I finally did it!

This year has been a bit of a wasteland for me, regarding my life's purpose, that for which I live, my passion that flows through my veins... sorta kinda, which is you know.. acting and stuff. I've done nothing, "literally" nothing.

Until yesterday, which was my annual debut at real life acting.. not some interview, not just hanging around doing some silly promo for something that I wasn't considered good enough to act for which didn't end up happening anyway.. not another of the meetings I had for other stuff that never happened.. not a reading, not "rehearsal", not an acting class, but really acting in a real life film. Well a student film ok, but it's something.

Yesterday, was also the coldest day ever recorded on earth, or at least the coldest day here so far this year, until today, and there was tons of snow, and my scene was set outside, in the wilderness. We went to the wilderness on the tram.. short trip across the river but with the 20+ minute wait, and lugging all the equipment, or in my case watching the others lug equipment it was a fitting start to the day. The wilderness was very beautifully played by a popular central Prague park, due to the difficulty of getting anywhere whenever it snows a bit in early December. Fortunately due to the cold and the heavy snowfall very few people were about so it being remote was convincing enough.. I think.

We set up camp.. I was hoping for somewhere near a cafe, or cabin or a structure of any sort, but we had no such thing... we had to brave the outdoors as best we could.
And it was cold, real fucking cold. Somehow during rehearsing our moves or filming it wasn't that bad.. partly because I was moving of course.. but I think because my mind was on something. The second we finished and the long session of standing around waiting commenced, I felt the cold very sharply. And there was a lot of that.

I did have fun, really did. It was quite an adventure, being out there, knee deep in snow, playing scenes, getting snow in your boots, and being on set is always fun, the acting bit, the joking around and being stupid bit, the seeing people I haven't seen for a while. Of course, looking back from the comfort of my room, with dry socks, it seems all the more nostalgic.. at the time I was more preoccupied with the cold, and the wet socks..

We had a short break in the only place with an indoors within a 10 minute walk, some fancy cafe/restaurant where nobody was, except for the manager who was outside shoveling snow most of the time, and bought overpriced hot chocolate for the privilege.. took off our shoes for a bit, let the feet thaw out and I mean thaw out.. they were literally frozen, or at least it felt like it. Broke a glass left on another table.. I mean I didn't but one of the party did and I watched on as they tried to clear it up before the manager came back inside. It's funny that, how often do you find yourself in that situation? You break something in an establishment and nobody but those of your party see it, no staff, no other customers. What is the correct protocol in such a situation? We found it a little awkward.

So.. the later part of filming was nicer.. it was shorter, and a bit of sun streamed through the trees making it seem really warm, and it looked lovely. All of it was just beautiful, and something I would never have dragged myself out to see if I didn't have to.

And that's it. I mean, going home was a pain, I had to get a tram, metro then a tram and I missed one just getting out of the metro and the next one after that decided to succumb to the chaos that's effecting our public transport because of the snow and didn't come for like 40 minutes.. so I waited there, freezing, not wanting to walk home and slip on my ass 6 times, socks wet, not knowing whether it's coming in a minute or in 30.. but that's not important.

And today is even colder, so I'm extra glad that filming was yesterday.