STORY 5. I WANT TO BE A STAR, NO EXTRAS. I had closed these storos jana but I have been told the week is not over. He was becoming a dilemna to us. You see, I met Morris Mwadulo through a friend who swore he was a good actor and a funny story teller though he then had not written a script. Some people may not know how to write scripts as a craft yet, but they can be invaluable story contributors which more accomplished writers then craft into shootable scripts. So Mwadulo eager to act and write asked us to help, but all the auditions the team called him for he did not make the cut (sometimes people dont get picked due to several factors not related to them being good actors) so he started coming on set as an extra. Those guys who are part of the crowd huukooo in the background as main stars do their thing. It is a vital role, this extras role, but as the lowest rank in acting, is often not what actors like and is derided in many terms e.g waka pass (walkers past) or nyinyi or fillers). So Mwadulo became an extra, who during shoots would ask afterwards why someone was being told to do ABC or repeat stuff or why the director would yell for a certain extra not to look at the stars or camera while a shoot was on like the director was mad. One day an extra was needed whom the market women would quarrel with and in the ensuing drama, would get thoroughly hit by cabbages the women would hurl at him. Now not many wanted to be stoned with cabbages as they felt it was another way extras are humiliated. Mwadulo volunteered. The director told him to dodge 3 cabbages then let the 4th hit him but look like he was trying to dodge it, and allow them cabbages to rain on him. With the frustrations of extras who due to inexperience just dont quite get directions, the director sat back and whispered to me to brace ourselves for a long day. The director then was a harsh perfectionist from England, and I was a trainee 3rd Assistant meaning I was handling extras and when they messed the director would say how useless I was in my job which happened so frequently I was always terrified being on set. Action! Mwadulo dodged like he was an expert kati (bean bag) player and voila, at the crucial moment the cabbages got him. It looked so natural. The director yelled cut, walked into set as we all stood terrified he was going to throw a tantrum, and shook Mwadulos hand. That evening, the Director met the writers and said he wants that cabbage extras role expanded into the script, and Mwadulo became a supporting actor, then next season one of the main actors. He later came on board asking to sit in the writers team to learn writing as an observer not as a writer for the series. One day he gave a story about Pamela but his story was ruthlessly trashed and Pamela written off. Hours later he suprised us by asking where was Pamela in the story. We laughed and made bad jokes about the Pamela character who had died before even being scripted. So bad the script editor had to stop the team from making this new aspiring writer feel useless. Unperturbed, he stood up and defended why the Pamela character was important, and suddenly the team saw how important Pamela was. It was too late for Pamela though, but we realised Mwadulo was not just speaking from the blues. He officially became a writer in the series. And now is a major actor in other series. So, newbies, this talk of I want a big role not a small one, punguzeni. The road to stardom is sometimes paved with years of several extras roles. Extras are so important, that is why we laugh at a scene where it is supposed to be an elegant dinner at A five star hotel but the production did not think extras as vital and picked Tom Dick and Harrys from the streets dressed like they are going for a bend over party in the ghettoes. Or a market scene or bar scene where the main actors are saying this place is so crowded and busy yet the place is so empty the words echo.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 08:51:08 +0000
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