Mr. Wickline, you have to be ready to die by 9:00 AM.
About two weeks ago I got a call from a buddy of mine asking if I wanted to do something very unique… he wanted to know if I would die for him. I kindly asked him to explain in a tad more detail and it turned out that he was offering me a chance to play a corpse on an episode of DEXTER. If you’re not familiar with the series DEXTER on Showtime… I’m going to come over and spit in your Cheerios until you go watch the show. Or you could check out this link: https://www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do, but if you don’t start watching it… I’m coming for your breakfast cereal.
Well, as I am already a big fan of the show, I jumped at the chance without asking anything like: ‘Will I get paid?’ ‘How bloody will I get?’ ‘Can I meet the cast?’ All I knew at that point was I was just going to show up and play dead; figured I could do that. I got a call from the AD who verified I was going to play the dead guy, that was follows by a series of calls from Karen in wardrobe to figure out my sizes, how tall I am, the length of hair, if I could bring my own clothes, etc. I believe I talked to Karen more that week than I did my own wife… I kind of miss her now. I also got a call from Central Casting to let me know my call time and set location. The guys at Central Casting really have this down. You call a number to find out your specific call time and location. Then you call another number before you go to bed to see if there has been any changes, then you call again when you wake up… and you keep calling periodically until you are to leave for the set. When I called I discovered I had a 9 AM call time, and everyone else had a 10:30 call time. I began to wonder what they were going to be doing to me for an hour and a half.
I arrived at base camp just before 9 AM and found Wally the 2nd AD. He got me checked in and sent over to the Kraft Service table to eat. It seems that when you are not working, you’re expected to be eating. I had breakfast on the ride down so I just hung out and waiting till Wally came and got me. I made a trip to wardrobe so they could chose which green shirt was best for me to die in then I was taken over to Luis whose job it turns out was to make me look dead. Luis is an expert at this. As he was applying make up, he was telling me how the blood would congeal at different parts of the body depending on how you died and in what position. He told me the learned a lot of this while visiting the morgues in Mexico when he was a kid.
At 11 am they took me over to the set in a van with the regular members of the cast and an actor who was just there for the day. I got to meet Michael C Hall (Dexter Morgan), Erik King (Sgt Doakes) and Lauren Velez (Lt. Maria La Guerta) as they were all in the scene we were filming. I wish I could give more than just first names on the crew, but that’s how it works there, everyone is just on first name basis and they work together to get the job done. We did a rehearsal until 11:30, I went back and got the rest of my dead make-up done and then we were back on set by 12:15 when filming began.
We were filming in a public area, so walking past a funnel cone store with my brains half hanging out was actually rather amusing. I got to hang out behind the scenes for most of the day as they were shooting cover from every angle. I got to see the actors go from reading their lines in the morning to hearing the characters say the line an hour later with the mannerisms I would expect from them. There was a moment, and I’m going to be purposely vague, but a moment when Dexter’s outward persona is supposed to slip and we see the killer inside… well, seeing that on television is very cool… seeing it ten feet from you is actually scary.
I got on camera at about quarter to 4 pm, laid down to find my mark and then they added the pool of blood and brain matter. I was on the ground for maybe a half hour as they first shot coverage, then some pans and finally some still photos to be used later on. I got up and felt the blood running down my face and shirt. Wally took me outside and helped me get cleaned up a little using paper towels and bottled waters. That’s when I noticed I was standing two doors down from a restaurant that I took and a girlfriend too a few years ago; made a note to call and tell her about this. Got enough blood off to feel safe getting into the van and was taken back to base camp to get a shower and head home.
Now the episode should be airing in late October or early November, once I have the dates I will post it. Also, I can say a good friend of mine also makes a cameo in it, but I’m not going to say whom yet. Now I just have to wait to see how I look on camera… and figure out what I’m going to do with this blood covered t-shirt that is now part of television history (okay, a teeny-tiny part).
