I was interviewed last year for a New York Daily News article about location shooting, (they even did a nice slide show of some of my best set pictures), and since then have gotten tons of emails asking about how to find actors.  There are some shows – usually shows with a big teen-aged audience – that draw the most fans trying to find the set and meet the actors, and some people even make vacation plans around when and where shows will be filming.  Every time I even mention Gossip Girl I get a flood of emails asking if so-and-so is going to be there and EXACTLY what time shooting will start.  (The answers are “I have no idea” and “Nobody has any idea.”)  And while meeting the actors on the set and posing for pictures with them isn’t my thing, it is a hobby for many of my readers, so I thought I’d post what I’ve learned over the past year-and-a-half.  Whether you want to say hi to your favorite actor or just watch the process, here are some tips:

• Be nice.  Everyone on the set is trying to get a job done, and you’ll get a lot closer to the action if you don’t keep them from doing their jobs.
• On the other hand, don’t let the production assistants push you around too much.  They’ve been told to keep the area clear, keep people from taking pictures, etc.  But while you should always be courteous, remind yourself that they are using public property and there’s only so much control they have over what you can do.
• Try to blend into the background as much as possible.  I was once able to watch the guys from Entourage film several scenes from very close by keeping still and quiet for an hour, while everyone else was held a block away.
• Bring something to read.  There’s a lot of down time where nothing will be happening.
• Keep your flash off.  Even if nothing is being filmed at the moment, you will draw a major amount of attention to yourself.  That goes double for your cell phone ringer.
• If you’re asked not to take pictures while the cameras are rolling, follow instructions.  While the actors are doing their thing, they shouldn’t be distracted.  Wait until you hear someone yell “Cut!”
• Never ever approach an actor on the set between takes, unless it’s completely obvious that he wants to chat with fans.
• If you want to meet the actors, you might have more luck hanging out by the trailers than near the set.  Sometimes the trailers can be several blocks away from the set.
• The guys who drive the trucks are some of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.  If you strike up a conversation with them, they might tell you when lunch will be called, who’s on set that day, where the star’s trailer is, etc.

This is a TravelingMom dedicated post.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn. Have a location shooting tip or some on location pictures? Please email Amy, or text the pictures to Amy@FilmingInBrooklyn.com, or tweet the pictures to @FilmingBrooklyn. Amy also blogs at SelfishMom.com.

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I’ve been around actors enough to know that they are not their characters, but often enough they’re cast because their own personalities at least hint at the people they play on screen (meeting Harvey Keitel made me sweat out of every pore on my body, while Robin Williams couldn’t help but be goofy).  When I spoke last month with Guillermo Diaz, I was not really expecting the downright jovial guy on the other end of the phone.  I expected at least a whisper of menace, but there was none.  Guillermo is an incredibly convincing actor.  And he’s been in and around Brooklyn a lot lately, working with such heavy hitters as Kevin Smith and Bruce Willis on the comedy A Couple of Dicks.  But before becoming a sought-after Hollywood guy, he was a picked-on nerd growing up in NYC.

FIB You thought that you were a nerd in high school, yes?

GD Yeah, I didn’t think, I was!  I definitely was.

FIB And now that you’re playing this tough-guy, scary, intimidating role, do you have any dreams of going back to reunions and finding the kids who tormented you?

GD Oh absolutely!  Most of my motivation when playing bad guys is thinking about all the crap I had to put up with in high school.  And I think that’s what motivated me to be an actor as well.  I did a show in my sophemore year of high school, when I was at the height of my nerdness, and somehow the kids loved it and then all those kids that were teasing me wanted to be my friend, and I was like “Wow, I’ve got to do this more.”

FIB You’ve gotten to work with Steven Spielberg [in The Terminal], and that’s like the pinnacle of directors.  Which other directors are on your wish-list to work with?

GD Well, I’m working with a director right now that I’ve always wanted to work with, his name is Kevin Smith.  I’m dying to work with John Cameron Mitchell, who did Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus, I love him.  I’m just obsessed with his work.  I would so love to work with him.  I’m also a huge horror film fan, so I’d love to work with, like, Rob Zombie.  I love his movies.

FIB You’ve been on Weeds for a couple of seasons now.  Do you like working on a series?  Do you like the stability of it?  Or do you like jumping around from film to film?

GD I used to think that I loved jumping around from film to film, but now being on a show like Weeds I think I got really spoiled, and I love that steady work.  Especially when the writing’s so great and the actors are so great, and it’s such a loved show.  I hope they keep my character around as much as they can.

FIB How does it work on a show like Weeds [where deaths, especially among the drug dealers, are pretty common].  Do you get the script each week and read it with your fingers crossed, hoping that you don’t get blown away that episode?

