Last summer I was in L.A., hunting stars, hoping to catch a glimpse of a famous face. A good look at Mario Lopez's dimpled left cheek was as close as I got to a run-in with stardom.
And then I came back home to East Asia, and while I'm going about my life, an opportunity arrises for me and my whole family to be in a movie. A real one. Look it up on IMDb, it's called "The Lady and the Panda," and it's a true story about the first panda to come to America in 1936 (the panda, which was only a baby, was smuggled out of China in the handbag of a prominent American named Ruth Harkness).
And it wasn't just my family who took part! A whole bunch of our besties were there too. Because the movie is being filmed exclusively over here - so as to be near the pandas - caucasian people were needed to fill their "Chicago zoo" scene and their "ship bound for New York" scene. For a meager 500 kuai per day (which is less than $100) we hung around their mountainside filming location for two days, sleeping in rooms with no heat, and eating hardly anything but squid-flavored potato chips and boiled buns.
But we got to be in a movie!!
(Or so we think. Maybe all our scenes will be cut. In fact, probably they will).
But we're telling ourselves we get to be in a movie!!
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| Places, places everyone! |
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| Back to wardrobe. |
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| Makeup check. |
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| Every hair in place. |
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| Looking...good? |
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| Looking good! |
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| Why don't we dress our boys like this anymore?? |
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| Daniel hanging with the actors. |
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| Staying warm between shoots. |
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| Alisa and I weren't exactly obeying the signs. |
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| Passing the time. |
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| The champion of our home school co-op was there, bringing Christmas crafts, Sunday School materials, and books to read to the children (she's nothing short of amazing). |
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| XOXO |
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| Daniel and I on set. A steamship station in "Shanghai." |
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| Selfie on set. |
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| We did a lot of sitting around. Our vintage shoes were not comfortable. (That is fake sunlight streaming in the "window") |
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| And we took a lot of pictures between takes. |
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| He should have been an actor. |
And the best shot of all? Are you ready for it? Children, cover your eyes...
