I Could Have Had a Real Job
When I'm watching Lexx, I sometimes amuse myself by imagining what it must have been like for the actors to have to perform the scenes. What I mean is, they had to do some damn silly stuff that to us seems cool because of all the special effects and Canadian fairy dust (ie the magic of television).
Remove the special effects and editing and what must it have been like to actually have to shoot the scene, probably about 100 times, in a studio with a full crew of onlookers? DAMN SILLY!!! Seems like MM got stuck with most of the ridiculous stuff. How many times must he have wondered, "What the h*ll am I doing here? How did I get myself into this? I could have had a real job!!!"
Two of my favorite examples are in Woz. One, where BD and MM look like they are climbing a hill, which is obviously just a two foot high pile of dirt with a green screen behind it. I laugh every time I see Michael *struggle* up the *hill.* What an actor!! Another great moment is when Kai is electrocuted by the fencing around the Dark Lady's compound. Looks great as a special effect, but totally stupid if you just had to do it as an actor. Arms flailing, legs twitching -- the crew might have been rolling on the floor laughing at how stupid it all must have looked. Poor MM, but our boy's game for anything, it seems.
Please post other truly silly special effects or filming moments where the actors (epecially MM) might have thought, "I could have had a real job!"
Edited by: PippiL27 at: 4/28/06 8:31 pm
mmlover Kai Slave
Posts: 761
(4/22/06 9:58 am) Reply
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
This is a really kewl topic. You gotta wonder what MM was thinking every time he was suspended by wires, especially during the big plummeting scene with him and Brian when they are falling to the planet water. There is an instance, where MM is in the harness, and I've got this on the dailies, and also put up a little file of it in the lexxzone's download section, called Yellow Submarine AVI, anyways, MM bursts out singing yellow submarine and Brian joins him in the song, hehehe... so they did have some fun moments in front of the screen too.
Brian did a post about CGI at his board too, where he goes into it a bit.
www.briandowney.biz
and the little movie file of MM singing yellow submarine is available at the lexxzone's downloads section at:
www.lexxzone.com then just click on downloads and look for the file.
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
I watched the Yellow Submarine thing after you posted it and laughed my ass off. MM really did seem to love his plummeting, didn't he?
He's in such a good mood in that clip and the one on the DVDs. I could never be an actor and just turn that stuff on and off at will. Once I'm in a silly mood, God knows I'm staying there for a while! I'm so glad you put it up; it is definitely one of my favorites that I've watched.
Thanks for telling me about the CGI info at Brian Downey's page. I'll have to check it out.
mmlover Kai Slave
Posts: 765
(4/23/06 7:12 pm) Reply
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
Yeah, that video was pretty funny!
Pippi, I pmed you back about that one thing you were asking me about, check your message box, there's a couple PM's in there.
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
I think it would be awesome to do the repitition of filming as opposed to, oh I don't know, any stupid repititious job. My only problem would be cracking up so much I'd be kicked off the set.
I like the bit on the gag reel where Jeff got 790's line wrong and Michael is shooting at him with a finger pistol.
I can't think of anything sillier looking than Michael doing Henry V, and he probably relished the acting out after all the straight stuff. The idea of throwing his own tomatoes at himself cracked me up to no end. I was thinking wow, does that really work? I was ready to try it out.
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
Fluffdaddy had to be my favorite episode of Season 4, especially since MM contributed a ton of his own stuff to the 'ActorKai' performance and resulting rants in German. I also liked the little 'deleted scene' bit where he disses the 'fans' in general, I think that was meant more for our benefit than anything else, heheh
mmlover Kai Slave
Posts: 766
(4/25/06 5:22 am) Reply
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
And that part where he's hanging upside down, with white makeup on his face, doing a japanese Nyo (spelling), and wearing a green diaper, was hysterical. And I know who bought that green diaper and all I can say is, ewwwwwwww, that's nasty!
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job Good thoughts Janika, SexyLexxy and mmlover, I'm not sure anyone can beat your choice on this one! The Henry V stuff HAD to be hilarious to film, and MM seems so intense throughout. Hum...smashing tomatoes into your own face, with fan full blast... *check*...displaying your diaper fetish to the world ...*check*...making fun of your own fans in a pissy
rant...*check*. Yup, that HAD to be hard to deal with, especially if you had just been bitten on the lip by a tiny kick dog. This one goes top of the list.
Any others?
mmlover, should I ask about who brought the green diaper, or will the answer just scar me for life?
mmlover Kai Slave
Posts: 769
(4/27/06 5:32 am) Reply
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
Hehehe, chatins bought the green diaper, and me and sexxylexxy have told him, ewwww over that one. The thought of it is kinda nasty.
