So I finally had my 2 lines which turned out to be the opening dialog to the big climax of the film. It was camera . . . sound . . . and ACTION, with me then grabbing Marina by her arm and telling her not to do what she is intending to do, and she turns to me to tell me why she is going to anyway, I question her explanation, and she then gives me another speech, stands speaks, and all hell breaks loose in the courtroom. We did it quite a few times because there was a lot of confusion about how the scene would be blocked. It took hours to figure it out. During my scene, no one ever came in between takes to tell me to do it differently so it must have been acceptable. Most everyone seems to assume I must be an actor in addition to being a lawyer or I wouldn’t be in the film. I suspect it was a bit easier for me to act this part in a courtroom where I am comfortable, in a role I played in real life. And I had two days to study how the other actors prepared for their lines. The first time I saw Walter doing it, I thought he was talking on a cell phone. The film won’t be out for a long time so I won’t be able to see how it went until then. But there is a still photographer taking hundreds of pictures of everything that is shot so I am hoping to get a still of this scene. If I do, I will post it.
Oh yes, and I was interviewed today for the extended features for the DVD about how I came to be doing the film and what legal issues it explores.
In the meantime, I am writing this while waiting for my wife and parents to finish the courtroom scenes they are in. (Someone just came in to say they were ordering pizza so this might run really late.) Its only fitting after they waited around all morning before being called to set that I have to wait for them for hours before going to dinner. When I was still on set, I had to wake up my father before a scene started shooting that he was probably going to be in. And, at an early take of the spectators fleeing the courtroom in terror, my mom was walking out slowly, looking over he shoulder to see what was happening. An actor told me during that take he had seen me waiving at someone to get out of the courtroom and wondered who it could be, then saw it was my parents. Later, he was walking past the video array when he heard one of the crew say, “we need to get the spectators to have more energy” and he saw they were viewing my parents.