Ring, ring, ring—
The alarm clock suddenly rang. Matthew opened his eyes, reached out, and flipped the switch. The desk lamp cast a soft glow. Although it was pitch black outside, he quickly put on his clothes and got up, heading toward the bathroom while shouting at his still-sleeping roommate, "Mike! Time to get up!"
Michael Sheen struggled to open his eyes and asked, "is it time?"
Matthew's voice came from the bathroom, "Hurry up!"
Today was the official start of shooting the war scenes. Unlike the past few days where they could sleep until dawn, Helen Herman had instructed them last night that they had to wake up at 3 AM and arrive at the set outside the town before 4 AM.
By the time Michael Sheen got up, Matthew had already finished washing up.
"I'll go reserve a seat first." He pulled open the door. "I'll wait for you in the dining hall."
"Alright..." Michael Sheen stretched.
The second floor of the hotel was quiet; it seemed few people were awake yet. Matthew followed the stairs down to the first floor. Upon entering the dining hall, he found the self-serve breakfast already laid out. He casually selected a few items and walked toward the seating area. In the small dining hall, only one person was eating.
Matthew specifically walked over, "Morning, Helen."
The only person eating was Helen Herman. She remembered the company's first client and nodded, "Morning, Matthew."
"May I sit here?" Matthew gestured toward the seat opposite her.
Helen Herman had no intention of refusing. "Feel free."
Matthew put down his tray, pulled out a chair, and sat across from Helen Herman, remarking casually, "You wake up earlier than the actors every day."
"You observe very carefully," Helen Herman said meaningfully.
Over the past few days, Matthew had indeed paid special attention to Helen Herman, appearing in front of her from time to time.
It was obvious that Helen Herman had noticed, but Matthew wasn't embarrassed at all. He said directly, "I'm just a little curious how you managed to secure roles in the set of Gladiator."
Helen Herman gave a standardized smile, "Just good luck."
Seeing that she didn't want to talk about it, Matthew stopped asking and focused on his breakfast. He estimated he would be busy all day today.
Halfway through breakfast, people began entering the dining hall one after another. Helen Herman put down her knife and fork, picked up a napkin to wipe her mouth, stood up, and casually said, "I'm finished. You carry on."
Matthew's mouth was full of bacon, making it difficult to speak, so he simply nodded at her.
Just as Helen Herman left, Michael Sheen rushed over with his tray, sat down next to Matthew, and asked curiously, "I just saw the boss of Angel here. What were you two talking about? Are you planning to hit on her?"
Matthew gave him a pair of white eyes. "Do you think that's possible?"
"Impossible!" Michael Sheen peeled an egg, stuffed it into his mouth, and mumbled, "What did you talk about?"
Matthew didn't hide anything. He said, "I asked her how she got these roles."
Matthew wasn't the only curious one. Michael Sheen was also concerned. "Did you find out?"
"No." Matthew shook his head. "That woman is tight-lipped."
After they finished breakfast, they went outside the hotel. The night sky was pitch black, but the streets were brightly lit. Nearly fifty extras from the Angel company quickly gathered and, led by Helen Herman and her assistant Amanda, left the town and headed to the edge of the forest.
Countless large lights were hoisted high around the forest, dispelling the darkness of the night sky and illuminating a large area nearby as bright as day. More than twenty makeup trailers were lined up horizontally, and over fifty makeup artists and their assistants were already in position.
Standing outside the makeup trailers, Matthew saw Helen Herman exchange a few words with the Bearded Man, and then she walked back.
"We are now splitting into two teams!" Helen Herman announced loudly.
"One team follows Amanda to get makeup! The other team follows me to change clothes!"
The extras quickly divided into two teams. Michael Sheen wanted to join the makeup team, but Matthew pulled him into the line for changing clothes.
"Why go over there? All of us need to glue beards onto our faces."
After rehearsal ended yesterday, Matthew had specifically asked around. "It's not even 4 AM yet. The crew won't start shooting until 9 AM at the earliest. is it comfortable having glue stuck to your face for five hours?"
Michael Sheen quickly joined Matthew's team.
Filming epic movies is extremely complicated, especially the actors' styling. Matthew hadn't been idle these past few days except during rehearsals; he moved around the set, chatting with many assistants and gaffers. Although they, the extras, had to queue for makeup and styling before 4 AM, the principal actors wouldn't arrive on set until after 7 AM. The lead actor, Russell Crowe, was notoriously difficult to please, and being late by ten minutes or even half an hour was common.
This was the privilege of stardom.
Having been involved in three film crews so far, Matthew had realized that it seemed to be the norm for extras or ordinary actors to wait tirelessly while big-name stars arrived fashionably late.
He had only been on three sets, so he didn't know if this was a universal phenomenon.
Matthew lined up and walked toward the trailers belonging to the wardrobe department. It was just past 4 AM, and the entire Gladiator crew was already operating at full capacity.
