The United States of Tara

Ummm....should be more like 'The United States of AWESOME!!' as that is precisely how I felt as I finished the work week on Friday. Allow me to explain...let's go back to last Wednesday, shall we? As I was heading home from Warner Brothers, I got a call from the agency saying I was booked on Diablo Cody's new project 'The United States of Tara' on Showtime the next day. (for those of you not from Minnesota, she won the Oscar last year for her screenplay 'Juno')

This role would take me from tow truck driver to impound worker. Not sure if that is a step up or down? Either way, I met it with the same enthusiasm as one does in corporate America towards 'casual Fridays', it's a nice switch from having to wear suits all day!

Two hours before I was due on set Thursday afternoon, I received a phone call saying not to report to set, and that they wouldn't have time to get to my scene. Here's the best part...I still got paid for it! Not only that, but now I would be booked for Friday essentially getting paid twice for the same amount of work. Pretty sweet deal I thought...so I kicked on the fan, took a nap, and enjoyed a hard days work.

Later that evening, I received another call from the agency confirming the call time details, but then he ended the call by saying the magical words every non-union actor wants to hear. "SAG voucher"

Yes, I heard him right...I got my first one!! I won't bore all of you with the details, but you need a total of 3 to gain eligibility in the Screen Actors Guild, and I am now 1/3 of the way there.

I arrived to set at Noon on Friday, with one other guy who was my impound co-worker. We were told we wouldn't be needed for awhile, so we kicked back in a trailer, enjoyed some crafty, and when we were called to set, they only needed one of us for the scene, but also needed a vehicle. My esteemed colleague rode his bike to work today, which meant it was time for Sherri's car to finally get it's BIG break! They used him in the scene, and asked to use my vehicle...which is great because that meant more $$ for me. (they're required to pay extra for vehicle use) it's called a 'bump'.

Being that we were only filming the one scene, we wrapped in under 5 hours! I couldn't have asked for a better end to the weekend. Just to recap...I was paid on Thursday to do nothing, then was told I would be booked to do the same thing tomorrow for more money on a SAG voucher, and if that wasn't enough...the most work I ended up doing was giving Sherri's car a pep talk to cope with it's butterflies! I mean, for God's sake...the car got more screen time than I did!

It was very hard to wipe the smile off of my face this weekend, in fact...I am still smiling, perhaps Diablo had spread a little Minnesota karma my way, or someone is looking down, but there is no denying...it has been a good week.

P.S. - Sherri's red Hyundai Elantra can be seen 4 cars in, on the left.