Moovie Mic Miller. Star Security. Part 2

Me: What is something that you wish people knew about being security?
MMM: Most people look at you and say you're lucky, I wish I had that job! You don't just get what you wish for.  Not everyone can handle the stress, no matter how much it pays.  You can't just be 6'7" and 300 pounds or have some certificate and think you can do this. You have to be very militant. It's hard. There are long hours! Usually I am there about 14-15 hours a day.  I get there at least an hour before call and stay an hour after wrap.

Me: How do you know when you need to be there? Do they call you and tell you every night?
MMM: We get a call sheet that tells us all the information; like the actors that are going to be there, what is the call time, what scene we're shooting, how many pages, where we will be and everything you need to know is on the call sheet.  It is the most important piece of paper on a movie set, other than the script. If you have a call sheet you don't need to ask any questions.

Me:You always arrive an hour early?
MMM: It depends on the time the talent comes in. If they have to have make-up done it can take up to two hours and I stay near them.  I am always at least an hour early.

Me: How many days a week do you work?
MMM: I could work every day. I can be on several different movies in a day.  You can't always give everyone what they want, because a movie may want me one place and my boss needs me in a different place to help a star that is filming in a difficult place, because of my experience. I can't please everyone, because there is only one of me. I am just finishing a three week break because I wanted to, but before Christmas I haven't had more than three days off at a time in about four years. During the movie Salt I worked every day for five months, I did not miss a single day.  In fact I once worked on three different sets in a 24-hour period: Men in Black 3, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and The Dictator.

Me: Your next job is on The Amazing Spider Man 2?!  Have you worked with them before?
MMM: I didn't work on the first one. They just came for a week or so for the last one. They only filmed outside. For this one, they are filming at the stages here.

Me: Which stages do you work at the most?
MMM: They can make anything a stage. I don't do a lot of work at Steiner Studios because Steiner has a lot of TV shows, but not a lot of the big movies that will only be there six months whereas the TV shows could be there years.  We just filmed Noah inside the Armory in Brooklyn.  That's what they're doing in New York because they use the space where they find it and build a stage, as long as the fire marshals approve every thing. In Long Island, they use airplane hangers.

The most amazing thing about the movie business, to me, is seeing some of the amazing sets they build.  They can build a place that looks like the inside of the trump tower, or the Ark from Noah. They built an outside and inside ark for exteriors and interiors.  That's one of the most exciting things to see is them building sets.

Me: Do you feel like, if they needed you for another part of the crew you could step in and do their work because you've seen it done so many times?
MMM: I can set up the whole electricity for the campers because I have seen them do it so many times. You do learn other people's jobs.  If you pay attention, you learn.  When I started I wasn't doing star security, I watched the equipment and I watched them set up and learned how to do it during my first movie. A lot of getting into this, is who you know. I got the job through a mutual friend of my boss. He gave me a shot and I have been promoted and promoted, and learned and learned.

Me: How did you decide on Moovie Mic?
MMM: It was actually given to me. A couple of people started calling me it and it got picked up. My boss started using it and it stuck with me.

Me: Would you ever consider acting/directing/producing?
MMM: Honestly, I am comfortable. Financially, I am comfortable with what I'm doing now. I've never really wished for anything more, but if the opportunity ever came I would definitely jump on it.  To be able to act or actually make your own movie, being around it; it could be really really exciting.  I don't that is an opportunity that many people would pass up.

A happy thanks goes to Moovie Mic Miller, for the interview and the use his photos off of his Facebook wall.

And that; ladies and gentlemen, as is said at the end of a long day filming; is a wrap!