MORNING TIME

5:45 AM and the alarm begins to chirp. After hitting the dream bar, Margaret gives up on the idea of waking up slowly. Instead, she's brushing her teeth while she gets the coffee going. She's been out drinking with her pals and has barely slept, but now has the task of getting into her car to get to work in downtown L.A. This is no stand-up comedy job. This time she's an FBI agent named Wanda in the next John Woo movie, Face/Off. She drives and notices the pink Face/Off handwritten signs attached to poles on the empty and littered downtown streets. She parks her car in a lot and strolls over to a trailer for make-up and hair. Here, she gets the best make-up money can buy, and gets about a quarter inch of hair taken off. Next to her are the actors who play her FBI agent partners, but since they're men, they take about ten minutes while women take about 45. Later, Nicholas Cage comes in his Black Bentley for his morning spackle job.

Margaret then walks to the "Honey Wagon" which is a trailer that has four separate rooms. Hers is marked with a piece of masking tape that reads, "Wanda." Her clothes for the day are neatly laid out from the shooting the day before. The outfit includes everything from bra and panties to the ugly business suit her character sports every day. She pops this on and is ready for the day. But her first shoot isn't ready. She laughs when she tells me that she steals the bras and that the people working there are mad at her.

THE SET

Meanwhile, about four blocks away is the actual set where the shooting is to take place. It's at the 29th floor of a downtown high rise and it's going to be a rooftop helicopter scene. Woo rented the top two levels of the building for the entire day. On floor 29, the breakfast table has everything from mixed fruit, naked juice with wheat grass, crackers, muffins, croissants, sandwich meat, and a manned coffee machine. There are tons of actors hanging out dressed as FBI tacticle agents, wearing black body armor, and holding machine guns. They look fucking real although they are just a bunch of starving actors trying to get in on the free food. One of the gunmen drops a napkin and walks away. The coffee man gets pissed at the machine-gun-holding, body-armored actor who gives in like a little punk and apologizes. This is make-believe land.

The crew is working on setting up the first shot of the day which will happen once the sun appears in the sky. Meanwhile, Nicholas Cage is sitting in his trailer back at the lot. Once the set is all ready for the actors, the numerous head-set wearing assistant directors get the production moving. They have total control of this 100-million-dollar plus movie. At the call of John Woo, who's at the set, people who need to be at the set are carted off in a procession of vans that wait to transport everyone to their destination, just a few blocks away. These drivers get paid some big bucks to wait and then drive. Margaret meanwhile hops into one of the vans and gets to the set. She's there just for standby, so she and her actor friends dig into some of the food that's laid out. Margaret tells me to dig into the food, but I'm waiting for lunch since that's an incredible experience on its own. I stupidly thought that the snack spread was lunch. Margaret laughs at my ignorance of what goes on with a 100-million-dollar movie.

Expecting that Margaret's is a comedy-relief type of role, I'm completely wrong. She's serious throughout the entire film barring any nutty editing jokes. After meeting a couple of her FBI pals, Matt Ross and Jamie Denton, we settle into some chairs. With the tape recorder rolling and me talking to her movie mate pals, they get called onto the roof for their shot. People look at me as if I were John Woo's illegitimate son, since I'm one of the few Asians around. From a few people, I got asked if I were from Hong Kong, a friend on John Woo, and from the "studio." Being Asian has a significance these days on some film productions. So, instead, I tell them that I'm from a magazine called Giant Robot to puzzle them. Woo, meanwhile is directing a completely bound-and-shackled Cage and some FBI dudes in a minimal fight scene. The action looks like it's happening in slow motion and perhaps the close-up angles of the camera make things look real, but in person, it looks incredibly fake.

Margaret, Matt, and Jamie look on from the background. They get no direction or attention from Woo whatsoever. After about thirty minutes or so on the roof, the shot begins. Just as in the rehearsals, Cage gets beat and then taken away while Cho and company stare at the action in the background. The camera isn't on them at all! Woo sits in his chair in front of the monitors that show the exact camera shots. After a take, he accepts it, and it's printed. His yell of "cut" is odd-sounding. The shot is over and Cage is walking to the chair with his name on it, but he's still shackled. The crew is now setting up for the next shot on the roof. With the camera not on Margaret, I ask why they were up there, and it was solely for the eye line of Cage! He requests the actual actors to be there instead of piss-on stand-ins.