GD [laughs] That’s exactly what it’s like, yeah.

FIB So you wouldn’t get any advance notice?  They wouldn’t warn you, like “Hey, when you get to page 18, sorry!”

GD Um, I think that they might, but I’m not sure!  Usually what happens is, I’ll get a call from my agent saying that they want me for a certain number of episodes, but I don’t know what’s going to happen to my character, what my character’s going to be doing until I get the script the week before.  But I would hope that if they were killing me off, I would get some advance warning!

FIB Yeah, and you would hope that it didn’t come from the costume gal measuring you, saying “Well, we need a suit for your coffin.”

GD Exactly!  Or, “We need to make a hole in the chest of your jacket because you’re going to get shot there.”

I wasn’t sure how comfortable he would be talking about his personal life, but I jumped right in anyway.  I had read that he’s gay (and out), and I’m always fascinated by the lengths some actors go to to hide their sexual orientations, while others just are who they are and it doesn’t seem to hurt their careers one bit.

FIB Forgive me for believing everything I read online, but I’ve read that you’re gay, that you’re openly gay.  I’ve read that you split your time between New York and California.  Do you notice a difference in each place in how you’re treated?

GD You know, it’s funny ’cause in California I live in West Hollywood, which is predominantly a gay neighborhood, so I never really think about…it never seems to be too judgey, it’s just accepted, and I just feel very comfortable in my neighborhood in California.  And at the same time, I was born and raised in New York, and when I’m here I kind-of have that tougher mentality, attidude, like I gotta watch my back, and I’m a lot more guarded in New York.  But I think that overall, even when I audition for stuff, nobody ever brings up that I’m gay.  I mean I’m out, and I’m open about it, but I think that’s what keeps people from making a big deal about it, because I don’t make a big deal about it…It kind of takes that mystery or that secret away.  Nobody really cares.  And if people do have a problem with it, they don’t say it to my face.  So I’m sure that some people probably don’t want to work with me because I’m gay, but at the same time I don’t want to work with them either, if they’re going to have that attitude, so it’s all good.  I’m just gonna keep being myself.  I can only be myself.  And I’m not gonna hide who I am, because there’s nothing wrong with it.  That’s the way I have to live my life for my own sanity.

You can see Guillermo Diaz in Weeds – Season 4, which is now out on DVD.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn. Have a location shooting tip or some on location pictures? Please email Amy, or text the pictures to Amy@FilmingInBrooklyn.com, or tweet the pictures to @FilmingBrooklyn.

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I’m a bit overloaded with interviews and screenings from the New York Television Festival, so I’m going to do things a bit out of order and jump right to Saturday night’s screening of Tuesday night’s episode of Fringe.  There’s really no sense in going to an advance screening if I don’t write about it before it airs, is there?  This post will contain my exclusive interviews with a few of the cast members.  Next up I’ll be posting a partial recap of Tuesday’s episode over at FringeTelevision.com.  And last I’ll post the post-screening Q&A with cast members and a couple of key production people back on this site.

The evening started with one-on-one red carpet interviews of some of the show’s main characters.  Sadly, neither Joshua Jackson, Anna Torv, nor J.J. Abrams could make it, but I was able to speak with some fabulously interesting people who also star in the show.

First up was Jasika Nicole, who plays junior FBI agent Astrid Farnsworth.  She’s absolutely beautiful in person, as well as incredibly enthusiastic.  She has the shortest bio of all of the main actors on the show, and seems to really be enjoying this moment.

Filming In Brooklyn: In the pilot you were mostly in the lab, assisting.  We want to know if your character is going to be more in the thick of things in future episodes.

Jasika Nicole: Oh my gosh yes. I know she was kind of ancillary in the first episode which was totally fine because there’s a really big story that they’re trying to get across.  But Astrid is so smart and she is such a smart alec.  And she has such a nice connection with Dr. Bishop just because she’s around the age of his son and he doesn’t have a good relationship with him.  And there’s a little bit of…he’s trying to educate me because I’m new at this and I want to learn things so Astrid ends up having a lot of tricks up her sleeve.  She’s really really gonna pull off some surprises within the season.  And I wish I could tell you more, but you’ll see.

FIB: Do you ever get to shoot scenes outside of the lab?  Do you ever get to go on location?

JN: Not so much. I wish that I did.  Because I live in Brooklyn and we shoot a lot in Brooklyn actually.  Which is really really neat and I would love to see more parts of Brooklyn.

FIB: Do you ever get grossed out by the things you have to shoot?

