Vanilla Nice

When you think about rap music videos (notwithstanding the fact that if you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably never even seen a rap music video), what’s the first thing you think of?  Hmmm?  Scantily clad women twerking in slo-mo?  Cars with Olympic-sized pools in the back?  Men with spinal cord-damaging taste in jewelry?

Wrong.

IT’S MEEE!  Right?!  I know!  That’s what I thought when I got cast in one last week!  This.  Just.  Makes.  Sense.

Now, I’m not at liberty to divulge the name of the artist or the specific content of the video until its release later this spring (at which point I’ll be shamelessly latching onto it for all it’s worth).  However, I can share a few behind the scenes moments with you that I thought you might enjoy.

When I first arrived at the undisclosed location shoot around 9:00am Friday, I was pleasantly surprised to find the artist already onset.  He was sitting in a room off the kitchen quietly playing with his device (no, no … that’s rap-talk for texting).  So I grabbed a coffee, avoided him and the donut tray (to avoid making a complete idiot of myself AND the wide-angle lens), and made my way downstairs for hair, makeup and wardrobe.

My agent had told me to bring an assortment of ‘casual’ clothes for the role I’d been given, so when packing up that morning, I passed over the clubbing attire I usually clean the toilets in at home and opted instead for a few informal pieces I thought the director might like.  In the end, he thought what I had on seemed fine, so no wardrobe change was necessary.  I guess as far as that rapper look goes, I was already looking p-r-e-t-t-y bad-ass, as you can see from this shot of me in the stylist’s chair:

Next it was time to meet my fellow actors.  We had been cast as a loving family, just three sisters and their ailing father, and while we’d all missed out on untold years of family bonding, we did pretty well in the hour or so we had before getting called to the set to get to know one and other.  We even made time for our first family portrait, even though Dad did look a little like death warmed over (quite literally):

Me, Xenia, Peter and Lauren, my fake video family. “See you guys at Christmas!”

With our scenes shot and the day finally behind us, I could honestly say that I’d emerged from my first rap video shoot with a newfound respect for the genre, as well as a genuine appreciation for the power of a fake name.  So, in keeping with the spirit of personal rebranding, I’d like to ask that, just for today, you make your comments below addressed to my new rap handle: Snoop Duncy Duncc.

Fo shizzle!