We're all mad here

Apparently my use of social media the past few days while I was an extra on The Fifth Estate upset quite a few people. Let me explain a few things.

First of all, apparently some of the other extras tweeted that Ben “was not nice at all because he wasn’t smiling.” Let me just assure you that I am NOT one of those people who tweeted it. My personal account is @yasminegonerad and I would never ever post such a thing.

1. I fully appreciate the fact that we are there for a purpose and that the crew and actors don’t have to entertain us. And I really really understand that the actors (and the crew) have to work and focus and therefore don’t want to see/hear/run into us too often. The example I gave of Daniel Brühl watching part of a movie with us was just to illustrate how much different he is from Benedict. Benedict focuses fully on his acting work, doesn’t want to break character too much and therefore it’s fully understandable that he doesn’t want to talk to random strangers. Believe me, not once did I go up to him to talk to him. The man is busy and I’m not going to interrupt him while he’s on his way to a costume change. I even got to watch him do a few scenes and it was amazing. Additionally, Daniel only had to shoot 3 short scenes on 1 day, whereas Benedict had 3 really busy shooting days; so Daniel had much more time to relax.

2. It was never my intention to record Benedict’s every move. I’m a Cultural Studies student and I really want to go into television/film production, so for me, this was the excellent opportunity to see how everything works on set. Believe me, I didn’t stalk Ben around the hallways. It’s just weird when you run into him while you’re on your way to get a cup of coffee because it feels so surreal.

3. I never meant to make you all feel like we were some kind of exclusive group of people that knows more about the movie than you do. My only intention this week was to help you all understand how stuff works on a movie set. It sure as hell was a huge eye-opener for me so I merely wanted to let you experience it with me. I tried to do this without giving away too much information about the location, set or record Ben’s every move. 

4. I know Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the nicest people on earth. I interviewed him a few months ago, talked to him for 20 minutes, so I think I can base myself on valid elements here. He doesn’t have to prove himself to me. I understand that he won’t say hello to us every time he sees us. I already appreciate the fact that he took 5 minutes in between 2 sets on an insanely busy day to say hi, take a picture with us, and share a few laughs. And it’s not like we harassed him in the hallway with all 12 of us - I went up to his personal assistent in the morning, explained to her that it would be great if he could find a few minutes to take a picture with us so we had a nice memory of the experience, but that we didn’t want to be too much trouble. She convinced Benedict to take a few pictures with us and he was more than happy to do it, so we sure as hell didn’t jump him. But we did make sure that we asked someone in charge first.

Anyway, I meant to be professional this week - especially because I have had to deal with actors, music artists etc. a lot before and I do appreciate the fact that they have to focus on their job - because I absolutely hate fangirls and people who talk about him all the time while he’s a few meters away. He’s just a normal guy doing his job. But apparently, some of you took all of this the wrong way and I am really sorry you feel that way, because this was never my intention. If it’s any consolation, I didn’t harass him or talk to him this week. I think I said “hi” once and that’s it.