Bulgaria Part VI

Bulgaria Part VI

I know I know, I said I’d get to the next part several days ago….my bad.
It’s not easy for me to just sit down and start writing…
I enjoy it once I get started but I usually sit at the screen and stare for 30 minutes before I can even get one word down.

After that amazing night on the town with the rest of the cast I finally started to feel like I was becoming friends with these people who only a week or 2 ago, I didn’t even know.
I’m going to do my best to give you some insight into the actors and of course…the movie itself; “Lightning Strikes!” (no spoilers)

Kevin; aka. Hercules/Captain Dillon Hunt is of course the star of the show playing Sheriff Bradley. A super nice guy who loves talking about his life abroad, his wife and children and upcoming projects. As nice a guy as you will ever meet.

Annabelle Wright plays Nancy; A very pretty and incredibly sweet woman from London. She is fun to be around and the consummate professional actress. Through cold, rain, snow and no end of discomfort she endured and gives a wonderful performance.

David Schofield is also British and a very friendly man who when given a large 7” scar going down the right side of his face looks and acts incredibly scary! An actor for over 40 yrs he was a great source of information. He plays Donovan, a man with a mission.

Robyn Addison plays Angel, a tall beautiful blond scientist who must put up with her 2 co-scientist/storm chasers. Also from London she is incredibly fun to be around and is always quick with a witty comment.

Jeff Harding plays another storm chaser. An American living in London he has an extensive list of acting roles but what most impressed me was his voice acting. He has done over 500 audio books and tells stories with a flare I envy.

Kolin Smialek plays Billy, the Sheriff’s son. Another American living in London and at 18 yrs old is someone to keep an eye on. I suspect we will find him in starring roles very soon. Listening to him discuss how he juggles school and acting reminds me of just what can be accomplished when someone has a true passion.

As a brand new father; Tom Harper spent much of his time telling us stories about how much he missed his wife and new born baby. Another storm chaser and citizen of Great Britain (are you seeing a pattern here?) he never the less does an excellent American mid-western accent and is a blast to have around. He can do a Bulgarian line dance with the best of them!
That is a short list of the actors…I’ll list out a few more later.

Now on to some adventures;

After our night out on Monday, we slept late Tuesday. We did how ever find time to get up and hit some sites. Together with Kevin, Annabelle and Kolin, Norma and I hopped a taxi to the St. Alexander Nevsky church. We did a lot of walking and shopping and saw some amazing sites.
Here are some photos but they don’t do the locations justice;
Site Seeing *Also included are a few shots from my hotel room; with and without snow.

It was on this day that I had my lowest point while in Sophia thus far…
After a few hours, Norma and I wanted to continue shopping while the rest of the gang headed back to the hotel. Confident of my inherent bio-directional sense, we set off on our own to check out some of the great little stores in downtown Sophia. Little did I know that every single block in Sophia has no less than 3 shoe stores. I had been using a particular shoe store as my location anchor. I had no idea that all shoe stores look alike…at least in Sophia. So, as the sun went down, we found ourselves not 100% sure of our direction or location.

Not being a typical male in this regard I had no problem stopping and asking for directions. Unfortunately either they didn’t speak English (which was actually rare) or they didn’t know where the Kempinski Hotel was. I stopped a cab driver but he refused to take us to the hotel. (I’ll explain why in a moment).
After wandering around for well over an hour, straying from the nice shopping district to a less than savory area, now well into nightfall, I was forced to call upon my innate superhero abilities to find our way home. Now since we are walking in an area that has 5-10 story buildings on all sides, it’s a little (if not impossible) to see our 20 story hotel, which I was sure was over here…somewhere. It turns out that one of The Defuser’s weaknesses is his sense of direction. With night full on, Norma becoming more and more anxious, we finally rounded a corner and low and behold something familiar.
Turns out the reason the cab driver didn’t want to drive us to the hotel was that…had I zagged right when I zagged left an hour earlier, we would have been a few blocks from the hotel. As it was, we had a lovely evening walk in downtown Sophia.

Wednesday was a shoot day for me. As the project was a few days behind schedule, they called in a “second unit” to assist with the filming. This was to be one of my favorite if bittersweet scenes. I actually get to do some “stunt-work” (shut up Thom)
I got to drive fast, have a burnt crispy body fall on my car and then I get to dive out of the way while I’m attacked by something evil. I was not however allowed to pull apart my shirt revealing a spandex clad superhero beneath. I was sure that a glue grenade would put a quick end to the diabolical menace that was threatening my adoptive home town.

Things got pretty ugly from there but I was needed on set #1 where I got to shoot yet another “stunt” activity. Has anyone seen “TJ Hooker” or “The Dukes of Hazzard? That’s all I’m gonna say.

Thursday and Friday were relatively quiet (as I recall) but there was an incident Friday night, after dinner, that I will mention because if I don’t, Norma will.
The gang, including Norma and myself, Kolin, Robyn, Annabelle, Todd and Jeff (Kevin left just before the incident in question) decided to head to the bar located on the top floor of the hotel. This is a very prestigious restaurant/bar, very posh and proper.
Everyone (except yours truly) were partaking of a Bulgaria specialty; a shot of a near frozen very thick liqueur that is rumored to assist with digestion. (whatever)
We are all sitting around the bar on tall barstools.
Norma, sitting to my right, made some type of graceful maneuver and her tall shot glass emptied its contents into the general direction of my pants. Using my DEFUSER reflex’s I attempted to spring away to avoid the approaching liquid. (did I mention it was cold?) As I jump up, my left foot is caught on the barstool and I step/stagger backward, arms flailing madly until I crash butt first onto the floor and into the entrance door. Had my foot NOT been forcibly locked onto the barstool my finishing move as I quickly stood back up would have been quite impressive. Surely enough to cause any onlookers to completely overlook the initial fall. Unfortunately since my foot WAS still firmly locked into place, I just seemed to flounder on the floor like some water starved fish.
It would have been nice if someone…anyone had come to assist but it was all my alcohol laden friends could do to stay on their own barstools as they laughed, snorted, hooted and howled. I look over to see the matre d’ staring down at me tapping his foot.
I calming got up, as gracefully as I could, sat back down at the bar and drowned my sorrows in my glass of mineral water. (without ice)

Sunday started early as I had to get Norma to the airport by 5am. I also was supposed to fly back today but a few days were added to account for the weather delays.
Even though I know I will see her in a couple of days, it was sad to see her go. I would not have had NEAR the fun I did without her.

We had a short shoot today and then a quick quiet dinner before heading back to the hotel. I’m tired and kinda sad that my Bulgarian adventure is coming to an end. Being the “travel” coward that I am I never expected (or wanted) to go overseas. But now, all I can think about is where to go when I come back. I have adapted better than I thought to living in the hotel, using hand signs when the spoken word wasn’t enough and getting along without a steady supply of Pop-Tarts. Bulgaria may not be what people think of when they consider a European destination but I couldn’t be more impressed by the amazing locations or the people who have been nothing but incredibly friendly and patient with me.

I can’t say if I’ll ever be on another movie set again but if I am, I can’t imagine I would be having more fun that I have been the last 3 weeks.

I am truly blessed and am grateful for all the friends, family and experiences that have touched my life.

Thank you.

-jarrett
aka. The Defuser