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On the set of Poseidon and meeting the Vogel’s in LA
Date: October 21, 2005
Time: 12:37pm
Location: Burbank, California
Where: Warner Bros.
Movie Set: Poseidon
In early September I was invited by Mike and Courtney to visit them in LA and once we got the schedule planned out, Friday, October 21st was going to be the day. Unbelievable, right? I reserved my flight and hotel reservations and invited my friend Brit from New Jersey to tag along. I flew in to LA on Thursday night and with my flight being delayed, Courtney had left me two voicemail messages to make sure what we were going to do on Friday. It was too late to call back, so I decided to wait until Friday morning. I took a taxi to the nearest hotel I had reserved on the internet and I was ready for what was to come the next day. It had not hit me yet about meeting with Mike and Court. I mean, we’ve been communicating via e-mail and we’ve talked a few times on the phone, but I never thought I was actually going to meet them face to face.
The next morning I got ready and went down to eat breakfast. I was still waiting for my friend Brit to arrive from New Jersey. I called Court and asked her how we were going to meet up. The plan was that she would come with her friend Jessica and pick us up at the hotel. Brit arrived in a taxi cab and got ready until Court showed up. We waited outside the hotel looking for any sign of Court. I was really excited and nervous at the same time and I didn’t want to make a bad impression. As she drove up to the front of the hotel, Brit and I walked to the car and then introduced ourselves. This was finally it. We were going to Warner Bros and finally meeting Mike.
On our way to Warner Bros, we were chatting a bit and just enjoying the time in the car. Courtney was very generous and awesome. She said she had a call from Mike’s sister and said hi to me. That was very sweet of her. Jessica, Court’s friend was awesome too. She was talkative they both made us feel comfortable. For some reason I’m quiet for the first time I meet people, but I was trying to hardest to make conversation. Courtney and her friend Jessica were really awesome. One of the questions they asked us was how Brit and I had met each other and we both looked at each other and said “internet.” Yes, it was our first time meeting offline as well as the first time meeting the Vogel’s. Ironic? But it was a fun ride. They made it fun for us! Court showed us a few pictures of the pugs; Orlando and Olivia in an easter theme photoshoot. Can you believe Warner Brothers do not allow pets on set? I wanted to meet the famous pugs! By this time we had arrived at the studio and there were a few security guards (Court said they are really tight with security). Court asked for our ID’s and we handed them to her as she handed them to the guards. Then they gave us a “visitor guest pass,” an index card-size pass that has a blue WB shield printed in the center. Then they checked the back of the car for things and then they let us go.
The parking lot was full once we went in to look for space and so we went up to the top of the building. “Not again!” Courtney said. We laughed. We got out of the car and walked towards an elevator. It took us down maybe three floors and then we walked across a street heading to where the trailers were stationed. We made our way through the trailers and then Courtney knocked on Mike’s door and there was no answer, so she got in and we followed. Let me tell you that the trailer looked like a small home! He had a candle burning that smelled like French vanilla and he had his stereo blasting. His lap top was resting on a table he had a little sink, oven and a bed at the back of the trailer. Court said he was shooting some scenes so we were going to go see him (on the set).
Court then asked someone if they could drive us to the stage-set and a golf cart appeared! Brit and I sat on the back of the cart. As it turned around towards the stage, we exchanged excited looks and we held on to the cart so we wouldn’t fall. As we made our destination, I thanked the driver and walked into the set stage. It was huge. The double sliding doors were closing in on us. It was dark inside. To the side of us, there were equipment and cables all around. As we walked, to the left, I saw the front part of the ship (where the Captain will be in the movie with all sorts of computerized screens and stuff). To our right, there was a yellow truck that was holding up a prop set where the actors were shooting their underwater scene. As we stood waiting for them to do the scene, I looked around the enormous stage. It had a few blue screen backdrops on the walls and in front of us there was a huge tank of water. (We were told that The Perfect Storm was also filmed in the same stage).
All of a sudden I hear Courtney call for Mike. I turned around to look at him expecting to see him in a suit like in the stills we have on the gallery. Nope. He had a gray or blue shirt, a towel on his head and walking towards us. The first thing that came to my mind was that I was taller than him, LOL. Mike extended his hand to me and said, “Aaron, it’s nice to meet you!” and I said something back like, “It’s nice to meet you, too!” He then greeted my friend. “Hi Brittany, nice to meet you.” Then he introduced himself to Jessica, but he said it in a way that sounded like he knew her. Before being called back to shoot his scenes, Mike noticed Jessica’s uggs and he bent down to unroll them so you could see the white fur/puffy from the inside of the boots and Jess was like, “No, I don’t like that. Stop.” Mike kept rolling both of them down, then stood up and looked at her uggs and then said, “so, aren’t you going for a Jessica Simpson look?” That was really funny. Mike has a great sense of humor. Very down to earth. Okay, so back to the story…
At that moment, Mike turned around and asked us if we wanted to go to the other side and watch what they were doing up close. We said yes and followed him. As we walked over to the other side, the floor was covered in cables and it was very wet, so you had to be careful where to step. There were just equipment everywhere! To the front of me, I see a few chairs with the Poseidon title logo. A monitor that has four squares divided with four different camera angles. Then all the actors are called back and out of nowhere, Kurt Russell walks by me and I’m like, “whoa!.” Mike went back and I see Wolfgang Petersen sitting back on his seat. A few minutes later I see the actors get inside a huge tank on the monitor and they are in the water and ready to shoot their challenging scene. The actors who are in this scene are: Mike Vogel, Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Emmy Rossum, Jacina Barrett, Jimmy Bennet, Mia Maestro and Richard Dreyfuss. I can’t say any more about the scene, but all of these characters are trapped and they are working their way out of somewhere and it seems very challenging. But once they start acting, everyone switch on their acting skills and they look very natural. They’re in water and they look scared and worried that they aren’t going to make it out alive. I was just standing there in awe of how much energy they put into their parts. The back of the director’s chair and everyone elses have the Poseidon movie logo printed on the back. That was really cool to see, too.
