Kimberly

            Kimberly was the first background job I ever did. It starred Sean Astin, and the scene we shot was along Boathouse Row. I got paid $25 for the day. All I had to do was walk up and down the row, along with a bunch of other extras looking like we belonged there.  The only tough part about the shoot was that it was icy cold the day we did it, and the scene was set in summer. There were a lot of shivering people out there trying to look hot and sweaty.

            This was my first time on a professional set, and I was really in awe of the whole process. I didn’t know how anything worked, where I was to go, any of that stuff. All I knew was that I was working on a movie! There were trucks, equipment, crew, cast and curious drivers passing by as we worked. Philadelphia doesn’t have that jaded view of movie making that NY has. People come up and ask what’s going on and are excited by the fact that a MOVIE is being shot here. This town doesn’t generate that much work, so I think that the whole starry eyed wonder over the process of movie making won’t ever go away. 

            Sean Astin was the first movie star I’d ever seen up close. I mean, I’d seen Julius Erving of the Nets and the Mets’ Cleon Jones at autograph sessions, and I’d met lots of famous musicians who came to Sam Ash to do clinics, but this was different. He was Gomez Addams & Patty Duke’s kid. Plus, he was acting . . . well, like a person! He had just picked up some new roller blades from Kmart and was eagerly trying them out (I forget if they were for the shoot or not).  I had to catch myself more than once to stop staring at him. He didn’t talk to me that day, and it’s just as well; I don’t know what would’ve come out of my mouth if he did.

            Sean’s wife and children were on the set and they ate lunch with the rest of us when we broke. This being my first time on a set, I couldn’t believe all of the stuff that craft services laid out. Cakes, salads, pasta! The tables were crammed with food! This made up a little bit for only being paid $25! I ate my fill and it was quite good.  Nowadays I take it for granted that Craft Services will do their job exactly like that, but again, this being my first set I was amazed.

            I was also struck by just how nice the Astins were. Like I said, they ate with the cast & crew, no star trips to the trailer for them. I remember Sean’s wife as being very pretty, although I couldn’t pick her out in a crowd if you asked me to, and that his daughters were very well behaved. That impressed me most of all, that these weren’t Hollywood brats, causing a commotion and having to be tolerated by those around them because Daddy was the star.  They were polite and minded their manners. Chalk that up to good parenting from Sean & his wife, and also from Patty & John before them. I suspect that they brought up their kids as normally as possible, and Sean passed that along when he raised his own.  Or they could just know how to be polite in front of strangers. I’d like to think it was the former, but given that my own daughter sometimes behaves better for company than for us, some of the later may be true as well.