I'm a prisoner!!!

But luckily...

...I've been released. This is part of the costume that I wore today. I brought it home to see what happens when someone wearing that shirt goes out in public. I have to go back Tuesday so I'll return it then. And, yes, I asked permission!

As I told you before, I'm a prisoner in the movie "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail".

Today I worked on two scenes. Tyler works mighty quickly. Today has already been about two days crammed into one. First, rather than drop my son off at work at 6:30 and then go to the shoot at 8:00 (in my own car), I let him drop me off at Cumberland Mall (I had no clue when we would be done with the shoot so he had to have the car.) where I picked up the number 10 bus to the Arts Center. There I hopped a train down to East Point which was as close as the train would take me to the town we're filming in. Then, I ran upstairs and found a cab waiting outside. I jumped in and said, "To the old *******Jail and step on it!"

She turned out to be an absolutely lovely lady. I had her stop at an ATM so that I could get money to pay her. I wasn't that far (according to her, "Oh, it's not far at all.) Well, when I noticed that the fare was getting close to the 20 bucks that I had gotten out of the ATM, I told her to stop and let me out so that I could give her a tip. She refused to do that and instead took me all the way to the shoot which was 19 and change. All I had was the 20 so I handed her that and my phone number. I told her that if she's ever my way and needs a hand, an ear or a shoulder, to please call me. What a lovely woman she was. Her name is Gloria, she's about my age and she's a black woman who drives a cab in Atlanta. If you're ever lucky enough to call for a cab and get this wonderful woman, give her an extra few bucks for me.

Then, I got to the van and it took us all to the base camp for wardrobe and make-up. Then, another van took us to the shoot. When we got there, we were lead quietly through the building, past where they were already filming a scene and we ended up in a hallway that had a bunch of holding cells up and down both sides. We stayed there when we weren't shooting.

The first scene that I did was one where a bunch of prisoners are eating and a fight breaks out. We didn't see the fight, we reacted to it. We were all given a tray of partial portions of breakfast and we actually had to eat the stuff as the fight broke out. We turned to stare at the "fight", which was, for us anyway, an X made out of yellow tape on the wall. If they don't cut that scene, I'll be in it for sure...in all my prison glory.

The other scene that I shot was one where they're leading 5 new prisoners in, including Madea and Rudy Huxtable all grown up. We were the prisoners who shouted "Fresh meat!" and "I want some of that!" as the new chicks came in.

On about the 4th take, Tyler (Madea) asked me and my "cellmate" to "touch him". He meant to harass Madea physically. So, I got to grab Tyler Perry in a very cool place today...and it was perfectly OK...he ASKED me to do it!

During one of the takes, Madea, unexpectedly to all of us...broke into a fight with some other prisoners who were taunting her. Then he/she went up to the camera and said, "I'm Madea...and I'm in jail!" I assume that was for a commercial.

Anyway, after that take we wrapped.

In the tent where we were changing, a lady was talking about taking me to my son's work to pick up my car. But then another chick said that she lived this way so she would just go ahead and take me home. Another lovely person who I'm glad to have met. I tried to get her to let me put gas in her car but she wouldn't allow it.

So, she took me home. As I was walking up the driveway it occurred to me that my son had my keys. I was locked out so naturally I went to my usual "door locked climbing in window" that I usually use. The only problem was that the chair was nowhere to be seen and the window is 6 feet up. So, I turned the trash can over (Thank God yesterday was trash day!) and climbed on that and into my window.

And then...I came here!

That's my day so far...how are you doing?

:)