What Shirley MacLaine said When I Met Her

In 1996 I worked on the movie, The Evening Star, starring Shirley MacLaine. The Evening Star is the sequel to the Oscar winning film, Terms of Endearment. 

I was Second Assistant Editor and the film's Projectionist. Every day I put together the film dailies which had been shot the day before. At night I ran the two projectors which screened the 35mm film dailies for cast and lead crew.

As projectionist, I was the first to arrive in the screening room and the last to leave locking up the building after me.

One night Shirley MacLaine and her assistant needed to view several days of dailies after hours because they had missed the regularly scheduled viewings. They were rushing through the reels trying to not stay up any later than they needed. So before most film reels had run through all the way through the projector, I stopped the machines and unthreaded the synced picture film and sound film without scratching the film coating or the magnetic coating of the sound film.

In this setting the First Assistant Editor was routinely coming in the projection booth to communicate with me about starting the next reel. It was a hectic and stressful. There was no time to sit on my heels as I was constantly threading, starting, then stopping and unthreading before rethreading the next reel on both projectors! But I did it and quickly!

We went through about 25 rolls of dailies that night. When a daily roll is full the average run time is about 10 minutes. It would have taken us late in into the morning hours had Shirley MacLaine and her assistant watched the reels in their entirety.

After the last daily roll was projected, I was busy rewinding the half-shown reels I had placed on the floor temporarily to keep pace with the stars demands. Each picture reel and each sound reel had to be rewound separately and in proper order so as to be HEADS OUT and ready for the next use.

I was briefly interrupted by Shirley MacLaine herself as she burst open the projection booth door and started to say something. She stopped and caught herself. Her mouth was still open but she said nothing.

I can only imagine what she was thinking. She was seeing her projectionist (me) for the first time, and I wasn't exactly a typical Hollywood union projectionist. Projectionists were typically much older and male.

I was a young blonde woman who looked barely of legal drinking age. And I  had been at the helm of the two monster projectors that night and the recipient of her demands.

She looked surprised, caught off guard, and at a loss for words.

"Yes, Ms. MacLaine may I help you?," I asked, and  looking slightly confused myself.

I had heard Shirley MacLaine was tough and demanding. I no idea why she came into the booth. In my experience movie stars don't go out of their way to talk to you. I was also insecure and my first thought was that she might be about to yell at me.
But instead she said, "Thank you. Thank you for doing such a great job tonight. I appreciate you working late tonight." She smiled and left.

Nerissa Oden
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