Ohhh...during the trip scene where Xev is 'dreamin' or 'trippin' and she comes across Stan and Kai in bed, first you hear they making sounds of having sex, moans and such, and I just crack up when Kai says to her, "You don't have any clue how to please a man." MM got into some pretty funky situations with BD, this being one of the funniest.
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
That's great. Can you imagine how they felt having to record the sound for all of that stuff in the bed and in the shower as well? I'm assuming that they looped (rerecorded) the dialog for most of the episodes to get better sound. That would be a day when you either loved, or hated, your job!
* "Hi, honey, how was work today?"
* "I guess it went pretty well, but I just couldn't get my
sexy grunts to sound hot enough..."
OK, film/TV acting is a VERY strange job!
So, is chatins deeply disturbed, or was he just into the whole acting genres thing? Were they all tortured by an acting coach or evil director at one time? Were they just working out their inner acting demons through self-mockery? Were they all effing stoned?
... and I am SO not even going to ask where one purchases an adult sized green diaper, extra slender. Some things are best left unknown in this world!
mmlover Kai Slave
Posts: 772
(4/29/06 8:12 am) Reply
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
I think maybe he was suffering from temporary insanity when he bought it, hehehehe... Naw, he's just a huge collector of Lexx items, he really loved the show alot and has one of the hugest, probably THE hugest lexx collection out there, you can check out his and others stuff at www.lexxmuseum.com
Well I think with the beans and their writing, they were all effing stoned. They HAD to be with some of the outrageous things they came up with. And MM came up with much of the things that went on in the Game, and also his role in Fluffdaddy. What other actor is going to think up wearing a green diaper while throwing tomatoes at a fan? Ya had to wonder if he thought it was fun to have tomatoes come splatting back at him. I remember him saying one time that when he did the shower scene in Gametown with Patti Z. and there were a whole other bunch of Nude women in the shower scenes too, that he woke up at 4 a.m. the next morning and was like Whoah! Like it finally hit him that he had been surrounded by beautiful naked women, hehehehe.... I suppose when you're *acting* you go into actor mode, then think about it after.
Boy, that reminds me. While they were doing that scene I was thinking how wet his costume must be getting, etc, and then I get to thinking about spare costumes and having to wash them and whatnot. And there are other episodes where he gets wet or dirty, and I know I've read posts in other places about little nanobots on his suit keep it clean because the next scene it's clean again. Does anyone know how many Kai costumes there were? I know Michael says he has it, but was there a backup? Or did the stand in dead Kai with his back to the camera while he was talking to alive Prince/Kai really wear Michael's suit? I know there were backup wigs.
mmlover Kai Slave
Posts: 777
(5/6/06 3:15 pm) Reply
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
That's one thing I was never sure about is if they had any other back-up black assassin uniforms. Maybe they just kept fixing the original. They had those pants underneath replaced before and probably the cuffs of the costume too. I hope he brings his black assassin's uniform to the TD con, I'd love to see it in person and of course take pictures.
Re: I Could Have Had a Real Job
No nanobots in the diapers! Just one more reason being human sucks.
Leonessa Mistress of the Lash
Posts: 19
(7/9/06 4:50 pm) Reply
Kai suits
well we do know for a fact that there was only one rainbow kai suit, a masterpiece in reality, and it was purchased by a very good lexxian. I've seen it in person and let me tell you tv does NOT do it justice. What a beautiful piece of art it is and worth every penny that was paid for it. The colorful ribbons artfully braided together to create material must have taken hours of hand work. And I've got to say..MM was and is a thin man, the inside pants were astonishingly skinny!!! I'm so happy to be one of those lucky lexxians that got to see it up close and personal..now..aintcha jealous?
Re: Kai suits
It must have been very cool to get to see the real thing. The costumes are one of the very best things about Lexx. They are so original and you never knew what the show would come up with next. If the costumes hadn't been so well done, the show really would have suffered for it.
mmlover Kai Slave
Posts: 786
(7/18/06 5:22 am) Reply
Re: Kai suits
The costumes really were different. And the Rainbow suit is so detailed, bright and beautiful! I heard it was quite expensive to make, and I could see why.
Re: Kai suits
OH my GOD the Rainbow costume was so incredibly gorgeous I can't even describe it. I feel so lucky to have been able to actually see it up close and touch it, the lady who made it was a master and she really did an amazing job. If I were Michael, I'd have never let it out of my sight.
Does anyone know how many Kai costumes there were? I know Michael says he has it, but was there a backup? Or did the stand in dead Kai with his back to the camera while he was talking to alive Prince/Kai really wear Michael's suit? I know there were backup wigs.
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