Day 20 & 21 Of Sobriety My Dinner With Seagal Part 2

So I reached my 21st day of sobriety. And how do I celebrate? By getting my car smog checked. Guy looks like he's about to fail me, which is going to really suck. But such is life in L.A.

I figured since I have time, I'd write about my experiences on set with Steven Seagal.

He's a looming figure to say the least. I remember the large trailers being pulled in specifically to cater to his needs. Oddly enough, I only saw him about 15 minutes before the shoot and 15 minutes after his last shot was wrapped. Guy really spent most of the time thinking about other things. Probably not so nice things.

During the shoot, allegedly he was being targeted by the mafia. Not sure which one, but a few months prior I thought I may have heard something where he was testifying against organized crime. He was Nico from "Above The Law" incarnate. One of the things he had in his contract was that production had to provide him with a separate Escalade that would shadow his own. Then peel off when they got a certain distance. Apparently that way no one would know which car to blow up. Jokes on him, he takes a wrong turn that thing would blow up on its own.

Anyway, he's a real professional. But a professional who has no problems making his displeasure known.

We had set up a boxing ring in a dojo owned by Benny "The Jet". If you don't know who he is, then you haven't followed martial arts in the 80's. It was to be a cage fight against the lead actor and Seagal. We had nowhere really to hang lights, so we mounted them on the top of the cages. I had the idea that it should resemble some prison cell, so I had my electrics rig work lights around the top of the cage. Now...for those who read my previous blog, this would be considered toplight. And this would also be a no-no in Seagal's world. Not sure where else we could've put lights, so I covered them up (as if he wouldn't notice).

The time came to shoot. There he came walking in...black gi, menacing. He was technically the bad guy in this one. First time. His character was an American fight champion. The best of what we had to offer. The lead actor was from Korea, he was the best they had to offer. So the epic fight was on.

There were about 100 extras that day. It was amazing. People were excited. This shoot was the center of attention and everyone would get to see Seagal in action. Even Kevin Grevioux (wrote "Underworld") and Philip Rhee ("Best Of The Best") showed up. I'm a dumb 26 year old in charge of two camera crews, lighting and shooting. We had a Steadicam rig moving with Seagal. And then he steps into the ring...

You can see this in the actual movie...when he enters, he looks up to the lights and grimaces. Not just grimaces, but I could tell in his mind he as going to have some choice words with me when this was all over. I saw it on the monitor and I froze. The director didn't seem to notice. But now it seemed I was in a doghouse. And this was just the first day of shooting with Seagal.

The shoot was long. Mostly because it was hot. We had air conditioning crank up after every take (due to sound issues) which was terrible since that just cleared the air of smoke. Seagal hated the hazing machine chemicals. It messed with his vocal chords in acting. According to him. So we burned sage. Sage is really like the smell of burning autumn leaves. Which is pleasant outdoors and you hear football in the background, but crappy when you're stuck in a non-ventilated room and extras are hacking up a lung. But the star gets what the star wants.

The other thing about the fight scene is that the body double for Seagal was the same height as him, but about 30 pounds lighter. We had to really move back when shooting that, and it was just limiting our shot selection.

Overall, the fight scene is mediocre at best. Seagal wasn't as fast as he use to be. A lot of the choreography was done during the shoot so it was really all piece mealed together. It was grueling to try to figure out how everything was going to be put together. My mind was putty.

Seagal never said anything to me directly. The production gave me a translator as the director was Korean and spoke no English. I never got bad news. It's the culture there. They never told me anything. I remember a certain day where the director would be dictating at least a paragraph of instructions and the translator could only say "looks good." Don't think that was his full edict, but I went along with it.

A lot of us on set were wondering how much Seagal was getting paid. He was only on the project for MAYBE a week. I found out later to the tune of $100K a day with less than 4 hours on set. Factoring in that hourly cost, he was making more than Tom Cruise.

That hurts my feelings.

I have to say though, I grew up watching his movies with my Dad. I think most lads do. And it was really awesome when my Pop said it was cool that I got to work with the guy (he thinks Hollywood is goofy in general, but loves John Wayne). To that, Seagal was worth every penny.