GETTING DIRECTED

After another half hour, the call comes in again, and this time the three are getting some camera time. Woo directs them and it's a simple shoot. From far off, I can see him gesturing them to move a certain way as if the action is happening. There's a Cage stand-in who practices the same action as before, but only this time it's for the eye line of Margaret and her two pals. Filmmaking is funny at times.

LUNCH

The shot goes off right in about two takes with nothing really exciting to report. But the best part of the day happensÐlunch. Matt tells me that this is unbelievable. So we get back into the vans to get back to the lot. As easy as grabbing a tray and putting down some plates, we can walk around to whatever food section we want. There was chicken and fish on the grill so I got both. A stir-fry line was long, but the food looked great. Margaret loads up on the salad at the salad bar and grabs some fruit. Everything is of the highest quality from these caterers who are there on John Travolta's request. They are supposedly the best in the business, and their fish and chicken are excellent. It's easy to make a big deal out of free food, but this was better than most restaurants and homemade meals. No shit... this company has a waiting list that's months long. Sitting beside me was C.C.H. Pounder, the actress from Baghdad Cafe.

I figured lunch would be a good time to bug Woo, but he was nowhere in sight. Margaret tells me that someone gets food for him while he works in his trailer. The man doesn't rest for a moment. Cage was also nonexistent at the food area. After lunch, we visit the gun man who turns out to be a real character. He provides guns, training, and knowledge for tons of movies.

After a half hour, we get called in on a walkie talkie (everyone seems to be holding one) and we hitch a ride on another van so the actors can get their make-up touched up. Meanwhile, the helicopter scene is getting underway on the roof of the building, which we can see from the lot. Margaret is tired from the night before and is forced to wait until they get called. She stares at the walls for no reason.

FACE OFF

After getting bored with sitting in her trailer (which is just big enough to lie down in), Cho rounds up her partners and they go and try to get a glimpse of the film. No luck, until they find one of the assistant directors...We all get into John Woo's trailer which is nothing special, but has a VCR, TV, and a minibar. We get to see some assembled footage. While shooting goes on, the footage for the previous days get processed, watched, and edited. So while the film is being shot, it's also being put together simultaneously. The action sequence is just like some of the intense ones that were in Hard BoiledÐpeople jumping through glass windows firing at each other. Low-angled gun play, sliding, jumping, explosions, and more. There was a weird music interlude coupled with images of violence seen through a kid's viewpoint. The action was hot and we are convinced this film is going to be a huge blockbuster, mega-dollar earning film. The visibility of Margaret and her pals is limited, but we do get to see a lot of death. Although they are disappointed with their screentime, they acknowledge that this film is worth being in. They also hear that there is a cut of the film an hour-and-a-half long that they have yet to see. They will bug someone else for that tape soon.

NO CALL

Time has been flying on this day and it's around 3 p.m., and Margaret still hasn't been called in for her next shot. After discussing it with her pals, they are sure that they will get the call any minute. So she lays down and tries to a catch a moment of sleep, although it's tough in the little trailer that rocks back and forth when someone get in or out of it. Four o' clock rolls by and John Woo walks right by the Honey Wagon. He waves to me and hustles by quick. "What's he doing here?" Margaret asks, but Woo just walks on by around a corner. Meanwhile, the helicopter scene is still taking place on the roof. It takes off once in a while and lands again. The three are sure they are supposed to be in another shot on the roof. At around 4:30, we realize that there's another set around the corner on the downtown street where bystanders are welcome to watch. Cage is being directed to steal a cop car. This is another easy scene. But Woo is hard at work directing. Convinced that they aren't going to be in another shoot, the actors minus Margaret walk into the shot to see what's going on and as they get noticed by one of the assistant directors, they are told to leave! Somewhat angry for having to stay the day, they are relieved that they get to leave before the sun goes down. It turns out that they were waiting around all day before lunch for no reason. This is how the big movie productions work.

