Part 1: The Phone Call
My agent called and asked if I would be interested in playing the part of a French journalist in a vampire movie. It would be shooting in Melbourne (an old stomping ground of mine) and I would be required for one day of filming.
So, it wasn't Hollywood bashing down my door but catching up with some old friends and seeing the sun set one more time over St. Kilda wasn't such a bad idea.
Part 2: The Audition
I am ready to say my two lines... backwards, while standing on my head.
The director comes out into the waiting room to talk to someone I recognize from TV. He glances my way and keeps chatting. I am called into the room. I have a long chat with the director and then do the scene (i.e. my two lines).
Director: "The French accent is impeccable, Claudia, but what are you doing auditioning for this role?"
Me: "I’m sorry?"
"I saw you out in the waiting room and I thought, she should be a vampire!"
"Ahhh, thank you, I think...."
"Pandora! If I give you some pages, would you mind looking them over and then coming into read them for me?"
At this point the casting agent interjects, "Claudia would not be available to play this role due to her commitments with 'Farscape.'"
Claudia, as aloofly as possible, "Well, yes, but according to my contract it may be doable. I don't want to muck you around, but it may be doable...."
Part 3: The Read Through (United Nations Salad)
I take an early flight to Melbourne and then a taxi to an old chocolate factory in the City's west where the production office has been set up.
Someone directs me up the stairs to the room for the read through.
I take a seat and am immediately asked to shift as these seats are reserved for main cast only. Humpf.
I am reminded of a joke at this point;
"knock knock,
Who’s there?
Claudia
Claudia who?.....
That's showbiz."
It is now clear to me that I should choose the two naughtiest supporting cast members in the room and plant myself next to them so that we can draw rude pictures and giggle.
The director expresses a concern that given the eclectic nature of the cast and characters, there may be too many different accents in the movie. Could we all please attempt our character accent for the read-through to ascertain what sort of 'salad' we have.
United Nations salad.
Part 4: Shooting
After some flying, movement and voice rehearsals, my first day (or should I say night -this is a vampire flick) of shooting involves me walking out of my tomb to the sound of Lestat's music.
David Lee, the sound recordist, plays me a sample of the music. It is a track by a famous band. I congratulate the director for managing to score such a groovy band for the soundtrack. He says nothing. I congratulate David for the Academy Award he picked up for The Matrix and then toddle off in my heals to my start mark.
Smoke and wind machines, leaves being thrown in by the effects team, doors cued to open as a camera on a huge crane tracks in to reveal a chick in a sari and mega hair extensions fumble her way over the cobblestones in slow motion. We do a few takes. The director tells me he has what he needs but 'lets do a few more, I'm just "guilding the lily"'. I ask if I can do one my way. We set up for the take, I enter on cue, and start my earth shattering (mute) performance. Halfway through, the director calls cut. He's not sure why but he doesn't like it.
A few days later the director says he has seen the dailies. I ask him how they look. "Ironically", he says, "the take I liked most was the one where you did what you wanted and I called cut in the middle." Humpf!
One of the producers comes to me saying there have been some changes to the script. My character now has more lines and a more obvious history with one of the characters, Marius (played by Vincent Perez). He says he saw what I did in the "coming out of the tomb dailies" and liked it so much he has increased the size of the role. [Knock knock, who's there, Claudia Black.]
He also mentions that he had no indication from the read through that I would portray the character with such strength. "Come to think of it," he says, "I can't remember you (me) even being at the read through." (Not a good idea to remind him at this point that I was the one in the corner giggling and drawing rude pictures.)
I am trying to take this all as a compliment but why did they give me more lines, based on a mute shot, and will this give me availability problems with "Farscape"? Then Vincent suggests after reading the new pages that the extra lines are there because the studio is worried his and Stuart Townsend's characters are coming across too gay.