Aged 22, there were plenty of things I’d never experienced – never been skydiving, never watched The Goonies, never eaten in a Michelin Star restaurant. But there’s a first time for everything right?
I’d started scraping away at a career in the film industry, firstly as a runner (or gopher for my American friends). Film shoots can be surreal, intense bubbles where you can find yourself feeling incredibly close to a group of people you’d only know for a few weeks. Was working on one particular film with Michael Caine. I’d been working very closely with a girl called Rachael. She was around 5’8 of beautiful British rose. Perfect features, a cute button nose, and a smile that could cut through the hardest heart like butter. We spent three weeks running around, buying things, carrying things, negotiating deals, appeasing prima donnas and getting upwards of 3 hours sleep on some nights (if we were especially lucky)
Now, our portion of the shoot was over and the producers arranged a wrap party. These are always an explosion of energy and decadence, with drunken nonsense amplified in the void of ‘no work tomorrow’.