A few weeks ago, my friend Holly convinced me to buy a bike. Little did I know that it would mean phat cash on a movie set.

Okay, well, not that phat, but a slight bump in my union wages when I use my own bike as a background artist on a set. You see, a bike is regarded as a prop, and providing my own prop means a little extra compensation.

For what project did I get to use this bike? Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman's new film, Kate & Leopold.

I got the confirmation call that I'd be doing extra work on the film at 3am. The call time was 7am. Whoa! So I decided I'd stay up and live the next day on a caffeine pill rather than get less than four hours of shuteye. Actually, I crashed for an hour, and decided, Hey!, if I'm gonna have my bike on the set, I might as well ride it to the set! So I booked it from my remote location somewhere outside Manhattan into Manhattan at 6:15am. What a joy to ride so early!

I made it to the set in great time. And what's crazy is you know where of all the places in the Central Park we were filming and I was first placed? It's the exact place where Holly and I played catch not but the prior day! I was down the hill the softball would travel when one of us didn't catch it!

It was a gorgeous day spent outside. The scene was mostly of a mugger with Meg Ryan's briefcase or purse or something being chased by Hugh Jackman's character (actually, his stunt double) on a white horse in Central Park. I guess it's an anachronistic movie, something about time-travel or something ... Hugh Jackman is playing a character from the past, I want to say 1842.

My first take was just riding down a hill in a burghundy sweatshirt and khaki cargo pants rolled up, wearing a gray bike helmet, stopping as I come upon the galloping white horse. Later in that scene, in a rather amazing feat of light-speed travel, I appear also on a bridge where the horse stops the mugger, not but seven or so seconds later, cheering when Hugh Jackman twirls a strap and intimidates the mugger into dropping the lifted luggage.

I had some other scenes later. One, in a movie-within-the-movie that's in this movie (follow me?), where two actors are zoomed in upon on another bridge, I ride my bike underneath them. I'm wearing a light-green button-down shirt and a backwards navy-blue baseball cap, pedaling away.

Also, in another angle in another impossible light-speed travel moment, far off on a hill behind the two actors, I'm walking my bike uphill, wearing the same.

My last take was of riding my bike past the white horse, drawing a carriage. What was particularly cool about this take for me was that it was through an arch/tunnel in the park that I recognize from a favorite David Mamet movie of mine, The Spanish Prisoner.

For more information on Kate & Leopold, check out this link on the Internet Movie Database:
Kate & Leopold

P.S. Yes, Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan were on the set ... although I don't know anything about Hugh Jackman!