I think 15 minutes pass and then we hear “it’s a wrap!” or something like that and the whole crew cheer. The scene they were filming was done the way Wolfgang Petersen wanted it and they are all happy. Soon enough all the actors get out of the water, in bathrobes and happy. Emmy Rossum makes her way to where I’m standing and she hugs a crew member or her friend and she looks at me and smiles – twice! Then I see Mia Maestro walk past me with a bathrobe and a towel on her head. Josh Lucas is heading off to get dressed. Why? Because lunch is getting ready to begin. Mike comes over again and tells Courtney to go to the next stage because there is now a lunch buffet. We walk out and into the other stage. There we see tables lined up and to the right there are about four tables. Salad, rice, pieces of meat with sauce and then a table with strawberries and a fountain of chocolate to cover them in. We follow Court to a table and we wait for Mike.
After a few minutes, we wonder where Mike is. He’s serving himself some food, but we don’t recognize him right away because he’s wearing a sweater with a hood on. He walks over to us and sits. Court, Mike, Jessica, Brit and I are eating together. Then Mike asked if I liked the sauce. At first I thought he said sauce, but then I thought it was “site,” so either way, I answered that it was good. (I’ve corrected this with him, so he knows about it).Then he asked about my school and I told them about what I was taking, etc. It was finally sinking it. I was in the same room as Mike. It was surreal, especially thinking how I saw the other actors also. All in one day! My cousins are so going to hear about this.
When lunch was over, Mike gave us his own tour and we went into another stage where they had other important props that will be in the movie. I took pictures of stuff. He told us what they would do in the scenes with the props. Pretty exciting stuff. He also joked around with one of the crew members. After we left that building, we went back to where he was shooting his underwater scene and no one was really there, so he took us inside the whole stage. There I told him to pose with Court and I took a picture of them. I took one of Brit where she was standing next to some props and stuff. I saw a small, blue, kids’ pool in the corner, and joking I asked Mike if he had practiced his scuba diving in it and he sarcastically said, “Oh yeah, I’ve done everything in it.” (LOL He’s just like me. Always joking and being sarcastic.) Then we walked out and came upon a few dead dummies were lying about. They looked so real. The guy who had the dummies out told us to go in and look. Inside, we saw a burnt dummy and Mike joked that he was going to turn out like that by the end of the movie and I laughed it off. (He’s a real joker that Mike.) I asked the guy if I could take pictures and he said yes, just that I shouldn’t post them on the internet, so I’m sorry guys! (I’m paranoid when it comes to these kinds of things, so no pictures of the dummies.)
Next we walked towards Mike’s trailer, but before that, we turned a corner and we were on the Gilmore Girl’s set. We saw the houses and the gazebo. “Yup, that’s the Gilmore Girls,” Mike said. He was walking up front and I was behind him taking all this information in. I also walked next to him and we chatted for another few minutes, so that was awesome. We stopped at his trailer and went inside. It was kind of warm and Court asked Mike why the room was so hot. I told her it was probably like this because of the water scene, and Court nodded. It did make sense. Court, Jessica and Brit sat on the sofa and I sat in one of his chairs next to a table where he had his lap top. He also has a Sony VAIO! We have the same brand name lap top! High five, Mike! LOL.
After a while, Mike came into the trailer with what seemed to be a rolled poster and a black permanent marker. He went into his small room and from inside he shouted, “Aaron, one or two A’s in your name?” Court and I blurted out at the same time with “Two,” and we smiled at each other, LOL. Mike came out with a Supercross poster and handed it to me. It says, “Aaron – Thanks for all your help. It means a lot! God Bless! Mike Vogel.” I was in awe. Mike gave me his autograph. That is beyond cooler than cool. He then extended his hand to me and I shook it and he said, “Thanks so much Aaron for coming to the set. I really appreciate all your work and this won’t be the last time we see each other. There will be more opportunities for you to come to other movie sets.” He said something to that effect. And then he said, “I’ve got to go to make up now, so it was nice seeing you all.” He pointed to Court and said, ” I’ll see you later, Babe.” And left.
That was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Okay, so there has been other times where I’ve had a good time, but this topped it off, LOL. This was my fourth time going into a movie set and each time was a different experience. I always thought that the Spider-Man set was the best I ever been then being on the sets of Seabiscuit and Bee Season. Poseidon really topped it off. It’s a huge movie and no other movie can shoot there, but Wolfgang and the rest of the people who will make it happen. One thing I regret is not asking Mike for a picture because I totally forgot (okay, so I was really excited to be there) and I was just there experiencing everything. Both Mike and Court are awesome people. I’m really happy I got to know them and I appreciated every opportunity to getting to meet them and even getting a phone interview. They both rock. Courtney was so sweet to take Brit and me back to the hotel we were staying in. And as we left, I thought about all the other things I could have said. I hope I did give a good impression. I think I needed to talk more. I was just very surprised, but like Mike said, until next time.
When I got home, I emailed Mike and Court and told them I had arrived safely. This is what Mike said in his reply: “Hey Aaron, It was really great to finally meet you. I'm glad you had a good time, and hopefully there will be many more good times on sets to be had by you and I. Look forward to talking to ya soon.” – Mike.
So what do you think about my experience meeting Mike and Courtney and being on the set of Poseidon, a huge blockbuster in the making? comment please!
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