Catering? Some fava beans, please

We're standing in the woods by the Liberty reservoir, outside of Baltimore. It's a beautiful strip of land, the water calm and clear, a perfect little finger of land from which lead actor is fishing. And the actor is Brian Cox, the original Hannibal Lechter.

It's amazing watching him work, as he's one of those old pros who can make the process look effortless. I am reminded of a indie I worked on a few years ago, with a young actor (26 or so) and an older actor (62 or so). The latter had done over 100 films. The younger actor had considerable talent, but needed to prep to get himself into the proper mood. For one bit of denouncement, the younger actor played morose tunes on his iPod for half an hour, and the crew was forbidden to speak to him at all until we shot the scene. The older actor prepared by joking around with the crew until the cameras rolled, then, like flipping a switch, he was a bellowing, red-faced, disappointed mentor. He stalks out of frame, realizing that he has done a great take, and flips the switch back, silently mouthing "yeah!" as he pumps his fists into the air. I think it really is like flipping a switch for the more experienced ones.

The film is called "Red," and while it wouldn't be much of a spoiler to talk about the scene's context, let's say the entire story was being set up from this scene. Me, I was a props specialist, technically a weapons wrangler. It was a nice cool day, hanging out in the woods next to the water, getting paid to handle firearms. What's not to like? Well, other than the massive case of poison ivy that I wound up with...