By Antony Teofilo
Human Cattle:
An Interview With Background Assistant Kenyon Noble
He doesn't wear a ten-gallon hat, and no silver spurs hang from the heels of his boots. A smoky cheroot does not dangle precariously from the corner of his mouth. In fact, he's more likely to burn up a cosmopolitan clove between takes, if he gets the chance.
And he's got a noggin full of dreads.
Still, he's a cowboy of sorts. Instead of branding doggies, he ropes large groups of human cattle, brandishing his ever-present walkie-talkie like an electronic lasso. He's name is Kenyon. He calls himself a Background Assistant (but if you were a visitor during Moviepoopshoot's earlier days, you'll know him as the Extras Wrangler).
Three hundred extras huddle anxiously. They await the magic moment when they'll be asked to move to the set for their big scene. Suddenly, the distorted crackle of a bullhorn pierces the din of hundreds of excited conversations in the Paulsboro High School Gymnasium.
"Listen, I'm sorry if I'm going to come off as an asshole here, but you've got a job to do today. The day is going to be very long. You'll probably be here about twelve hours, so if you're going to leave early, please leave now, and save us the trouble of having to replace you later." One wonders to himself, "Who would get the chance to be in a movie, and then leave halfway through the awesome experience?" Later in the day, this warning will prove prophetic.
Hope gleams in the eyes of those perched on the bleachers. Women check their make-up, aspiring actor types swagger around the waiting area, hoping to be discovered. As visions of tinseltown glory spin in their heads, most of the extras aren't listening to a word Kenyon says.
Much later in the evening, it happens. Several individuals seated mere feet from the cameras in a large crowd shot decide they're tired of sitting in the hot auditorium...they're bored. They want to go home. They're tired of watching Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler and George Carlin and Racquel Castro act right in front of their faces. Without a word, they leave the set. This causes gargantuan continuity problems, and Kenyon must go through the audience and find reasonable look-alikes to fill in the holes before shooting can resume. Before long, several lucky folks are escorted from the back of the auditorium to fill in the empty seats in the front row. The cameras begin rolling again. The day is saved. It's all in a day's work for the man who wrangles the extras.
I caught up with Kenyon this past week (the initial interview that took place in November on the set of JERSEY GIRL didn't turn out well because we kept getting interrupted), and we talked about where he's been, what he's done (THE SOPRANOS, SPIDER-MAN 2, anyone?), and how he feels personally about JERSEY GIRL.
AntonyTeofilo: Looking back on JERSEY GIRL, did you enjoy the experience?
KenyonNoble: It was one of the better projects I've worked on. My department was very hectic because I had to deal with some unusual circumstances in that seventy percent of the background actors and extras had never been on a set before. That sort of slowed me down because I had to teach a new group of people every day what it meant to be on a set.
AT: What was the most rewarding aspect of the production?
KN: I'd run through a wall for Kevin Smith. A lot of times, you go to work for a name director and you have a bad experience. [With ] Kevin and [Producer Scott] Mosier, I have a stronger respect because they're more real. You can easily tell the difference between the people that really have "it", and those who are hacks. Kevin and Mosier really have it. They never stopped. Between takes, there they were, editing JERSEY GIRL on their laptops.
It was also great because I got to work with so many new people. With Affleck, it was good to meet him because you find out that he's just such a good guy. I didn't know much about him until JERSEY GIRL, but now that I've worked with him, I'll go and support anything he does. Watching Affleck in rehearsals was also informative, because he's so meticulous, a consummate professional.
Working with Vilmos Zsigmond was very valuable. Here was one of the industry's master lighters at work. I learned more in those couple of months than I would have in four years at NYU. Working with Kevin and Vilmos was great because here were some guys who just went out and made their careers independently.
AT: How has your career progressed since working on JERSEY GIRL?
KN: Things have been going great since then. I'm in a sort of limbo right now, because I'm in the process of getting my days for membership in the DGA (Director's Guild of America). JERSEY GIRL was great because it lent a little diversity to my resume' in that I finally got to work outside of New York City. Normally, you either work in the city, or out of it, so that was good in that respect.
AT: So you're working on getting into the DGA. What does that process entail?
KN: To get in, you have to have six hundred days on set. To prove it, you photocopy the call sheet and pay stub from every day's work on a set. When you're done, you have two assistant directors who are already in the DGA sign off on your book, and you apply to get in.
AT: What advantages will being in the DGA give you, career-wise?
