7 Pounds: The Worst Day

The worst day on-set for me was when we were shooting the scene where Will Smith's character Ben and Rosario Dawson's character Emily have a picnic in a field of grass. To this day I can't watch that scene without cringing. On this particular day access from set to the caterer was not attainable through van because of a small, narrow, unpaved road of dirt and grass. Due to the fact that we were behind on schedule (which happened often and caused longer days and nights) the crew wasn't breaking for lunch. The PA's were asked to take orders from the whole crew so we could have them made ahead of time. We were having hamburgers which at the time didn't seem like it would be such a problem but we found out that there were so many different ways people liked there burgers.

The orders were being written down by Bobby, I would travel with the list and Sabena would help make the orders. I would then travel back with the lunches and grab the new list. We had this routine down to a tee tell we finished...or until we thought we finished. Bobby lost a list with the orders of the top dogs on set such as cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd, JP and by far the biggest most disgusting asshole on set David Jarrell the head Electric gaffer. The crew that hadn't ate were getting very anxious and upset everytime I'd return to set and there lunch weren't ready. You know how they love shooting the messager so the crew placed the blame unfairly on me. Daivd Jarrell threatened to stop production because he wasn't getting fed. He had the right to be upset because by law in the movie business the cast and crew need to be fed after 8 hours and it had pasted 8 hours.

The word would eventually get around to Paul and guess who got the blame? I'm not one to point the figure to anyone and there is an unwritten rule that you never through anyone under the bus so I didn't tell Paul it was Bobby's fault. Paul placed the blame on me and I took it. I didn't want to argue with him. Especially when he was working and infront of the whole crew. I bit my lip and kept working. It's what had to be done. Greg, who was working on set, rarely gets mad but he took out his frustration on me too. I didn't take it in a bad way because I understood that being on set he was taking alot of crap from the crew too.

You know the expression "there's no time to feel bad for yourself"? Well I found time. Everytime I traveled to get or pick up orders. With a landscape that should have brought nothing but a feeling of bliss, I was feeling blue. Then everything changed. I began to think of the love of my life. I took out the pocket notepad Catlin gave me and wrote down what I was thinking and going through at that moment. I'd like to share what I wrote. It went something like this:

''When I'm down in the gutters and I stop focusing on what I don't have, I think about what I do have and I merely needed to think of you to out weigh the negative."

Just like that I was relaxed. What does it say about the importance of a person to another when as bad of a day someone may be having they only have to think of that other person and all the grief, stress, conflict and confusion drifts away. It hit me in that moment of tranquility that I have found someone most spend there lives looking for and are never guaranteed to find.

The day finished without incident. I gathered myself and the HELL day on set ended with me reminding myself of how lucky I am.