LauraDash

I worked on a movie called BASEKETBALL, it was the guys that did SOUTH PARK, and the story are these guys are idols, and they have like a Make A Wish part in the story where they grant these kids a wish. So there's a simple scene where they grant this little kid his wish list to hangout with the Baseketball team, and they take him every place, and they take him at the end of the evening to this bar. So there's drinking, and the little boy gets onto the shoulders of Trey Parker, and he forgets that the kid is on his back as he goes out the doorway. So the gag is I'm supposed to hit my head on top of the door jam, and I'm supposed to fall back on a pad. And there was a stuntman doubling for Trey Parker so I was on the stuntman's shoulders, and there was supposed to be safety people outside the door, and when I hit my head, the stunt coordinator - the pad was supposed to be - it's a called a "Follow Pad" (well that's what he calls it), it's supposed to follow me wherever I land and then I land on the pad. And before we set up the shot and rehearsed it, I had asked the stunt coordinator "Does this pad fit in between the doorway" because sometimes you have to adjust it if it's too wide and he said "no, it fits perfectly." So we never actually rehearsed me falling. And there was no person outside the doorway with another pad or just in case. And the coordinator was like "i'm going to be there, follow you wherever you land" and I couldn't react to looking back or doing anything or moving to the side, it was just a straight back fall, kind of like in JURASSIC PARK, just straight back. And I ended up falling 3 feet outside the door, which then was a parking lot. And when he was realized I was going further out, the pad got stuck between the metal plates, so as he pushed it, it kind of stopped, so by that time i was down on the ground, I had asked him (the stunt coordinator) if I needed a gatorback (which is what motorcycle riders use to protect their backs) but i had a t-shirt on, so if I had worn one you would have seen the ripples. I had a little swimmers vest underneath, but the coordinator said "You don't need that, i will catch you." I still had it, but i fell on my back on the concrete...and I could move, but I was in excruciating pain, so they rushed me to the hospital, and I ended up breaking my L2. Broke my back.

Craziest thing? I can't remember. Can you be specific as to a crazy thing?

I'd have to say it's a tossup between GOONIES and HOOK. GOONIES we got paid to go down waterslides, and on HOOK just the sets were amazing, and the cast and the crew and I mean - we would be laughing every day.

Gosh, I think DANTE'S PEAK. There was a particular caterer named Tony's Catering, and whenever you work on a movie and you know Tony's going to cater the meal, you know the food is going to be amazing.

When I worked on JURASSIC PARK, we got to go to Hawaii and we were on the smaller island of Kauai. And we actually got caught in the hurricane. What happened was the crew couldn't get out in time, so we had to basically all stay in the hotel along with everyone else who was staying there to hide out. So they had in the hotel a basement, so we all stayed there, but the crew and everyone, we all stayed together. So we're in the same room with Spielberg and all the actors, and I thought "Hey, if Steven Spielberg didn't get out, he's still here, then we're all gonna be find." The next morning, Kathleen Kennedy was able to get a private plane to fly in from Universal to pick up basically all the actors, and the rest of us ,the crew, had to stay, because the crew was over 100 people. So they got all the actors out, the kid actors, the director of photography, but while we were there, what are you gonna do? We played cards, UNO, we all just got to know each other. The one thing - if you're gonna get stuck in a hurricane, it might as well be with the cast and the crew, because when all the lights went out, we had a generator from the set, so everyone else was in the dark, and right before the BIG hurricane hit, they had just enough food for everyone to feed us, but if it was 12 or 1 AM, we could just get food from the craft service table. So it wasn't as scary, but we ended up staying the whole event through the hurricane. And then the next day, they were trying to get another private plane to land, but they couldn't, so the rest of the crew had to stay an extra 2 days, so they finally - because the runway and airport was supposed to be open for supplies for the people who lived in the town, and they had to get all the tourists back out to go home - and I guess they ended up getting supply planes and they loaded up the tourists in those things, but we got a private plane to take us to Hawaii and then to LA.

Just some of the jokes - that when actors have to fly on wires, they don't have a clue of what it feels like, and it's kind of painful in your crotch area, so they're like "Oh my! OOOH!" and of course, Robin Williams and some behind-the-scenes stuff where he makes jokes about his "flying duties" was hilarious.