Today I went to the "cast and crew" screening of Mr. and Mrs. Smith with my husband. I remember reading the screenplay a year ago and thinking it was a much better script than that of most action movies I’ve seen. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why though… Upon seeing the finished movie it seems obvious: the film is funny. I started watching the movie with relatively mild anticipation (well, as mild as possible considering that this is the first movie I’ve ever been in), but as it got closer to the moment I knew I was to appear onscreen, I started to wish I had brought a paper bag in case I started to hyperventilate. You can hear me before you see me in the movie and that moment of hearing myself say, "Welcome, neighbors!" was the beginning of what would develop into a nearly two hour out-of-body experience. I’ve yet to experience anything that is as wonderful, horrifying, confusing, and surreal as seeing myself several stories high. Wonderful, because making movies is what I want to do with my life. Horrible, because who could ever like their own face several stories high? Confusing, because I still can’t believe I’m in a movie with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Surreal, see all of the above.
At the end of the movie, I’m quite pleased that my scenes stayed in and that they weren’t cut to shreds. However, I have to say that objectively I think my scenes should have been taken out of the movie because they were distracting and interrupted the flow. Everyone close to me has been assuring me that this is not the case and that I only found my scenes especially distracting because I was in them. I’ve decided to agree with this point of view…not so much because of what my friends and family say, but because I trust that director Doug Liman and the producers have no vested interest in not hurting my feelings and wouldn’t have left the scenes in if they didn’t add to the movie.
My oldest brother did say that he thought my scenes were distracting, too, but then again I grew up listening to "You’re pretty…(pause of indeterminate length here)…pretty ugly", so I’ve decided that what my brother was really trying to say was that he was so excited to see me onscreen that his attention was diverted from the rest of the movie. I also thought the movie was a little long, but, again, these well-wishers promise me that it is not. I think time simply dilated for me whenever I appeared on screen.
All in all, it was a great movie (in my unbiased opinion, of course) and I’m very proud to have been a part of it. It’s an odd feeling to know I will never again have that moment of seeing myself in my first movie. It’s a moment I’ve been looking forward to for a long time…strange how it’s already passed.
