When I was 19 years old and living with my parents in Baltimore, I was working as a bank teller and attending college classes. I heard on the radio about a casting call for extras for a movie called Ladder 49 that was going to be filming in downtown Baltimore. I attended the casting call, which essentially involved a Polaroid picture and filling out a sheet of my clothing sizes and a list of any special talents I may have (did 5 years of Spanish count? Hmmm.)

I was eventually called for a day on set, luckily on a day I already had off work. I was thrilled! They told me to dress low class. I showed up with overalls and a plaid long sleeve shirt.  I hadn’t heard much about the movie except that it was about firefighters, and I thought I heard John Travolta was involved.

Side note, I was a late bloomer with teen movies. I finally saw Grease when I was in high school and belatedly fell in love with John Travolta. I proudly hung a poster of him in my room of my Johnny doing the “Stayin’ Alive” dance move. (You know the one. I won’t demonstrate.)

The scene in which I was an extra was Jack (played by Joaquin Phoenix)’s first fire. I started a conversation with another extra as we worked. We were located on a sidewalk opposite to a burning house…and WAY the heck down the other end of the street out of the camera’s  view.

As we chatted, they began to set up a firetruck to pull into the street and pull up to the fire. The other extra said he saw John Travolta in the fire truck. Which I didn’t believe. Until John Travolta pulled right past me. Gasp! Holy hotpants!

It was an amazing day. Despite the fact that I thought at 6:30am it would be a good idea to wear a long sleeved, very warm shirt. It had been a brisk morning- but around 11/12am when it was really warming up and for continuity’s sake I couldn’t take off the long sleeved shirt. (Continuity means you can’t change something once you’ve started filming because when all the scenes and different camera views are pieced together, they have to look like they were all shot at the same time. While watching movies, keep your eyes open for glasses that were once full now half empty 5 seconds later and you’ll know what I’m talking about.)

I was amazed at Craft Services’ snack tent. The amazing snack tent containing every candy bar, snack bar, bag of chips, or snack you could dream of. Full-sized. FREE. I could have paid to be there- how ther heck was this considered “work”?!

At that point in my life, I decided that day was the best day of my life. I was hooked.

Fast forward a few years. 

Right before Nick and I moved to Charleston and still new to military life, I began watching the Lifetime show Army Wives to get an idea of what to expect. I loved the show. And it took me several episodes to realize that it was set in Charleston, South Carolina, where we were moving!

I had no idea the show was filmed there too. While waitressing at my little café job one day, I overheard a customer talking to our manager about the Army Wives show. It turns out she worked on set. (An “in”! Eeek!) 

I got the number from casting from her. Poor casting people. They got calls from me every week persistently following up to see when they needed extras. (Sorry, Jason & Ashli!)

I became a reoccurring extra in season 3. I was a waitress at the infamous HUMP Bar, owned and run by lead character Roxy. I was also an enlisted Army wife, bar patron, and even once played a soldier (hated that uniform but fun to try!).

I made awesome friends on set. The best part about being an extra is meeting such awesome people. Sure, it’s a thrill to see if you’re seen on the screen and also to see how all the filming works and ties together, but the people are simply amazing. From all the friends I made with the other extras with whom we’d jam with guitar or play cell phone games with in the holding area between scenes; to the super friendly, awesome crew. Casting was amazing and always so nice (despite my incessant phone calls). The lighting and boom guys were hilarious. The PA’s (production assistants) were awesome and very tolerant. And I loved the 2ND AD (Assistant Director). Truly a blast. I was really sad to leave and see the show continue without me.

But I had no idea Hawaii was such a hub for the entertainment business.

I heard about the casting call for the new show Hawaii Five-0, which was to take place at Aloha Tower Marketplace downtown on Saturday, August 28, 2010. It began at 9am. I woke up early that day and was grumpy. I was so very close to rolling over and going back to sleep on my day off. I was in no mood to get up, shower, curl my hair, do my makeup, and look camera ready so early in the morning. I needed sleep. Now.

As I lay in bed I fast-forwarded. I do this thing- I like to imagine it’s a super power, like the ability to tell the future. Really it’s just me, picturing myself in what-if scenarios. I was wondering what would happen if I didn’t go. What if there wasn’t another chance and this could be a really good thing for me and a great time? Grumbling, I got out of bed.

Fully awake and no longer as grumbly, I arrived at Aloha Tower at 8:25am, a full 35 minutes before the casting call began. To say the line for the casting call was long is like saying Hawaii has some pretty okay beaches…the greatest of understatements.

Aloha Tower Marketplace, which is kind of like an outdoor mall, had designated the casting call to take place at a room on the second floor. The entire second floor was full. Of. People. Hundreds of people were already lined up. It was insane. And hot.

Fortunately, once 9am hit, the line began moving quickly. It was the same drill- picture, sizes, talents, ages you can pass for, etc. I got great feedback from the casting girls, so I left with high hopes. I wasn’t disappointed. 

I have been a really lucky girl. I appeared in several episodes of Hawaii Five-0, Season 1. My absolute favorite day on set to date was a spring break scene, set at my favorite restaurant, Tiki’s Grill & Bar. Tiki’s was disguised as “Storm” nightclub. All the extras were supposed to be college students partying it up on spring break. We were given lots of St. Pauli’s Girl Non-Alcoholic beer and lots of pretty cocktail glasses with Sprite and grenadine and fruit and told to look “wasted.” At 5am. Hah!

That was the day I met Daniel Dae Kim on set. Probably a big reason it was a fave day. But also because the spring break setting allowed us all to let loose and just get silly. I met a lot of really fun people that day.

Today, I continue to happily “work” on season 2 of Hawaii Five-0. I’m usually found in a bikini on the beach pantomiming (looking like you’re talking without actually speaking) the very non-vegan McDonald’s theme song (“Two all beef patties….something something….crap”) or “Supercalifregalisticexpeolidocious” over and over. I feel more than blessed by the fun I’ve had, the friends I’ve made, and the fact that there are days I actually get paid to hang out on the beach. Who does that?

You can follow my Bikini Girl adventures on Twitter at twitter.com/blondeatbeach or #bikinigirl.