the adventures of pamalicious

Lights, Camera, Action!

It happened like alot of people say it happens. We were walking downtown for some reason I don’t remember and a woman approached me and asked had I ever put her on film.  I said we have a thousand pictures but that’s about it.  He said she was beautiful and that she would be perfect for this new movie he was filming.  He gave me an address of a place to show up on the next day.  I gave it some thought that night and was like why not? Thus began our adventure on the movie set of Mama Flora’s Family…

We got down to Commerce Georgia at an unGodly hour of the morning.  We were led to a trailer where others were waiting.  There were kids running around and bored out of their mind adults.  After a couple of hours, they called Goddess’ name and we went forward.  Some paperwork to sign and what not. She would only be needed that day, she had nothing to say and her pay was $800 (I didn’t even know she would be getting paid!). 

Next up we were taking to wardrobe.  It became obvious at this point that this was a black flim (ok I didn’t know anything but the title at that point).  Apparently it was a period piece as well - everything looked old.  Folks were getting dressed and the hustle and bustle made up for the lonnnng ass wait.  Then it was her turn.  They picked out this red checked two piece circa 1950’s or so skort set.  She was led to a trailer with the proverbial star on the door.  By this time Goddess was tripping and though she was only around 4 she knew that this qualified her as a star, lol They dressed her and applied a bit of make up and then put her hair in two braided pony tails which they pinned on top of her head.  By now I had discovered this was the story of a black woman played by Cecily Tyson.  I was like oh cool.  I’m still on the ‘extra’ bandwagon, so I had figured that she would be in a group scene etc. with other children.  I remember asking the hair dresser what part was Goddess going to be playing and it seemed like her lips were moving but I wasn’t hearing as she said, “She’s Playing Mario’s Granddaughter’ and I said Mario who? and she goes, “Mario Van Peebles” and by then I’m like she’s playing Mario Van Peebles WHO?!

Movie making is a whole bunch of…waiting, Damn!  We would just sit around for hours.  However, we did get to see other parts of the movie being made.  Ceicely Tyson was there, playing her 5 minutes out of slavery role as usual, lol  The biggest surprise was..Blair ‘God You So Fine’ Underwood was also on set.  He played one of her sons along with Mario.  Both men were HELLLLA NICE!  Both men were extremely attractive in person. They had brought their own families and Goddess sat and played with Blairs kids.  His wife was quite nice and I lent her one of the books I had brought along to keep Goddess from going off, lol. 

Queen Latifah had a heavy part during this portion of filming.  She had just come off of Set It off, so she was quite masculine.  I remember the director having to tell her to Cleo it Down, lol lol.  She was walking and talking HARD!  She also had a person who carried the umbrella to keep her out of the sun, lol lol 

When they wern’t filming, alot of the ‘celebrities’ were quite nice and played with the kids and just hung around on set.  Cicely Tyson was all personable during filming but when the camera wern’t rolling, she shooed the kids away and absolutely didn’t want to be bothered. 

It was an overcast day so at one point it began to rain, I was sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of one of the sets. Blair, dressed in makeup and wardrobe to make him appear much older came right up to me and said, “Can i sit here and take a nap?” about the rocking chair next to me.  HELL TO THE YEA!  So he sat down, pulled his shirt open, exposing his fake gut to make him look heavier (LOL).  Scratched the fake beard and went dead to sleep with me staring at him like he was a donut from krispy Kreme 1 second after the HOT light comes on, lol lol lol  I sat there and watched that man sleep the whole time, lol  When he finally woke up he asked me had he snored, lol.

Finally after about 6 hours on the set, it was Goddess’ turn.  First we were whisked to the local airport. Where an authentic plane for that area was waiting. We were formally introduced to Mario at that time.Then it was an hour of getting on and off the plane. The plane would pull away and come back as if it had landed at which time Queen Latifah would go up and greet them as they got off.

Next we went back to the town scene and as I stood right behind the camera man coaching her to smile, she had to hold Mario’s wife’s hand and run up to Cicely Tyson and give her a big hug at which time the camera panned up for dialogue between Cicely and Mario.

Then she had to pretend to be watching a baseball game (the celebrities were really playing) and finally she was scooped up and with massive camera time carried to be assembled for a ‘family portrait’ - she sat right in between Cicely’s legs. 

So basically we filmed the end of the movie.  They told us when it would be coming on TV (well around what time) and we were sent back on our way to wardrobe and then to make sure they had our information to mail her check. 

Funny and ironic when the movie finally hit the little screen, I of course, had a viewing party and my family all over the country was watching.   The movie was four hours long and starred Shemar Moore, Ericka Alexander and a heap of other people.  The ironic part, Mario and his family were…Muslim just like her, lol lol lol  We hollared at that.  During filming, she actually had her headpiece pinned wrong - so i thought it was just a head covering and alot of women back then covered up so I thougth nothing of it.  Tsk Tsk Tsk.  Goddess turned out to be in the last 15 minutes of the movie.  It was well worth the wait, because she’s quite prominent.

Goddess went on to enact a scene in my company’s corporate video later on that summer, but her acting career faded before it got started.  I didn’t have the resources or the money to pursue such an activity. 

Caun is quite excited..See Caun is a bit of an actor himself, lol he’s been in several episodes of ER, a couple of music videos, Lethal Weapon 3 as an extra. So he’s found the company that hires extras here in Atlanta and she and he are carving out another activity that is about them.

Yea I got a few pictures somewhere, if I find them I’ll certainly post them.