KN: It provides more freedom, and you make more money as an assistant director. You make more in one month as an assistant director than you do is six months as a PA. You can still work as a PA when you're in the DGA, but when a job opens up for a position as an assistant director, they're more likely to come and ask you to do it. And there's health insurance and other benefits.
AT: Why do you want to be an assistant director? That looks like it's a pretty brutal job.
KN: I just want to continue my learning process. I'd rather spend 80 hours a week standing on a film set than 50 hours a week working as a waiter or a bartender.
AT: Do you think people should go to film school, or just jump into the industry like you did?
KN: It depends on your personal foundations. On this job, I interviewed five people for jobs who had degrees, and I never went to film school. But I was lucky in that I had a TV/Film program at my high school, so going to college was a sort of repetition of curriculum for me. Instead, I started doing extra work to get into the industry. Then, on ONE TRUE THING with Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger, I showed up on the set every day, and just sort of hung around. One day, I overheard a conversation about the fact that they were going to need some more people, and I just volunteered. I told them I was from town, and that I could be the first guy to show up and the last to leave every day, and that I could be on the set with about five minutes notice. That crew worked for Spike Lee, and they took me with them from that movie to SUMMER OF SAM, and I went on from there.
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Film school is good if you don't have the basics, if you want to study theory. Eventually, theory has to turn into practical use. That's why so many first-time directors break down after three months on their first movie and never do anything else again. They can't handle the pressure because they weren't prepared for it in school. The best directors are always people that have hands-on experience in the industry.
AT: What did you do after JERSEY GIRL?
KN: I went to work on DAREDEVIL. So did Dave (Gothwals), who was Ben Affleck's stand-in on JERSEY GIRL. You saw a lot of Dave in Daredevil. All that stuff where the character is getting dressed is Dave. When Daredevil swings the baton around, and when he trashes the workshop, that's Dave, too. They used him a lot. Ben would do something until he got tired, and then he'd say, "Let Dave do it."
AT: How did you come to be involved with SPIDER-MAN 2?
KN: Originally, I was supposed to work on the first one, but it got pushed back and conflicted with SEX AND THE CITY, so I couldn't do it. I basically kept the phone number of the second assistant director. A friend who was shooting in L.A. told me they were going to be looking for people [in New York], so I called up the second assistant director, the same guy, and sent him a resume'. Then they called and said, "We start shooting April 7th", and here I am.
AT: How are you enjoying SPIDER-MAN 2?
KN: The shoot has been a lot of fun, but it's been rough in some ways. The rumor is that Sony may cut the job in half because so many of the New York shots are just too hard to pull off because of the crowds. And when the [Spider-Man] suit comes out, all bets are off. People are shouting at Toby from the tops of buildings, girls are screaming at him and taking flash pictures during takes. Word is that the people on the production team can't wait to get back to a soundstage in Los Angeles. But this movie has been great because I've gotten to work with John Dykstra on some second unit shots.
[John Dykstra is one of the film industry's most influential special effects innovators. He's responsible for the look of flicks like STEWART LITTLE and STAR WARS.]
AT: What's Dykstra like?
KN: He is very meticulous and as a result, he has an extremely strong command of the visual environment on set. A few days ago, I watched him talk out a visual effects sequence so eloquently it was incredible. Most people could have written for days trying to explain what he talked about in a few minutes.
It wouldn't surprise me if he starts directing. You just can't argue with the guy. He knows exactly what he wants, and what other purpose should a director have? He's just the man. I was in awe of him all day.
AT: Are you still working on THE SOPRANOS?
KN: I just finished the first episode, and let me tell you, this new season is going to be fantastic. People think they know what they're going to be seeing, that this season is going to start off slow. But they're wrong. What the writers have come up with is just incredible.
AT: Did the negotiations with James Gandolfini have any adverse effect on the mood of the set?
KN: The environment's always fine. Contract problems never affect the mood on the set. The cast and crew are like a family. I can't speak for James Gandolfini, but I think that's one of the reasons he offered the olive branch. He's so supportive and protective of the crew, he didn't want it to go on any longer.
AT: So what's coming up for you?
KN: I've been talking with some name actors from the shows I work on about appearing in a short film I've written. I just co-wrote a commercial for ESPN and Chili's that will run during March Madness, and I'll be directing some celebrity profiles for Comcast digital networks. I've also been contacted as a possible videographer for the upcoming JAY-Z / 50 CENT tour. That could be very interesting.
