On The Set of The League

The LeagueI was called Friday night to get booked as the “Hot Girl” for the very first episode of The League, a brand new television series on FX about four men who want to play on a fantasy football league.  I find out Sunday that they need me to wear upper class business suits/outfits for the scene we are shooting on Monday.  The location is a neighborhood bar for lawyers, stock brokers, etc.   As I look through my wardrobe, I notice that I do have some business attire, but not what I would call upper class or super trendy and expensive.  I started to get slightly concerned as I wanted to make a good impression and not be the only one in top notch clothing, so I dragged my boyfriend with me shopping for several hours on Sunday, shopping that neither of us wanted to do. 

We stop in the cheap stores first, hoping to find something that will look nice enough.  As we are looking through Charlotte Rouse, we find a few items that may work, but not a full outfit.  We decide to go over to Macy’s thinking that they will probably have something slightly nicer – nope.  Tired of going from store to store, we decide to head over to the dreaded Nordstrom (not that I don’t love Nordstrom, because I do, its just super expensive and no longer fits within my budget.  If I was living in Seattle, I’d be fine, but doubling my expenses living in LA I just cannot afford it).  The nice sales associate helped me find a million outfits to try on and I ended up settling with three options for set on Monday.  My favorite of all was a cute dress (I already forget the designer) that was a size 0.  Normally I wear a size 4 so I was shocked that I could even fit into it.  A size 2 would have been much better, but I made the size 0 work.  Six hundred dollars later, we headed home.

Monday morning comes along and I try to look my best for set (still thinking that my role is featured, like they had said, “very featured” as a matter of fact).  When I arrive, all the females are in the cheap Charlotte Rouse and Forever 21 clothing that I saw while shopping, damn (not that I do not shop there, it is just that they had said expensive, upper class clothing).  They had also made it seem like there were only two “Hot Girls”, several bar patrons, a waiter, two bartenders, etc.  I found out once there that practically all the females were “Hot Girls”.  I also thought (I have obviously not done much background work in the past) that makeup would still take a look at you and give you powder or gloss as needed – wrong.  Wanting to be professional, I left my phone in the car and I also dropped off all my extra clothing and makeup for touchups… oops, bad mistake.  During the whole set time they did not want us going back to our cars, so I had to borrow some lip gloss and talk with all the other actors to keep from getting bored.

While we were in our holding area, I got everyone to play this game called, “I’m going on a picnic.”  It’s a challenging mind game where each player has to figure out that pattern that the first person had started and then join in once they think they had figured it out.  This led us to play several other mind games and it turned out to be a pretty good day.

They served amazing food, everyone on set was super friendly, including the four main actors and the ten hours we were there flew by fast.  While on set we were all just background at a bar, so I was ordering fake shots for my friends, we were laughing (miming/quietly) and having a blast ‘relaxing after work’.  It is funny to watch the background actors on television shows… some are fun to watch, others are completely boring.  You have to make it fun though, right?!  Otherwise, what’s the point?  I decided because of this experience, instead of getting a flexible second job, I decided I will do background work (pays well).  You can pick and choose your days; I can still act/audition and not have to take up a job such as Starbucks that barely pays the bills.  Plus, there’s always that small chance that someone on set will love you and want you to come back for something bigger and better. 

Check out the new FX series, The League airing in November!