Top O' The Mornin To Ya

Hello from Dublin! What a whirlwind it's been since Thursday. 

The last time we spoke, I was looking down on some snowy streets on Thursday afternoon.  I packed up and went down around 3:45 to catch my ride to the airport for a 7:30 pm flight to Dublin.  I asked to be picked up a tad earlier as I had an important phone call at 6 pm and wanted to be through security in time to find a quiet enough place... So, I get in the car (a very high-strung driver from the production. He warned me the roads were a mess and it's gonna take a long time to get to the airport. I tried to relax and just go with whatever we were given but this dude was passing his stress back onto me.  Immediately we ran into a full log jam... side streets unplowed or salted.... cars inching forward. The whole time, I'm getting lectured about Toronto's roads, their city government, his own personal finance dilemmas, unions, road conditions, ice, weather, and traffic patterns. Fuck! 

When we finally inched our way to the highway the snow had turned to rain and the traffic lightened up. I made it to the airport at 5:42, where I was greeted by a... GREETER! This was new for me. Production had arranged for a kindly older woman to walk me through ticketing and security and all that. It was quite a luxury until it was kind of annoying. She really helped me move through quickly which gave me just enough time to make my phone call, but then she insisted on going to the lounge, which I don't really care for - sometimes it's nice but this lounge was fully packed with no seating... the whole airport was "at capacity' it seemed. And I tried to kindly dismiss her - "I'm good, I think I'll just walk around." but she clung on: "You go for a walk, I'll wait here by the gate." Hey lady, I'm capable of getting on the plane by myself, my Lord!  

Eventually, she took the hint and we parted ways.  The flight was delayed an hour due to the snow. We loaded onto the plane, got all cozy and settled in and then we sat there. And then we sat there some more... after maybe an hour or so, the pilot finally came on the loudspeaker and said that the airport was short-staffed and they were taking a very long time loading the bags onto the plane. We sat there at least another hour until we finally pushed back from the gate and took off. 

I was going to watch The Holdovers but decided against it as I was going to try and fall asleep and actually wanted to see the movie, so I picked Barry Lyndon! Which I had seen years ago and loved but also knew I could drift off pretty easily - what I had forgotten was that old Barry Lyndon begins in Ireland! A little psychic prep for my weekend acting gig...  I figured I'd drift off, but I got wrapped up in the story... what a great fucking movie. I found it really funny. Old BL might be the most pathetic jerk in all of cinema. 

After that, I popped on 2001: A Space Odyssey, which actually did get me to nod off and I slept for a good 3 or 4 hours I'd guess. That'll do... 

Landed in Dublin, was picked up, and driven a good hour to where I was to be fitted for my costumes... In a daze, I tried on several outfits that I had mixed emotions about, but too tired and pointless to object strongly. I was in someone else's hands, creatively. 

Driven back to Dublin (there goes another hour) and checked into my hotel, actively did not sleep, but showered and got out to take a walk - Walked about a mile through St. Stephen's Green and landed upon the hotel I had stayed in last march with the Very Good Band. What a weird feeling to be back!  Walked a bit more, and Facetimed the family, and walked them through a few blocks of Dublin... Stopped in a tempting pastry shop and had a bit of DeCaf and a vegan date treat... 

I had emailed the show's creator Chris O'Dowd to see if he was up for dinner and he was - We had plans to go to a quite fancy place near my hotel for 6pm - my plan was to just stay active and awake through dinner and get to be a little early but not before 9. I had a 6am wakeup the next day for filming so I figured I may just avoid some serious jetlag. 

Dinner with Chris was a total joy. We had never met, but of course, shared the screen as 2 of the men in Bridesmaids! He was a fan of my stuff, and very happy to have me there. We bonded quickly over dad talk, work stuff, and mutual friends and foes. I instantly liked him and the meal was, as they say here, GRAND!  It was a great relief to break the ice with him before what was to be a long and jam-packed few days of shooting. I was able to sleep soundly knowing I was heading into friendly territory. 

I did sleep ok - sorta - I konked out around 8:30 (#Fail) and woke up around 12:30 (shit) - tossed and turned a bit but eventually did go back down and slept hard until my alarm woke me up. 

Traveled to set, and had some great beans sausage, and eggs from the food truck (fuck I love beans in the morning when I'm here and NEVER even think of having them at home) 

I had A LOT of lines to remember, but most of the scenes are these one-sided phone calls and zooms, so I was able to start and stop and do a series of takes if I missed something. But overall I was pretty ON it. In a panic the day before I had you-tubed tips on learning lines quickly. Why hadn't I looked into this before. There's a lot out there but I found one method that I think really clicked with me. 

You take the first letter of every word and write it out, making something that looks like this: 

Y t t f l o e w a w i o, m s t l l t 

then you work off that a few times and it really helps lock something in your brain. It also helps that on most of these shows there's a slow process of reading the scene, then blocking it, then showing it to the crew, then covering the scene from multiple angles that eventually it all kinda locks in. 

The other thing I try to do, and I do this unconsciously usually, but I've become self-aware that it's helpful to me...  Is I try and be loose and funny with the crew - They don't know me,  but they usually appreciate me connecting with them and kind of keeping things loose and silly... Sometimes folks might not know when I'm kidding around - sometimes I'll get strange looks from extras... you know, if I jokingly act like a deranged diva or something... It calms me down and reminds me that all of this should feel like fun! 

We wrapped the day and I felt a sense of accomplishment. I had more or less delivered on the day, and all I had to worry about was one more day. Another truckload of lines to remember, but I'd be walking into a familiar and friendly environment.  It will also be the production's last day, so I imagine there'll be a real TGIF atmosphere. 

After we wrapped I walked around the block from the hotel to an inviting pub for a beer. I'm sorry to report,  but I do not drink Guinness. I had a Karlsburg - Then I saw that upstairs from the pub was a restaurant that looked great. I went up and I was a little fancier than I was hoping for but had traditional Irish meals. I sat down and ordered up the requisite Fish and Chips and it was just right. 

Back at the hotel, I walked into the bar there for one more pint before I hit the sack. At the bar was a tall, tattooed, nordic type specimen who looked vaguely familiar.  He asked me "Were you on set today?" Turned out, he was a grip on the show, staying at the hotel, as he lived on the other side of the Isle! We got to talking and I got a great history of Dublin, Ireland, and its "issues" with the UK, Brexit, EU, Irish gangs, Immigration, Ukraine, Russia, The Middle East, boxing... It was a lot, but fascinating and moving... He had volunteered early on in the war in Ukraine and reminded me just how close that war is if you're living anywhere in Europe. 

This morning, I got up early (I have a luxurious 10:45 am pickup) took a long walk along the canal, and returned to the hotel for the magical Irish (or English, same thing when it comes to this as far as I can tell) Breakfast.  God bless it.  Back home tomorrow to finally, finally see and hug and kiss the family, and back in the studio Thursday. 

See you there my friends! 

Peace and Love, T