THE MONEY

Evidently, smaller role players in big movies like this get paid a lot less than the big stars. ImagineÐCage and Travolta get somewhere around 20 million each to play their parts. Margaret and her pals get nothing like that. But in the end, when the video comes out, they will make a substantial amount for their royalities. So a full day of being there and getting into a shot or two isn't a bad day after all. After dealing with the sign-out process which entails signing an assistant director's clip board, they are off and running. But one last thing, they get their call schedule for the following day. There's hardly anything written in it. The three anguish for a moment over the next day and how they probably won't be filmed at all!

SHORT TALK

Matt: I got my ear blown off and I get shot in the head and It has already happened, so I'm already dead. They put a dime-size thing on my forehead and glued it with a blood tube on my hair with a latex thing on it. And then put make-up and a hairpiece. There's this thing on my head and someone behind pumps blood through it. I was afraid it would implode. It hurt in practice, but it didn't hurt afterward. John Woo is excellent, but I've never seen his romantic comedies.

Cho: I think he was an intern for Run Run Shaw.

Matt: John speaks perfect and fluently. After this is done, I have no job. Before, I was in 12 Monkeys, Homegrown, Sling Blade, Ed's Next Move, and PCU.

Jamie: Me and Margaret live through the end. Us three are all on the same level, but we don't die like Matt. We do the same things. But I got kicked in the nuts by Gina Gershon. There's this neat gizmo that goes from my foot to the pant leg and then you can tighten it. When you kick it, the pressure is actually on the bottom of your feet. She has a dancer habit of curving her feet and she kicked me good. Cage also pistol-whips me. Nick wanted to make it look real and he cocked me a couple of times. We didn't use a fake stuntman. It still hurts, but I agreed to do it that way. He kept apologizing about hitting me. Travolta is like your best friend. Cage is a serious professional, but friendly. As soon as the scene is over, he doesn't really talk to you much.

I wear SWAT gear and have a little more action scenes than they do. We got some gun training. The big weapons are different. After this film, I am in the Bette Midler movie out in April. Before that I was in the Chicago theater. For some reason, Carl Reiner said I looked like Dick Van Dyke and he got me the job. The studio didn't want me, but that's it. The ring on my finger is the exact ring that Charlie Sheen wore in Hot Shots Part Deux.

Cho: They just give you a tray of a bunch of stuff that you wear. Your watches aren't running!

Jamie: I'm not suppose to have the gun. But it's a 9mm. I should have a fake gun.

Cho: Sometimes they give us a plastic gun, but it depends. Blanks and bullets are just about the same, but different at the very end of it.

Cho: Film is infinitely satisfying artistically. Not what we are doing, but actually this film is so cool. It's amazing. It's like a HK film except in America. It's alive. I was bummed out since we've been working on this so long, but we saw some and it's great.

Matt: I think anyone can do our parts. But it's cool, you get to glare at Cage and he glares back.

GR: How much waiting do you do for your parts?

Cho: Yesterday, we were there from nine-six and we didn't do anything. We didn't even put clothes on!

Matt: The other day, I was called at 2 a.m., and was released at 8 a.m. and didn't do anything.

Jamie: From video, you get paid by the amount of days you work, so if you don't shoot, then you don't get paid. We will make more by video from when that comes out.

THE PLOT

What's this about?

All three: Nick Cage is a bad guy in jail and in a coma, so the FBI take his face off with lasers. It's slightly in the future. Nick Cage's brother has a bomb that will blow up L.A. Travolta is an FBI agent. They switch faces. Meanwhile, Cage wakes up and puts on Travolta's face. Now the bad guy runs the FBI and the good guy gets shot at by the bad guys. There's some romance in here, but Woo's style is filial. They don't do anything like that. This is like Spy vs. Spy. It's like The Killer. Except they are arch enemies.

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