Dream, Plan, Travel, Repeat.

A few weeks ago, shortly after I arrived in Cairo, I went to dinner with an American student who referred me to a casting agent for the Egyptian film and television industry. Thinking that it would be amusing to finally be “discovered” in Cairo after failing to successfully do so in both Hollywood and Bollywood, I gave the agent, Nova, a call.Then, last Saturday, Nova called to ask if Matteo and I wanted to play a “foreign couple” in a film’s restaurant scene the following day. Of course, we replied, it’s the part that we were born to play!So, Sunday morning, we joined Nova and his van of foreigners destined for extra work and headed off to the film studio. The studio is in Giza, so I saw the Pyramids along the way (yes, the Pyramids), first peeking from behind a group of bland, concrete apartment buildings, and then standing alone on a desert plateau that looks extremely isolated in pictures but is really just steps from a bustling Cairene suburb. (The Pyramids — dare I say it?– seemed disappointingly small next to the apartment buildings, and the whole affair seemed hilariously anti-climatic, but I’ll still go “see” them as a tourist one of these days. After all, I do need a photo of myself in front of them to put beside the one of me at the Taj Mahal.)Upon our arrival at the studio, Matteo and I were sent to the stylist, who immediately rejected the outfit I was wearing (dress pants and a long tunic I wore to a recent job interview) in favor of a dress that I had also brought with me. I got into the dress, and then was told by a different stylist that they decided that instead of sitting at a table with Matteo, Matteo would sit with another person and I would play a waitress in the film. I was hurried into another room, and given a costume to put on.Before I describe the costume, keep in mind that this is an Egyptian film, and that apart from some time on the beach in Tanzania, I haven’t publicly displayed my legs or shoulders since March. Ok? Ok.The film scene that I was in takes place at a nautical-themed restaurant/bar called “Submarine.” The foreign waiters were given navy-blue long shorts with suspenders, a T-shirt with the “Submarine” logo, and a pair of comfy-looking white and navy-striped laceless Vans. Tame enough. My waitress costume, on the other hand, was a getup doubtlessly created by a sexually-repressed Egyptian man harboring fantasies about Japanese schoolgirls. Navy-blue tube dress with a short, flouncy skirt. White-trimmed navy-blue square flap (like the back of American sailors’ shirt collars) tied around my bare shoulders with red ribbons. White gloves trimmed with red embroidery. White knee socks. Round white cap with a gold anchor patch. Three and a half inch red platform shoes.I looked at myself in the mirror and laughed for a long time. Then I teetered off on my platforms to the hair and make-up room. The room was full of Egyptian women extras (several of whose scandalous “dancer” outfits, with their teeny-tiny skin-tight mini-dresses and metallic stripper shoes, made me feel comfortably conservative), but the hairdressers and make-up “artists” (I use the term loosely) were all men. The hairdressing experience was easy: all waitresses were to have their hair blow-dried straight. As for the makeup …Nova told me later that the make-up guys usually go through a day or so of training… women left their chairs wearing several inches of clown makeup. Blue-eyed girls received masks of bright blue eyeshadow and pink lipstick. Brown-eyed girls (like myself) had purple eyeshadow with a streak of white powder at their brows and purple lipstick.Laughing even harder than when I left the dressing room, I moved on to the set. There, I climbed another ladder rung toward stardom: rather than being just an average waitress, the director selected me to be one of two waitresses tending the bar where the film’s lead actor sits during the scene. Score!Then I alternately worked and sat around for another 12 hours or so. (If Egypt has any labor laws, the film industry is oblivious to them.) Lots of takes, lots (thanks to my strategic position) of face time, and lots of joking with the lead actor, who was a nice guy but was obviously a little annoyed that I didn’t understand how famous he was. Despite my designated role as a “bartender,” I was mainly yelled at to “dance, dance, DANCE!” to the music being “sung” by the lead actress on the restaurant’s stage while occasionally spilling colorful fruit-flavored syrup into wine glasses (and all over my increasingly stained white gloves). At the end of the night, I was exhausted — my feet hurt from those awful shoes, my arms were sticky from all of the fruit concentrate, and my gloves were disgusting!– but happy with my first film experience and, better yet, 500 Egyptian pounds richer than before.I went to bed around 6:30 that morning, and awoke around 2 in the afternoon to find that Nova had called to see if I could return to the set that evening for some re-shoots around the bar. Feeling slightly over the movie star experience, but being unable to turn down another 500 pounds (that’s 15 nights rent!), I said yes. So I met him again for the van ride to Giza, saw the Pyramids for a second time along the way (yawn), squeezed myself back into that delightfully classy waitress outfit, and had make-up re-plastered onto my face.I arrived on set thinking that everything would be more of the same, but the night ended up being delightfully different and better than before. My fellow bartender (a fun Sudanese girl who I had befriended the previous night) was the only other foreigner there, and we spent a grand total of 15 minutes working before hanging around the set waiting for the director to dismiss us. During that time, I met an older actor (famous in Egypt for his villain roles) who, as the son of an Egyptian diplomat, had tons of fun travel stories to share. I also had my first cup of Turkish coffee, which is deliciously sweet and thick. (Turks will also flip the glass over and read the drinker’s fortune in the pattern left by the grounds.) After a few hours, we were free to go.But the night still had one more surprise in store for me. Waiting for the van that would return me to my hotel, I met the film’s director of photography and discovered that he had received his MA in film from UCLA in the 1990s as an Egyptian Fulbright student. Small world moment! We declared our alumni pride, trashed USC for a bit, talked about LA, and, naturally, indulged in celebrity gossip (Bruce Willis is apparently a sweet man, while Demi Moore struck him as “a complete bitch”). He gave me his number in case I ran into any problems in Egypt, and then returned to the set. Meanwhile, the people sitting next to me told me in awed tones that the man is renowned as one of the major players in the Egyptian film industry. Life is hilarious.Now I’m recovering from those long days and reveling in my new-found wealth. Rent’s paid for the next month, and I’m a star(let…ok, extra). It was truly one of my best adventures yet.

Tags: Cairo, Egypt, Film, RTW 07/08, Work

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