This Modern Writer: A Day as An Extra An On Set Dispatch From Vallie Lynn Watson

Ed: Vallie Lynn Watson recently edited the fine, fine, Writing, Place and Film issue of Rick Magazine and she was kind enough to write a dispatch about her day as an extra on the set of MY FAVORITE TEENAGE SOAP OPERA SET IN NORTH CAROLINA IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD or as you may refer to it, the one true show to rule them all, One Tree Hill. If you are a fan of the best show in the whole wide world, you will love every juicy moment. If you are not a fan, I am sad for you.

Had to be at a parking garage at 6:30, and they drove me in one of their ever-present long white vans to Clothes Over Bros, a block away. Went in a side/back door and joined about a dozen other people of all ages/races in a small, sort of hot room. We’d end up being in this room off and on for half the day, toiling in folding chairs. Had to fill out tax forms””I hadn’t even thought about getting paid as I of course would’ve done it for free, but I’ll get about $100 for the day.

I was in four scenes (fingers crossed that they’re all used!). The first two were really taxing: I had to walk back and forth in front of Clothes Over Bros. The first of the two was about nine o’clock, and when I rounded the corner on my walk, I almost ran smack into Austin Nichols (Julian), who looks hot as shit with his hair all curly and unkempt. And then Lee Morris/Norris (?), Mouth—or as I like to call him, Minkus—was right behind him. The scene was the two of them exiting COB, and in most of the shots I was walking right past the front door as they exit. Right when we were finishing all this up, Sophia Bush (Brooke) walked up in the clothes she was filming in a couple days before (a tight, lovely gray and black number and weird heels—they have this bulb-like thing at the bottom of the actual heel).

(By the way, if you wanna try to spot me, this is all for the second episode of the season. I am as short as I always was, my long, blonde, curly [probably frizzy] hair was down, and I was wearing an empire-waist turquoise/green patterned dress that may be too boobalicious and probably makes me look pregnant, though I sucked tummy in with all my might. And was wearing too much makeup).

Back to the waiting room for a couple more hours in the folding chairs. Most everyone was nodding off. It was warm, and they didn’t supply us with coffee! They did provide us with weird (leftoverish) food throughout the day, and water.

About noon, more walking in front of COB. I could see inside that Daphne (Brooke’s mom) and Sophia were filming an argument. At the end of the scene, Daphne exits COB. She looks as mean as I expected. I kinda doubt I can be seen in this shot.

Back to the waiting room, and the nice older ladies I’d made friends with at 6:45 started to get on my two-hours-of-night-before-sleep nerves. They thought it was cute to stand in a line and show off their ballet plies (sp?). I kept going to the bathroom (people probably thought I had some drug problem!) because to get there, you had to go through the middle room that is attached to the actual COB store/set (for those who don’t know, this is an actual space, a former business, in downtown Wilmington). I could see all the cloth chairs with names on them (Brooke, Millicent, and Julian’s were in the back corner). I could see the monitors that the directors/producers were watching on. Once on the monitor, I could see Sophia goofing off, making faces right into the camera. Cute. There was always music blaring between takes, probably to keep the energy up.

About 1:30 we were all driven in the vans to lunch (oh, got to walk through the front of COB, the actual “store,” which was cool) two blocks away, in a Hilton conference room. Before we even walked in I could hear Sophia’s throaty voice. She was at a corner table, sitting next to Lisa Goldsomething (Millie). As I was getting my food at the buffet I heard Sophia say something about her and Austin (Julian, her on and off-screen boyfriend) having watched Ghostbusters the night before. I sat down and tried not to stare at their table (she was still wearing her black and gray) but it was hard not to. She’s very loud—her voice carries—and seemed to draw all the attention in the room.

About three, another dozen extras who’d be playing doctors and nurses in the next two scenes invaded our hot folding-chair room. About four, we were all white-vanned over to Cape Fear Community College to film two hospital scenes. This time our holding room was a large lecture classroom, much nicer except the old ladies sat down next to me and drove me batshitcrazy. As I texted my friend Vickie, I DID NOT NEED TO KNOW ALL DETAILS OF ALL THREE OF YOUR DIVORCES, ANNOYING LADY! At one point, oldlady2 said, “I wish I knew how to text so I wouldn’t have to speak.” Really, lady, really?

Different people were chosen for different scenes. About 4:30, I was chosen and went to the “hospital” cafeteria where I immediately heard Sophia, then spotted James (Nathan) who was not sitting in his cloth “Nathan” chair but instead, tucked into a back corner quietly reading. Tried hard to see what book it was, but couldn’t. Sophia, who he recently dated, approached him with her IPad thingy and said, “Can I show you something?” He was polite to her but standoffish.

Then Joy (Haley) came in and the three of them set up for their scene, sitting at a cafeteria table. The conversation was about Brooke’s mom calling the cops on her, and something about Haley being pregnant (I still have not seen the last six episodes of this past season, so I’m not up on what’s going on. Going to wait to get the season 7 DVDs next month and watch the season in its entirety, some weekend with a couple bottles of wine.)

In this scene, I had to walk across the cafeteria, pretty much right behind Nathan&Haley. Of all the scenes I filmed I’d guess this is the one I could most likely be seen in. I’m carrying a turquoise purse.

Back to holding and then about an hour later, me and a goth (is that still the right term?) dude were chosen to film a scene in the “hospital” waiting room. We were sat in some chairs, goth was told to play with his IPhone and I was given a coffee cup of water to be sipping on. As they were setting up, Jackson (Jamie, the darling little kid who’s no longer blond) sat down in the chair next to me and was playing and talking to everyone.

It was six chairs, three on each side, back-to-back. Sophia sat down on the other side; we were back-to-back catty cornered. They filmed a scene where Jackson ran up to her. If this airs, you should be able to see the back of my head and maybe a little bit of my profile; I kept turning my head that way some but didn’t want to be too obvious. At one point, Joe Davolla (director) came over and very quietly—as though trying to convey the mood—suggested Sophia act more longing (something about wanting a baby).

A little more time in the holding room and then at 7, the white vans took us back to the parking garage. I so wanna do this again!