Random Licks: Update From The Damages Set

Posted on Aug 13, 2008 By Glenn Close Comments(2)

August 3, 2008

Early in the morning in the Damages make-up trailer.

What a whirlwind couple of weeks it's been! We are into Episode Four on Damages...with only nine more to go. I keep thinking that I will be able to sit down and write in between set-ups or between scenes, but the pace is so fast and the concentration so intense when we are shooting that it's hard to change gears quickly.

The one constant for me is that two little white dogs are usually within sight. Last week, Jake was actually in at least three scenes, either lying under Patty Hewes' desk or lying hidden under some other piece of furniture or somewhere behind the camera. Bill would never do that. He would wander randomly around the set, totally unaware that "Action!" had been called, trying to get his back scratched.

But Jake seems to understand the process and stays put with no leash, just happy to be part of whatever it is that I'm doing. I get a big kick of knowing the a little white dog is under my desk and that the audience will never be able to tell what scenes he's in and what scenes he's not in.

Jake understands the acting process.

The boys' favorite part of the working day is lunch. On a movie set,"lunch" is whenever the first meal is served---six hours after the crew is called. On days that we start late, we can be eating "lunch" at 9 o'clock at night. It is quite bizarre. Anyway, Bill and Jake love lunch. At the studio, we turn right out of my dressing room to get to our sets and left to go to the cafeteria.

 

In my studio dressing room... waiting to go down to the set.

When I turn left, the dogs get totally excited. They don't even want to wait for the elevator so we always take the stairs. In the cafeteria, they make a beeline for the meat table and hover around like moths to a light, hoping that a scrap will fall to the floor or that the caterer will some how realize, in spite of their round little bodies, that they are practically on death's door and will actually expire if they aren't given a morsel of beef or chicken immediately! I usually take pity and make them up a modest plate. Then, after making short shrift of whatever I give them, they graze around the room, gazing up at cast and crew with soulful eyes, putting Patty Hewes' attempts at manipulation to shame.

Bill's soulful eyes capture the hearts of the Damages crew...and earn him extra food!