In this era, Gladiator could absolutely be considered an A-List Hollywood production. Especially for this war scene, over a thousand actors were utilized. Including staff from various departments, more than 2,500 people were concentrated in this relatively small area.
Queuing past the trailers of many departments, Matthew saw clearly that the entire crew was orderly, like a massive, precisely operating machine, with no sign of chaos.
"is this what a film crew from the Great Industrial Era looks like?"
Compared to a behemoth like the Gladiator crew, the "girl, interrupted" crew was only a small sparrow.
The line gradually stopped moving near the wardrobe department's trailers. Matthew waited quietly. Hundreds of extras were gathered here, and even with the crew's high efficiency, they still had to wait for a while.
This wait lasted over an hour. It wasn't until the sky turned pale with the white of dawn that it was Matthew's turn to enter the trailer. Extras played background roles, so specialized styling was out of the question. The costume designer sized up his physique, found a set of coarse cloth clothes, grabbed a faux fur shawl, and helped Matthew put them on.
The clothes were a bit small and didn't fit perfectly, but background roles weren't scrutinized that closely. The costume designer looked him over again, patted Matthew's arm, "Done!"
Finally, Matthew put on a pair of worn-out shoes and staggered out of the trailer, looking like a barbarian.
"Go over there for makeup." Helen Herman was waiting near the trailer and pointed the direction. "Hurry up."
"Okay!"
Matthew responded and lined up in front of the nearby makeup trailer. His costume was quite thick, but fortunately, the mornings in Los Angeles in March were cool. If they were filming such a scene in the summer, the extras working this hard would probably pass out from the heat.
When the sky was fully bright, it was finally Matthew's turn for makeup. Sitting in front of the makeup trailer, a female makeup artist first messed up his medium-short hair to look like tangled firewood, then signaled her assistant to start applying the beard to Matthew's face.
Matthew had watched many Hollywood commercial epic films, and the deepest impression the male characters left on him was that, regardless of whether they were handsome or ugly, most sported a full beard.
These uncivilized Germanic barbarians were no exception.
The assistant brought over a fake beard that was roughly the same color as Matthew's hair and began applying specialized glue to his face. Contrary to Matthew's imagination, the beard wasn't applied strand by strand, but rather the finished piece was glued onto his face.
With so many extras, if they had to glue the beards on strand by strand, the fifty-plus makeup artists and their assistants probably wouldn't finish even by this time tomorrow.
Matthew guessed that the strand-by-strand application was a luxury reserved for the principal actors.
Once the beard was applied, they smeared some hieroglyphic-like substances on his face. After a while, the glue on his face, even though it was specialized makeup adhesive, made him very uncomfortable.
But he couldn't scratch or rub it, or the styling would be ruined, so he just had to endure it.
Finally, Matthew went to the props department to receive the weapons used by the barbarians.
This process was much faster. A props master, seeing his height and sturdy build, specifically gave him a two-handed battle-axe. The double-bladed design looked quite formidable, but it felt very light in Matthew's hand. It wasn't metal at all, likely made of plastic or resin, weighing at most five or six pounds.
Thus, a mighty barbarian warrior was successfully created.
Shouldering the mighty two-handed battle-axe, Matthew was guided by a crew member to the edge of the forest, where he waited with the other actors for the shooting to begin.
Matthew specifically asked someone, and it was already past 8 AM!
From arriving on set before 4 AM until the styling was complete, four hours had passed, most of which was spent waiting.
His legs were sore, his feet were slightly numb, and some people even looked exhausted and sleepy.
But if they wanted to appear in the film, even if only for a flash, they had to keep waiting.
Time slowly passed, and the sun rose higher. Matthew could see that the cameras, cranes, tracks, and other equipment were all set up, seemingly ready to shoot at any moment.
The Bearded Man walked over, leading a white old man in his fifties or sixties, and Helen Herman followed closely beside them, looking very familiar with the situation.
"Alright, guys!" The Bearded Man projected his loud voice. "Perk up! We're about to start shooting!"
He looked at the white old man, and seeing him nod, he shouted, "Okay, prepare now! Stick to what we rehearsed."
"Quick!" Matthew felt someone pull him. It was Michael Sheen. "That old man is Ridley Scott! Let's get to the front!"
It wasn't just Michael Sheen; many extras seemed to have the same idea, wanting to push to the very front, perhaps believing they could appear in front of the camera and leave a deep impression on a major director like Ridley Scott.
Michael Sheen was an activist among them. Using the advantage of his height and sturdy build, he shoved hard with his shoulder, directly pushing a shorter man in front of him against a tree, then grabbed another person's clothes, forcing his way to the very front of the entire line.
He seemed impatient to appear before Ridley Scott.
In just a dozen seconds, this group of extras devolved into complete chaos .