STRICTLY ON BACKGROUND, PT. 29: "MADAM SECRETARY"

Often if you're noticed as an extra, it's due to little more than right time, right place. Oh sure, maybe a cool fedora helps. But more often than not, it really does come down to dumb luck. In the case of my most recent work on Madam Secretary, it couldn't have been any dumber. Or luckier.

Madam Secretary has been second only to Gotham as my favorite show to work on. (And now that the latter has filmed its final season, Madam Secretary takes first place). It's both classy and a hit, with a great cast and crew, from the director on down. They've given me plenty of work in the last two years, which is even more of a plus than the food.

So when I got the heads up in October that I was getting two days work for one episode, that made it doubly pleasant. Adding to the fun was that, upon arriving on set, I discovered I'd be working with a guy named Sasha, whose daughter was friends with mine during their early school years.

This would be one of my few Madam Secretary non-journalist roles. Instead, I had gotten the decidedly cool bump to Kosovo NATO aide. Seeing that I was wearing my usual pinstriped suit, the only thing that differentiated me from looking like a reporter was a slightly more conservative tie, government-issued ID, and a scowl.

Consider the Sheraton Times Square Hotel for your
next NATO peace conference! Free wi-fi and USA Today provided.

The first day (October 16), we were shooting at the Sheraton Hotel on 7th Avenue & 53rd Street, which was standing in for a federal building in Maryland. 

Each of us "aides" were provided a little flag pin representing our home country. By the time they got to me, the Kosovo pins were all gone; thus, I was gifted one of Serbia. What the hell, I'm easy. 

Sitting in the back, over the shoulder of the woman in the black suit
and red blouse. Sasha is second to the left of the guy standing up.

We were ushered into one of the Sheraton's conference rooms. The actors playing the official representatives were already at the tables; we aides were told to take a seat in the chairs against the wall. 

I quickly scoped out the joint, and chose the chair that the camera was pointed towards. When you can't be front and center, settle for center. 

My friend Sasha, meanwhile, was immediately promoted from aide to representative, and placed at the the table. Two reasons: 1) There was an empty chair, and 2) He's Russian by birth, and thus looked the part. Again, dumb luck, not just due to the empty chair, but Sasha's birthplace.

That afternoon, I was almost placed in another scene with the Kosovo rep who was talking to the Under Secretary of State -- until someone noticed my Serbian flag pin. An extra with the correct flag was used instead. Watching the shoot on a monitor, I was crushed -- the guy who took my place was in the entire scene, observing the discussion between his boss and the American lackey. This nearly was mine...

The view from the entrance of Broadway Stages -- or, as I like to
 think of it, Hollywood on the East River.

The following Monday, I reported to Broadway Stages which, despite its name, is a TV and movie studio in Brooklyn. Initially, I was disappointed. The call sheet indicated that there was another Madam Secretary shoot going on at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City  involving the President -- that is, Keith Carradine, not the real current White House occupant. Have you noticed that movies and TV shows always feature a guy you wish were president?

The slick, stylish Serb on a break.

I figured the scene with President Carradine would also involve Madam Secretary Tea Leonie, and that my fellow aides and I would be relegated here to a relatively minor bit featuring NATO reps speaking in foreign languages. 

So it was surprising, as I worked on the New York Post crossword puzzle, that the p.a. called out my name, and told to follow him downstairs to the set.

This was unusual. Why wasn't anyone else going? Did they need just one more body to fill out the background? And why me? Well, why not me?

After retiring from show business, the late great character actor Sid Melton (who you older folks will remember as Danny Thomas' agent on Make Room for Daddy) said he missed the smell of soundstages. I understand exactly what he was talking about. As the p.a. and I walked along the rear of the set, the smell of plywood enveloped me like a forest -- Ahh, it's good to be home! 

In this case, home was the set where I shook Tea Leonie's hand for an episode last year. I took this to be a good luck charm, and figured I'd be placed at a desk outside the Secretary's office. Instead, I was led into her official conference room, and placed next to the actor playing the Kosovo rep. 

Staring down our Kosovan counterparts.

Looking around, I made a startling discovery. I was the only extra in the room. Everyone else was a principal actor, including many of the regular Madam Secretary castmates. 

And when Tea Leonie and director Eric Stoltz entered moments later, ready to work, I realized I was a real character in an important scene, and not just Background Guy #97 padding out the crowd. To everyone in that room, I was an actor. Yikes! Don't tell them any different!

We worked on the scene from 9:15 to 6:15, minus lunch and other breaks. This was the

We Serbs take shit from nobody, no how.

first time I had gotten an idea of what it was like to shoot, for lack of a better phrase, an intimate scene -- that is, just the principal actors, minus the flotsam and jetsam I'm usually part of. 

It was a heady experience. The NATO rep actors, both Eastern European, talked to me. Eric Stoltz talked to me. Tea Leonie talked to me. I was accepted. As far as they were concerned, I was supposed to be there.

And yet the whole time, one question swam through my head: How the hell did I wind up here?

As another extra later explained, the guy who was supposed to play my role didn't show up. One of the a.d.'s said, "Get Kevin down here." Had I been wearing the Kosovo pin as originally planned, I wouldn't have been considered for the part. Dumb luck doesn't get any better.

You've heard me rave about working on Gotham, but nothing compared to this day on Madam Secretary. But the flipside is that there was no way I would be asked back on the show as an ordinary extra before the end of the year -- or, perhaps, until next season. Where they're going, I can't follow. What they're doing, I can't be any part of -- but we'll always have Brooklyn Stages.

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As the airdate approached, I was afraid that I would be replaced by a CGI character. No worries, as the kids say. Click on the video and be amazed (or amused):