a frighteningly cold and drizzly Vancouver morning there is an explosive blast and a massive car crash at a busy bridge. Fire trucks and ambulances quickly surround a car that has totally flipped over-thanks to the evil Dr. Doom. Thankfully, the Fantastic Four are on hand to save the day!

That was the setup for my day as an "extra" on the set of the upcoming movie Fantastic Four. Along with the other reporters, I was about to venture into a critical moment where the Fantastic Four superheroes reveal themselves to the world for the first time. In the scene, we reporters anxiously wait at a police barricade to interview the Fantastic Four after the crash. It's one thing when you're asked to visit a movie set to interview the stars for your magazine, but it's entirely different when you're asked to actually be in the movie!

Based on the wildly popular comic book tales, the Fantastic Four - Ioan Gruffudd as
Mr. Fantastic, Jessica Alba as The Invisible Girl, Michael Chiklis as The Thing and Chris Evans as The Human Torch - are a group of astronauts who gain superpowers after being exposed to cosmic radiation. They must use their powers to fight the evil Dr. Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon).

Several actors were needed to play reporters and the film's director thought, "Why not get some real reporters?" So about a dozen journalists, including me, were asked to participate. Here's how my day went:

CALL TIME: 5:00 A.M.
The glamour begins! Waking up early was no problem since I was pretty excited about what the day would bring. We were assembled in vans and driven to a large tent to have our hair and makeup done. After our outfits were checked out, we were driven to the set location. It was pretty cold and wet out, so thank goodness we were escorted to a warm indoor holding area which turned out to be our hangout for the day.

ON SET
There's a lot of waiting on movie sets. You can sit around for hours until you're needed because the stars may be shooting other scenes or the crew may
be setting up complicated shots. The actors were shooting a scene in a medic's tent and it was the first time I was able to see Michael Chiklis in his "Thing" costume. He was often taken aside by an assistant who helped cool him off.

The other stars were wearing normal street clothes, not their tight, blue superhero costumes for this scene. Ioan Gruffudd, last seen as Lancelot in King Arthur, was resting in his director's chair between takes and the sexy Jessica Alba spent most of her breaks joking around with hottie Chris Evans (Cellular). We extras patiently tried to pass the time as it took nearly seven hours until we were finally called for our close-ups.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!
It was up to us extras to think of things to say when the Fanastic Four approached us for our scene. But two Canadian reporters, Terry David Mulligan (Movie Television) and Ben Mulroney (Canadian Idol) were actually given official lines to yell out to the superheroes. I lucked out by getting a spot beside Terry. Terry's line is too important to the story to cut (Sorry, I can't reveal it!), so the shot will definitely make it into the film. At that point, I was freaking out that I was actually going to make it into this movie.

  We spent 12 long hours on set that day, but it was worth every minute. Watch for the movie, set to be released on the "Fantastic Fourth of July Weekend," 2005.