Luis took the attached pictures and I thank him for it. And thanks to Linda, Keith, Wally, Lauren, Luis, Keith again, Michael, Erik, Lauren, Tim, Scott and about a dozen other people I met that just made the day so damn much fun. And to the girl at the funnel cake store… I’m sorry.
Well, as I am already a big fan of the show, I jumped at the chance without asking anything like: ‘Will I get paid?’ ‘How bloody will I get?’ ‘Can I meet the cast?’ All I knew at that point was I was just going to show up and play dead; figured I could do that. I got a call from the AD who verified I was going to play the dead guy, that was follows by a series of calls from Karen in wardrobe to figure out my sizes, how tall I am, the length of hair, if I could bring my own clothes, etc. I believe I talked to Karen more that week than I did my own wife… I kind of miss her now. I also got a call from Central Casting to let me know my call time and set location. The guys at Central Casting really have this down. You call a number to find out your specific call time and location. Then you call another number before you go to bed to see if there has been any changes, then you call again when you wake up… and you keep calling periodically until you are to leave for the set. When I called I discovered I had a 9 AM call time, and everyone else had a 10:30 call time. I began to wonder what they were going to be doing to me for an hour and a half.
I arrived at base camp just before 9 AM and found Wally the 2nd AD. He got me checked in and sent over to the Kraft Service table to eat. It seems that when you are not working, you’re expected to be eating. I had breakfast on the ride down so I just hung out and waiting till Wally came and got me. I made a trip to wardrobe so they could chose which green shirt was best for me to die in then I was taken over to Luis whose job it turns out was to make me look dead. Luis is an expert at this. As he was applying make up, he was telling me how the blood would congeal at different parts of the body depending on how you died and in what position. He told me the learned a lot of this while visiting the morgues in Mexico when he was a kid.
At 11 am they took me over to the set in a van with the regular members of the cast and an actor who was just there for the day. I got to meet Michael C Hall (Dexter Morgan), Erik King (Sgt Doakes) and Lauren Velez (Lt. Maria La Guerta) as they were all in the scene we were filming. I wish I could give more than just first names on the crew, but that’s how it works there, everyone is just on first name basis and they work together to get the job done. We did a rehearsal until 11:30, I went back and got the rest of my dead make-up done and then we were back on set by 12:15 when filming began.
We were filming in a public area, so walking past a funnel cone store with my brains half hanging out was actually rather amusing. I got to hang out behind the scenes for most of the day as they were shooting cover from every angle. I got to see the actors go from reading their lines in the morning to hearing the characters say the line an hour later with the mannerisms I would expect from them. There was a moment, and I’m going to be purposely vague, but a moment when Dexter’s outward persona is supposed to slip and we see the killer inside… well, seeing that on television is very cool… seeing it ten feet from you is actually scary.
I got on camera at about quarter to 4 pm, laid down to find my mark and then they added the pool of blood and brain matter. I was on the ground for maybe a half hour as they first shot coverage, then some pans and finally some still photos to be used later on. I got up and felt the blood running down my face and shirt. Wally took me outside and helped me get cleaned up a little using paper towels and bottled waters. That’s when I noticed I was standing two doors down from a restaurant that I took and a girlfriend too a few years ago; made a note to call and tell her about this. Got enough blood off to feel safe getting into the van and was taken back to base camp to get a shower and head home.
Now the episode should be airing in late October or early November, once I have the dates I will post it. Also, I can say a good friend of mine also makes a cameo in it, but I’m not going to say whom yet. Now I just have to wait to see how I look on camera… and figure out what I’m going to do with this blood covered t-shirt that is now part of television history (okay, a teeny-tiny part).
Luis took the attached pictures and I thank him for it. And thanks to Linda, Keith, Wally, Lauren, Luis, Keith again, Michael, Erik, Lauren, Tim, Scott and about a dozen other people I met that just made the day so damn much fun. And to the girl at the funnel cake store… I’m sorry.
