My Time on THE DUCHESS, or Thrice Knightley

Have just spent three days shooting a new film in Greenwich called THE DUCHESS. It’s the story of Georgiana, who was Duchess of Devonshire in the late 18th Century - a sort of Paris Hilton of her day.

Day 1 - Sunday 14th Oct

Had to get down to Greenwich for 8am, which meant rising at 6am (on a Sunday morning - help!). The shoot took place at the old Naval College near the Cutty Sark - a location I’ve been to twice before with the Arts & Heritage Club. I’d had to go for a costume fitting the previous Monday, so I was already familiar with the 80 min tube journey via the Jubilee Line and the DLR.

I had to queue up at the costume tent on site for 20 mins in order to get my outfit, and then a further half-hour for my make-up and wig fitting before I was deemed ready to start work. Unfortunately I had arrived too late for the normal full breakfast, so had to make do with a sausage roll (which was OK). I then had to sit down to wait in the mess tent.

I was playing a gentleman farmer attending what would have been the original ‘farmer’s market’ in Westminster. When all 300+ of us got to the set, we were amazed by the transformation of one of the roads beside the Dining Hall. What once had been asphalt and pavement was now a mud-and-straw-strewn marketplace (I say mud and straw - as the day progressed, it was gradually mingled with extraneous droppings from the horses that were pulling five carriages up and down the street. I was next to one of the coaches at one stage, and had to jump to avoid being splashed by an unhealthy amount of discarded dung!).

There were numerous stalls on both sides of the road selling vegetables, pewter items, wood, live geese and hens, dead rats (and rat-traps!) and so forth. A lot of the food was artificial, but several stalls contained game shot the previous day on royal estates - partridges, rabbits - as well as a roast pig split in two a la Damien Hirst. There was also a fresh fish stall, with several real ones scattered amongst the plastic variety for sampling purposes.

Our task was simply to browse amongst the various stalls, and then react with joy as the Royal Coach containing the Duchess rolled through the thoroughfare. Again. And again. And again. Fortunately it was a lovely sunny day, so everyone was in a good mood.

I was lucky enough to be positioned near to one girl playing a ‘lady of the night’ (even though it was daytime), with a low corsage. Needless to say, it was like flies to a honeypot to some of the gents on set, and there was much flirting and witty euphemism-ing from one and all (myself included, of course).

Did I mention that the Duchess is being played by Keira Knightley (or did my heading give it away?)? We had great fun playing ’spot-the-Keira’ each time her carriage shot past us, as it was usually her stand-in doing the run whilst the crew were rehearsing the scheduled movements. (At one point, the horses decided to gallop down the street rather than trot, and only the quick-thinking of my younger male companion prevented me from being trampled to death as I was caught between the carriage and a horse-and-rider coming the other way. Phew! Thank you, sir!).

We filmed the same scene over and over from different angles, and it was only the onset of dusk that brought the day to a close at 6pm. However, there was then a stampede as 300+ extras raced back to base in order to have their wigs removed and costumes carefully stored away - as a result, I didn’t manage to escape until 7.30pm, eventually arriving home at 9pm. More of the same tomorrow!

Day 2 - Monday 15th

8.30am start today - a little more acceptable, with the crowd reduced from 300+ to 250. The scene has now shifted to an inner courtyard at the college, and the majority of the stalls have been transferred accordingly (fortunately minus the dung!). The roadway has been completely converted overnight back to its usual condition - hard to believe it’s the same location as yesterday.

Today we are a crowd listening to a political speech given from a wooden podium, surrounded by a different market to the one we were frequenting yesterday. However, the sunny weather is not being kind to the produce - the pig is attracting several flies (most of whom I thought were supposed to be dead at this time of year?), and the fish, which was fresh with a slight scent yesterday, is now getting a little whiffy - and with another sunny day on the cards, the prospects are not appealing.

