Stereotype: Modeling is glamorous!

Whenever people say, "You model!? Wow! That's so cool! I want to do that." I always feel a little bit like laughing. Modeling is not all it's cracked up to be. And, you don't have to be a knockout to do it... although if you do model, people tend to start looking at you as though you are a knockout even if they've never looked at you that way before. I don't know; it's a mystery to me to!

Anyway, so this is the second modeling job I've actually done, I've been called for some others, but didn't do them because they required me to work on Sunday, or at least say I would work on Sunday if I had to. This one lasted Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I was an extra in the commercial, along with some of my friends, Shaquita Bennett, Laura Hogen, Laura Bucher, Jenny Villegas, and Jocelyn Lonsdale. There were tons of other people there too. The main model was this blond Brit. She was pretty, but mainly, she was blond, and that's what the Japanese were looking for.

Now for the stereotype that I feel is my job to swipe from people's minds: modeling is not glamorous until it gets on T.V, or on the page. While you're doing it, it's not fun. For this particular commercial, we were supposed to be having a great time at a pool party. We were at the Magellan Club pool. The crew had painted the sides of the pool, and done some touching-up on the rough spots. (Being the Magellan Club, there were plenty of them.) Some of the types of paint they used, particularly the silver paint for the rails and this one pool chair kept coming of on us. it was really annoying. None of the extras got make-up unless they brought it and applied it themselves. (Except for four of them for a particular scene, but I'll go through that later.) Most people were in bikinis, except for maybe five of us. One really strange thing was that most of the women were white, but most of the guys were Filipino or Chamorro guys from MHS. Don't ask me how that worked out. But they were cool and fun, and funny.

We fried! It was terribly hot, especially the first day, but really any of the days you could've fried an egg out there. They had brightlights (that would burn you) and reflectors (that would burn you) and the sun (that would burn you). I put on sunblock every time we went inside for anything, and I still got it pretty bad. The second and third days, I wasn't required to be in the pool so much (I was dancing more and sitting at tables) so I could cover up most of the time.

In one of the scenes, my friends Elle and Shaquita and about four other women had to do this scene with one ugly Japanese man. Shaquita and Elle got it the worst though. They each had to wear skimpy bikinis and sit near his head. Kita was stroking his face and Elle was feeding him strawberries in a bowl of condensed milk. Later, they put the extra berries on the bar and we swam over to eat some. We were eating the berries when Emma came up and asked for one. I gave one to her and she bit into it and said, "Hey! This is plastic!" They had put plastic strawberries under the real ones because they didn't have enough to fill the bowl! I hadn't noticed because I just picked it up by the stem. Oh man, we laughed forever over that!

In another scene, the same creepy Japanese man was floating on this airbed. Twelve or fifteen girls surrounded him, and were doing different things. Jenny and Jocelyn were at the legs... and they had to rub them! Jenny was telling me later that the man shaves his legs. I said, "So, what's wrong with that? I know lots of guys who shave their legs." She said, "Yeah, but he hadn't shaved for a day or so and while I was rubbing his legs I could feel the stubble all along." WOAH! THAT WAS LIKE, WAY MORE INFO THAN I WANTED! Fortunately, I avoided all of the a-bunch-of-girls-with-the-one-ugly-Japanese-man scenes.

I don't know what other countries feed their models, but the Japanese don't feed you celery sticks and mineral water. We were fed breakfast and lunch every day. For breakfast it was always doughnuts, onion soup, rice, spam, pancakes, and club sandwiches (with spam and bacon inside). For lunch, there were riceballs, spaghetti, bread with two spreads (either the yellowest margarine I've ever seen, or this creamy, white, not-exactly-butter stuff), salad (with a very limited source of dressing), sushi, and potato salad. There were always chips, fruit, coffee, water, soda, juice, and cupcakes available.

Elle had to dress up in this awful outfit (although it was one of the better ones when compared with the others) and wear all this make-up for these two scenes with the same ugly Japanese guy. I was in both of them as an extra. I didn't have to touch him though so it was okay. ;) In one of the scenes I was in the pool and a bunch of other girls were on the side of the pool. Elle and these four other women were walking with the Japanese man, you know, like he was a pimp or something. (He was supposed to be this really famous rapper... I dunno.) So, I was holding on to the side of the pool, you know, just lounging, and then the cue-man shouted "Kuma" (bear) and we all looked toward the other side of the pool and ran over there. The rapper guy is "accidentally" pushed into the pool. They actually wanted me to swim to the other side, then jump out, but then I pointed out to them that I would be swimming right in the path of the falling Japanese and that I really didn't feel like being drowned as an over-weight, rapping Japanese man fell on my head.

Well, there really isn't time for you all to read how tedious modeling can be. But before I leave I should point out that there are some good things. You meet new people, you have lots of fun on your breaks, and of course, the 375 dollars, in cash, waiting for you at the end. I must say, I don't think I will ever pursue modeling as a career, and also that extras are the best modeling parts you could hope for. Not too demanding, and you can more easily dictate what you wear. Over all, it's a fun 2-time experience.