Snippet #1 of my X-men 3 Experience...

I just spent 25 of the past 36 hours on the set of X-men 3. Due to a confidentiality agreement that I signed, I can't tell you anything about the movie, but what I CAN tell you about are my personal experiences that I had while waiting in the "Extras Holding Tent".

I arrived on the set Friday night at around 6:30pm. After I signed in, I had a chance to look around at all the people. There were about 150 Extras (the politically correct term so as not to offend anyone is "Background Performer"), and they were split off into two groups: Soldiers and Mutants. Yours Truly was not only a Soldier, but (and this is the honest truth, you can even ask anyone) I was the sexiest soldier in the tent. Seriously! In fact, when you see the movie, and you see a sexy soldier run past the screen, thats me. Promise. Anyways, after I got suited up, stared at myself in the mirror for 5 minutes (thinking to myself that I would gladly give up every one of my childhood Halloween's dressed as vampires, rockstars, and ghouls for just ONE dressed in this get up), I found an empty chair and sat down. And stared. At everyone.

After about 4 or 5 hours of staring, I decided to go for some fresh air.

Now, as some of you may or may not know, winters in Vancouver and surrounding area have a very deep, different kind of cold. If the temperture is -4C (and it was), it will feel like -40C (and it did). Call me wimpy, but I stand by my statement. I was born in Winnipeg. I know what cold is.

So, after about 30 seconds of fresh air, I went back inside.

More Staring.

As luck would have it, I managed to nod off for a few minutes.

Have you ever woke up from a deep sleep and not known where you were or what was going on? You know, when you go for an afternoon nap and wake up at around 8pm, thinking its 8am and that you are late for school or work? Or how about when the phone rings, and you have no idea what that noise is, where its coming from, or what the hell you can do to stop it? Now, picture me waking up, noticing I am in a soldier uniform, then seeing 150 soldiers talking and running around in this HUGE tent, and to top it off, throw in a few fireball explosions outside only a few hundred feet away. You see, apparantly while I was sleeping, they had picked a small handful of soldiers to go to set so they could film a few scenes (hence the fireballs).

I thought I was actually a soldier, actually in the army, and actually under attack.

I jumped to my feet, almost scaring nearby soldiers into seizures, and almost knocking a full board of scrabble to the floor.

To back up for a second: On my way driving to the set earlier that night, I imagined things to go a little differently. I thought I might steal an innocent glance or sweet smile from Halle Barry, or maybe get a "G'day" from Hugh Jackman. I pictured the weather to be slightly ABOVE freezing, with zero waiting time and immediate calls to run to set to start shooting scenes. Ah, Ignorance is bliss.

Ok. Back to the present. Now I have four or five complete strangers staring at me like....well.... like I just jumped to my feet and almost scared them into seizures. Now What? All I could do was took a deep breath, glanced around at everyone, and calmly and carefully said the first and only sentence that came to mind:

"Would anyone like anything from the Snackbar while I am up?"

My seat was taken when I returned. Its probably for the best, though. They were beginning to weird me out, and I was just about to go out for some more fresh air.