucking do it.”
-Maybe one of my favorite parts was the live rendition of “Miami”. I don’t even remember how the subject of him rapping came up but he said that he only knew one rap song. I almost shat my pants when he started singing “Miami”. He sang through the whole first verse. The guy beside me was like wtf was that and I was like…..Will Smith. Tom told us jokingly that he was going to play a rapper in his next movie which would be a biopic about Will Smith. Oh, Tom!
Two more things happened on Tuesday which I’ll tell you about. The first one was about the multiple eye contact that I made with Tom. Seriously, coolest thing ever. The end of the night though was the best one. I was sitting three rows back from the stage on the very end because we’d been given the option to leave (of course, I didn’t) and I was able to snag a seat up front. The cameras weren’t pointed out into the audience so placement was no longer important. We were in between takes and Tom was sitting on the amp near the end of the stage. Sort of in front of me. I was talking to the guy next to me as I smoothed (frizzy hair sucks) the curls in my hair when I felt eyes on me. You know, the feeling you get like someone is staring at you? I figured it was going to be wardrobe telling me that I’d have to move so I looked up. Guess who was staring me? Tom freaking Hiddleston was watching me play with my hair! The minute our eyes met he looked away but holy shit! Talk about a major confidence boost!
The last thing (literally) that happened on Tuesday was an extra take. We were told that this was the final take. Action, cut, wrap, home. However, as soon as the director yelled cut Tom jumps off the stage and yells boss man I need to talk to you. The director meets him half way which just happens to be right next to me. Tom tells the director he wants to do it one more time. The director is adamant that they got the shot and there is no need to do it again. Tom is persistent. He wants to do it again and needs to make it better. They have a staring match which ends in the director yelling fine and walking away. We do the scene again. Tom thanks us for being good sports and we go home at 3 am. Best night ever.
Wednesday was a lot less Tom filled. The only awesome thing I have to report about Wednesday was watching Tom dance around the stage. He taught a stage hand how he does his signature dance. It was awesome.
Then, I had to come home on Thursday! BOOOO.
This was an amazing experience. If you EVER have the chance to be an extra in a Tom Hiddleston movie, do it! He is amazing. I was a fan before and now I am a super mega foxy awesome fan (kudos if you get that reference). He is so sweet and kind. He will seriously talk to anyone who will listen regardless if they’re crew, extras, main actors or small children. There is not a mean bone in this man’s body. Although, he does swear...a lot.
I would also say, for me anyway, that it was hard to think of Tom as this huge actor because he was so down to earth and such a dork. For me it was just watching this guy sing on stage but when I would get home and think of everything that happened it was like Holy shit you just spent an entire day with this huge movie star who's done such much and accomplished so much and you're a freaking country bumpkin. It was very surreal.
Would I do it all again? Fuck yes I would.
Oh and btdub…. This is going to be amazeballs. movie"
"Today was awesome! I thought the day was going to be a total bust because I arrived at 9:30 with crap hair again hoping that they were going to fix it. I find out that since I'm in the green group they aren't going to bother with my hair because we'd only been seen as shadows. Kinda pissed at this point. We went to another holding area where a hair lady came over and called a bunch of us over. She let me go first. Right as she finishes my hair a crew member comes rushing over and says don&'t do their hair if they have an x on their hand. I had an x. HAHA suckers. I was so happy to have my hair done! Then we sat around until 3:30 before they decided to use us. I was figuring again that it would be a bust and no T. Hiddy. But at 3:30 they finally call the green group to set and there he was standing on the stage in his Hank Williams getup! He is such a handsome man. He came out on stage and sang and talked to the crowd. They couldn't get him to stop singing. He sang during takes, after takes, in between takes. He never stopped singing and he sounds great! At the very end of the night they decided to shoot from the back so the green group got to the front for two takes. I stood in the front on the end. No bitches were keeping me from my moment of being close to Tom Hiddleston. We made eye contact a bunch. The very first time I fangirled; big cheesey ass smile, heart fluttering. He probably mistook that for really enjoying his singing, which I did, but I was secretly dying inside. I cannot wait to go back tomorrow. Oh and I was upgraded to the red group! WOO! "
"So for all y'all following me for Tom updates on ISTL you'll have to wait until Thursday. I have one more day and I don't wanna get thrown out but I will leave you with these inspirational quotes from tonight.
-"That is how you fucking do it."
-"I had a banana for lunch. What did you guys have? I'm gonna feed off of you."
-"Ten more minutes and I'm gonna have a ham and cheese sandwich. I'm gonna lay down a piece of bread then some smoked ham then a slice of cheese and more bread. (Some random guy shouts "Tom, don't forget the tomato!) Ehehehe I won't sir now that you've reminded me."
-"Sir, I see you with your eyes closed. Just pretend you're somewhere else and not listening to a British asshole sing Hank Williams."<
- and my personal favorite. "Let me do this one more time. (Director says "we have this shot 15 different ways. We got the shot. These people wanna go home") come on just one more time. Please. They can do it. I need to do it one more time. There were phasing issues. I need to make it better. Just one more time let me do it."
-finally... "Some guy earlier asked me if I was really singing. He's gone now. (Audience laughs) No, he's not really. He's still here. I'm sorry. Yeah it is me singing though."'
All of these were posted with the original posters permission.
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