I’ve always told my students that they need to decided what
they are willing to do on screen or stage, and what they aren’t because once
you are pressured with an offer you might end up doing something you regret. I
am certain that nudity is not something that I am comfortable with, but I had
never considered being clothed in a shot with other actresses who are nude. And
by the time I found out that this is exactly what I would be doing there was no
turning back. And to be completely honest I’m still not sure how I feel about
it. I do know that I, as a clothed actress, was treated very differently on set
by the male crew members than those who weren’t.
Two aspects of the shoot were entirely new to me, the first
was the nudity. In light of how exceptionally conservative coke and been when
it came to what we ladies were and were not showing it was quite a shock for me
that no one was trying to cover my cheeks in between shots, or make sure that my cleavage was not showing. The second aspect was the pyrotechnics, as
we were shooting an action series. One of the sequences we shot involved a
large gun fight and explosion during the evening. Personally I like to think it
was because of my acting skill, but it might have more to do with the fact that
I’m blonde and was wearing a neon pink dress over my bikini and I would
therefore be visible in the weaker light, I was chosen to be involved in this
shot. Along with two of the ladies who were doing nudity. While robed we
rehearsed ducking under tables and chairs while actors screamed, without much enthusiasm
considering they were actors ‘bang bang’. Then on the cue of the explosion we
were to run inside the house of the location we were shooting on. One the first
rehearsal we three ladies, all still robed, ran into the house, as we were told
to do, and not to stop until we were in the kitchen. Once we were in the kitchen we were
greeted by the family who owned the property we were shooting on, along with
their two young sons of roughly 10 and 12.
As we walked back to our first positions one of my co-stars
looked at the other:
“We have to run in their just now without our robes. And the
kids are sitting there”
They both panicked. One of the crew members involved with
pyrotechnics, who we had been talking to earlier walked by. He was very Afrikaans
and rather animated. We had signalled to him to come closer. He shrugged and
mouthed “Why?”
One of the ladies called: “The boys are inside” and pointed
to her robe.
We could visibly see the gears change in his mind as
realization of what was about to happen dawned on him and speedily changed
direction to run inside the house and ask the family to temporarily vacate the
kitchen.
When we did shoot the scene the directors decided not to
have us ladies running around. I have to admit the first time we shot with the
noisy blanks I was not prepared for it. I was required to very little acting
considering how real ammunition rounds sounded surrounding me (we were
trapped in the cross-fire of the shooting) and how loud the rounds we were. As
we ducked under tables and deck chairs all three of us convulsed as the shots
were ‘fired’ around us. Even by third take our bodies reacted to the sound of
each ‘bullet’ being fired. And then there was the explosion!
Our Afrikaans pyrotechnics friend had set of the small
explosion two or three times the day before to test what was supposed to
happen. I will never forget watching him converse with the third assistant
director, who was very British. His ‘English’ was so peppered with Afrikaans
words in all the functional places in the sentences that I could read the
confusion on the British Third AD’s face as the Pyro Guy was explaining what he was
about to do. He didn’t have the heart to tell Pyro Guy that he didn’t know what
he was saying and just nodded as if in confirmation and walked away. Pyro Guy
was none the wiser, and carried on with his job.
Now as the explosion was to be set off with some sort of
radio device the entire cast was to switch off their cell phones, as a cell
phone could potentially accidentally activate the explosion. And nobody needed
to be told how dangerous it was. I do not have any understanding of
pyrotechnics in film, but I assume they are meant to be more flash and less
bang. Although we were very far for the explosion I could feel the heat on my
skin every time it flashed up into the night sky.
On one of our takes I had to dive underneath a table during the explosion,
exactly where one of the crew members had dropped a glass earlier during a previous sequence. I had a
piece of glass in my forearm, and didn’t fancy it getting infected considering
that I had been crawling around on the floor with a bleeding arm for about 20
minutes. I went to the third AD who worked mostly with us. All I really wanted
was a plaster, but the medic was called and I was inspected, disinfected and
plastered, all the while under the eyes of about 50 male crew members.
“Hey Alvin, you never spend that much time helping any of us”
This was followed by general laughter. I smiled graciously
to my make-shift audience, and went back to my ‘first position’ to redo the
take.
As with any job, a number of things happened that were new
and funny. An apricot fell out of the tree I was standing under just just
missing me as the director called ‘action’.
Jewellery was forgotten and snuck back on, and prayers were said that no
one in continuity would pick up on it. Three Champaign glasses were broken. I
had to do a scene walking across a blistering hot pavement. And in between each
take I was hopping from foot to foot to the amusement of the crew. But one of my top moments was that of the
‘poisoned food’.
Two of us clothed ladies were to stand around a table filled
with food and feed it to one of the cartel members. One of the crew members
came to us and asked if we were comfortable with our assignment and as he was
leaving said nonchalantly: “And by the way, the food is poisoned”. We rehearsed
the scene, and the cartel member we were acting with took a bite of some of the
food placed all around us. One of the female crew members walked up to us:
“Guys, don’t eat the food it’s been sprayed with insecticide. We have to do it so flies don’t sit on the
food during takes. We usually have sings up”
They guy from earlier chipped in: “I told you it was
poisoned”
A red carpet, wine on arrival and circulating snacks set the
tone for an evening of glamour. And surprisingly for me, running into some acquaintances. A few people that had studied at the university while I was there, and some
friends I had met along the way. I also saw some faces that I recognized from
shows and put faces to names that were familiar. As someone who grew up in a
small town, and an actress who is in awe of a lot of these people I felt a
little like Alice in Wonderland seeing these people, and attending the same
function. I bumped into a friend, and as I didn’t know for certain that I would
be attending until a few hours before the awards ceremony I hadn’t read through
all the nominations. I asked, rather sheepishly: 
The awards themselves were amazing with performances from
some of the musicals performed in South Africa in the past year (including Phantom's Phantom Jonathan Roxmouth and Cabaret's Samantha Peo), as well as
some firm favourites and the amazingly talented Allan Committee who was the hilarious
Master of Ceremonies and had the audience in fits of laughter throughout the
evening (which ended in just over two hours).
As a young actress, attending for the first time it was nice to be to
there without having been involved in a production that was nominated, as if I
ever am in the future it creates perspective. No matter how many stunning
performances there are, there can be only one winner. And at the end of the
show, I’m not working for awards, I’m working for every audience member who
attends each show. 