JN: You know, I thought I wasn’t [going to] because I’m totally into gore and blood and I figured if I could see the behind the scenes part it’s really not going to freak me out, but we did this one scene with an eyeball and I could not believe how real it was! I mean we did another one with a beating heart on a tray – it was just incredible! And each time the very first take is me going [sucks in her breath]!  I mean I really can’t control myself ’cause it’s shocking.  It’s so good. They’re really good about keeping it as real as they possibly can.

FIB: So there aren’t many special effects added to the lab scenes afterwards?

JN: No! There’s a lot of very in-the-moment stuff that’s happening that we just have to navigate ourselves around and act like it’s everyday work for us, but it’s still blowing my mind. Every single episode.

Next we spoke with Blair Brown, who starred in The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd as well as about a thousand other TV appearances and movies.  She looked stunning in a simple black dress and jacket, and a necklace by a Brooklyn designer (she couldn’t recall which one).  She brings an incredible amount of depth and gravitas to the character of Nina Sharp on Fringe, whose life was saved by her employer, Massive Dynamic.

Blair Brown: Filming In Brooklyn?  We were just filming in Brooklyn the other day.  We were in an area called Ditmas Park on Thursday and the edge of Prospect Park and it was spectacular.

FIB: Have you been doing a lot of on location shooting so far?

BB: Actually all of my work has been on location except for one day at the studio.  But the best part about working in a place like New York is, I didn’t even know about Ditmas Park, and now I want to go back.

When we were shooting in the park the other day Joshua Jackson and I were shooting a scene, and we couldn’t see [what was going on behind us], but the crew was in fits of laughter. It was like the history of transportation behind us. At one point a girl on a horse came by, then a father  with a girl on a tandem bike, and then a young Hasidic Jew on roller blades. You couldn’t have planned to have those extras.

FIB: How far back does your character’s history go with the other characters?

BB: Well, I know John Noble‘s [Dr. Walter Bishop] goes way back.  I think we’ll come to discover that there is something there between John’s character, William Bell, and myself. That we are peers, and something went down. We’ll find out what that is. I think what’s so interesting is how J.J. [Abrams] plays with what’s happening on a macro scientific level and what’s happening just person to person.  And that’s really just the fun of it all.

FIB: Since the pilot have you filmed any more scenes with any other parts of you being robotic?

BB: No we haven’t.  But I’ve developed a glove fetish.

Next to cross my path was Mark Valley, who plays the recently deceased (or is he?) FBI agent John Scott.  If someone could please make sure that my husband is out of the room, I’d like to comment that Mark has the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen and a jaw worthy of a Flintstones character named something like Rockjaw Quartzstone.

FIB: OK, all I’ve seen so far is the first episode, and we all know how things end for your character.  And yet, here you are…

Mark Valley: Yeah, I don’t know why they keep inviting me to these parties. My character’s dead!  It’s strange.

FIB: How far back does  your character’s history go with the other characters?

MV: I think the main character Olivia is going to find some things out about John Scott that she wasn’t aware of. Whether or not he’s a good guy or a bad guy. Who is he actually working for, is it Massive Dynamic or is it a government agency?  Is it the FBI or somebody else, we don’t really know yet. All in all I think John Scott is a very simple guy caught up in some complex circumstances.

FIB: Well, that’s how you have to see him.  You can’t see him as a bad guy.

MV: You know, I was watching this one interview with Javier Bardem and he had this one acting teacher who said [doing Javier] “You have to be your character’s lawyer.” So he’s innocent until…

FIB: Going back to the relationships between the characters, how far in advance do you find out?  Like are you told in the beginning that you have this history with this character? Or do you find out as you go along?

MV: Really the only thing you can count on is the script.  And the subsequent rewrites which are inevitable.  You don’t really get this lecture where somebody calls you in to their office, where J.J. [Abrams] says “Let me show you the special path of your character’s life.” What I find kind of interesting is that even if I did know that stuff, it’s more fun to imagine it.

FIB: But do you ever get to a point in a script where you say “Oh wait, I would have played that scene differently three episodes back had I known that this scene was coming, had I known that I had this prior relationship with this person?

MV: Oh yeah.  Yeah, that definitely happens.  But then again it kind of inadvertantly makes the actors’ performances a little more complex, because you think “Wait a minute, if that was that, then why did he act like that?”  And it raises even more questions so we all end up kind of winning in the end.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

Driving down 7th Avenue in Park Slope today, Filming In Brooklyn found itself behind this SUV, with the license plate “I LUVUMA”. There’s no way for us to know if this is an obsessed fan of Uma Thurman, or just someone with a girlfriend/wife named Uma. But if it is indeed a fan, then after all the problems Uma Thurman has had lately with stalkers, we sincerely hope that this one just likes watching her from afar.

Originally Posted on Filming In Brooklyn