Opportunity of a Lifetime (A Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Story)

Chapter 6: Officially an Actress

Oh man, I was so nervous. This was the first day shooting the video. We had gone over the whole concept multiple times, but the filming wasn't going in chronological order, so since we were starting at a set just outside Seattle, we were going from about 30 seconds in to the video.

We got up early, having hair and makeup take roughly an hour. I sat playing minion rush on my phone as Melissa turned my hair into a perfectly stressed look. Loose waves with some strands straighter, and she put in a spray that made it look like I had been running my hands through my hair all day. After that I was up and through the bus more times than I could count. I was on coffee duty, and was in charge of making about 8 cups of coffee for the crew, 4 going to Ryan.

"Think maybe you could leave some coffee for the rest of us?" I asked Ryan, handing him his third cup of coffee.

"Well one of those cups are for the hangover I have from last night, and anyway, coffee will stunt your growth." Ryan added.

"I'm already 5'9!" I said to him. Loudly. He banged his head against the table. "Someone missed his beauty sleep," I scoffed, brushing past him and sitting down to finish my makeup. Who gets drunk the night before filming?

We pulled up to the set, which was an old abandoned looking building, and while the crew placed all the lighting and props, Zach helped us go over our cues one last time, and fixed my makeup here and there. I would be finding Dylan (sorry, I mean young Ben) doing crack or something. I was ready, knowing I would have to cry in this scene, which took about 5 days to figure out how to do on cue.

First there were a bunch shots of Dylan doing drugs and him being half passed out. You could tell he knew how to act, the emotion was so real. His face actually turned paler as he became more and more out of it. He shifted into an older version of himself in some way throughout the scene. It was somehow translated on his face when he expressed his shame towards what he'd done. It was incredible.

I knew my cue was coming up, and I looked down at Melissa making sure my hair was right and my outfit was in the right place. It consisted of plain dark wash skinny jeans with a few holes, a slightly dirty white tank top, and a black zip up. On my feet I wore a pair of extremely beat up faded black converse. Melissa and Zach's costume designing was phenomenal, it actually set the tone of the scene more than I thought it would. A few butterflies batted their wings violently in the pit of my stomach, okay, it's my cue.

I had to walk along a corner, and choke up when I saw Dylan. I ran over to him and yanked on his grey flannel shirt, screaming at him as he sat terrified, leaning against the wall drowsy, but still aware. I felt really in the moment, and I started to cry with ease, tears streaming down my face as I shook and trembled all the midst while screaming at him. I didn't even think about this being only a part, I felt Tricia's pain and hurt as I pulled on my hair and than took the small bag on the ground and ran away.

No one clapped, they all stood stunned and I noticed Tricia crying softly when I looked up after controlling myself, she came up and hugged me and whispered in my ear, "You understand the pain don't you," and then stood up as Ben came to console her. I still had more scenes to do.

In the next scene I cried against a wall and drank a bottle of gin, which was actually only flat root beer. But that scene took a couple tries because Ryan needed it perfect, so I ended up having to pee like three times in the next hour. As well as smashing about four bottles, and ending up with a shard of glass stuck in my hand, which while I was in writhing in pain, Ryan was smiling and yelling at the crew to get a bunch of shots of me hurting. He also told me to calm down, cause if I was drunk I wouldn't really feel the pain.

As you can imagine I yelled at him a little after he was done, but hey, anything for the video I guess.

It took about two hours to finish up filming, there were a few more shots of our faces close up, and I did my best to inflict the pain across my face. It was hard to only use my face, and not my body language to tell the story.

Ben and Tricia came out dressed the exact same as Dylan and I, and there were a few shots taken of me 'morphing' (for lack of a better word) into Tricia, which was a long process because we had to be in the exact same position. Dylan and Ben had to do the same thing to, but that took twice as long, because Ben kept laughing and ruining it.

This first shooting was exhausting, and I flopped on my bed when I was finished with my cues and took a short half hour nap. This shooting was mostly Dylan and I, but I knew the next one we weren't in at all when we went to Spokane. By the time I woke up the filming was done, they were just taking down the sets and the lights.

Eventually we were all piled up in the bus ready to head to an outdoor area in Spokane. Ryan showed me the film, but it was completely un-edited at this point, and I really don't want to brag. But Dylan and I did a phenomenal job, I saw Ben rubbing his eyes, probably holding back tears. Of course, we were going to share a take on his life story, who wouldn't get emotional?