However, it’s our first chance to see Keira in the flesh - and to say you’ve spent two days staring up at her on the podium would make many a man green with envy. She’s wearing a huge bushy blond wig and what looks like a dead ferret on top of her hat - the weight was probably phenomenal. Her hands are also stuffed inside a dead cat for a muff. She seems to be coping, though, and appears to be in good spirits - though all she has to do on each take is to introduce the main speaker, Mr Charles Gray of the Whig Party (played by Dominic Cooper, who Paul advises me was in THE HISTORY BOYS). He has the bulk of the scene on his shoulders, as he has to give a rallying speech over and over again, each time from a different angle. We have to chip in with cheers, claps and ‘hear hear’s’ at various points.

What I have seen off-camera are most extras walking around with mobile phones glued to their ears - it’s a bizarre sight seeing any of the extras doing a 21st-Century occupation, such as drinking from styrofoam cups or ’smoking a fag’. And as for going to the toilet, and coping with various flaps and stockings etc whilst doing so - well…! All I can say is, thank God for the invention of the zip!

P.M. - we are all assembled in the mess tent after lunch for a severe talking-to. Apparently one extra has been ‘discreetly’ photographing Keira with his mobile phone, and she’s not happy, especially after a number of recent ‘private’ snaps that have made their way into the papers. So we are all forbidden from taking our mobiles to the set. Marvellous. Thanks a bunch, mysterious extra.

Don’t know if lunch has affected the stars, but Dominic starts to mess up his speech during the afternoon. Then it’s Keira’s turn, with a few well-placed f-words emerging as a result. Then Dominic again. Focus, guys, focus….

Finish 6.15pm - manage to make a quicker getaway this time, which meant getting home for 8.25pm - just in time to miss University Challenge. The perils of not having Sky + - oh well….

Day 3 - Tuesday 16th

7am call this time - up at 5am (groan - feeling the worse for wear by this time). Same scene as yesterday - a few more close-up shots of the stars, with us lot chipping in our interjections - but as we’re not being directly filmed during this, we’ve been reduced to 80+ in number. However, rain is forecast for today - and as we arrive at the forecourt to film, all dressed up to the nines, the downpour starts. Fish a lot stinkier now - however the rain is helping to keep the pong at a reasonable level.

So we’re meandering around the college in the dry, drinking tea, coffee and apple juice, and I’m taking the opportunity to learn my lines for OUTSIDE EDGE, which goes on stage in November. A few extras have brought their mobiles on set today, but no-one on the crew seems to have said anything about them. Unfortunately I’ve left mine in my bag in the mess tent - and I subsequently miss out on a filming opportunity for another job for this Wednesday. I should learn to break the rules a little more often….

The rain finally slows to a fine drizzle at 11.30am, and we proceed with the day’s filming. We won’t actually be seen on camera during the close-ups, so we’re given plastic ponchos to wear to protect our wigs and costumes from the drizzle. As we’re merely providing a sightline for Keira and Dominic, we haven’t got to look at them, and my attention wanders to an extra standing behind them who will be seen in the background of the close-ups, between two pillars (those aren’t pillars….!). Some outrageous over-acting, obviously being done in an attempt to stand out on-screen whilst Dominic is talking. Looks suspiciously like Ricky Gervais, ironically….. disgraceful behaviour. Hope he gets CGI’d out of the shot…..

Lunch is announced, and I get to leave the set walking directly in Keira’s footsteps. Her usual minder is mysteriously absent this time, which gives me a chance to examine her massive headdress from a few feet away. We walk through a small corridor. She subsequently climbs into a waiting limo, and I head off to join the rest of the extras at the mess tent - such is fame!

After lunch, with both the rain and ponchos now thankfully absent, we shoot a number of establishing shots in and around the courtyard, while Keira and Dominic film an intimate moment elsewhere. Unfortunately this means having to get nose-to-nose with the aforementioned stinky fish, which people are understandably reluctant to do, and the more wily extras (including yours truly) manage to get to the outskirts of every shot in order to avoid the pong.

This takes up the rest of the afternoon, and we finally wrap proceedings at 5.45pm. I wave both wig and costume goodbye, and get back to Harrow for 8pm. The shooting will continue here until Thursday, after which time the film unit will move on to Hampton Court (having started at Chatsworth House); however, as the number of extras needed is shrinking by the day, I am now surplus to requirements. Sob!

Thus my first period piece comes to an end - rather satisfactory. More please!

This entry was posted on 17/10/2007 at 03:42 pm and is filed under Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.