I do extra work from time to time. Walk from point A to point B in a commercial or television show. I’m in the back, behind the main action, adding to the ambience but not the narrative.
Thursday I was an extra in a PSA for the Travel Channel. I had the rare opportunity to showcase skills honed as a frequent flier: I walked across a hotel lobby, roller bag in hand, and checked in at the reservation desk.
You just can’t teach that.
It was an easy shoot. The cast and crew were great, the day was short. But the moment of the afternoon — my moment — occurred when a hotel guest pulled me aside and said, “I know you, right? You’re someone.”
Now, we had a crowd gathered rubbernecking most of the day. The principles were only on set sporadically, so it was hard for folks to figure out what the spot was for or who the ‘stars’ were.
The Travel Channel’s Samantha Brown — the star — was standing mere feet from me, but this woman did not appear to recognize her. I smiled. “Trust me. I’m no one you’ve heard of.”
She was not deterred. “No. You’re that comedienne…the one with the show.”
I get this about once a day. “You mean Kathy Griffin.”
“Yes. You’re Kathy Griffin.”
“No. But I hear that a lot.”
“You look just like her.”
And she smiled and walked over to her friends, telling them that, sadly, I was not on the ‘D List’ like they thought.
But I stood up a little straighter, and walked a bit jauntier, and checked into — in my backstory, at least — the presidential suite, my entourage at the ready.
I thought that about you since “Suddenly Susan” days when she was a major nobody.