1923 cast

Carey O'Donnell was at a Montana gym when opportunity knocked. Gig as an extra opens window into behind-the-scenes reality of hair, makeup, achy feet.

The only visible stumbling block was a modern building in the middle of the action that had to be shrouded in a giant blue tarp so an era-consistent image could be projected there, post-production. The intensity of the assistant director’s (AD) job responsibilities was never reflected in her bull-horned directives from the center of the street before and after each take. I responded that the back says, “Wanna buy me a drink?” He laughed, à la movie star, while I waited to be scolded for engaging. I felt like I’d left most of myself hanging on the costume rack and had hologrammed into a woman with another life from another era. in their Audis and Escalades to make the 6 a.m. The Sheepers were supposed to look “as if they’d been out on the range for about two months" – as measured in whiskers. Coordinating hairstyling, makeup and last-minute costume corrections for 200 appeared, to my uneducated eye, like a very tall order at 6 in the morning, but I saw no signs of impatience. His goal, he apologized, was to make me look "frumpy and frowsy," true to the character I played. While clean, they all showed the stains and strains of a century of wear. I had the perfect window of opportunity for a lark like this. We should expect a brutally authentic portrait of Montana in the 1920s. I’m just lean and fit enough to catch the eye of the visiting crew member.