“mummey” was a name I coined when I received a Gmail invite from a friend. I wanted to come up with something that defined something I had done (If I was going to pick a nickname for myself, it better at least be something others would agree with as a good choice.)

Flash-back a few months to the November before: Another friend needed my help playing character in a movie he’s making. The guy he had originally intended for the role was unavailable and I done a few roles for him on previous stuff (mostly dead bodies). Those roles were small and quick so I figured this wouldn’t be much different. I also knew they were shooting way off-campus so I knew I’d be blowing my day away by doing this. I didn’t mind because I needed the break from classes.

So, we go to the site for shooting. My friend explains to me that the makeup for the costume would take a little while so he was going to do all the other shooting first while the makeup guy would get me ready. I believe the general assumption was it would take a couple of hours, then we’d shoot the my scene which added up to about a minute.

The makeup took six hours. My friend had finished all of the shooting over a hour earlier and everyone was waiting on the makeup artist and me. The mummy costume consisted of layers of tissue paper and elmer’s glue, which is then covered with a layer of latex paint to make it appear old and decayed. It never had a chance to dry completely and it was November in Michigan so even though we were indoors, I was shivering to the point of shaking. The only clothing was a piece of cloth.

Once the makeup guy is finished, we shoot the footage, and then I can’t run to the shower fast enough to get the stuff off. We pack up afterward and head back.

Back to the Gmail invite: I initially tried mummy but Gmail has a minimum 6 character limit. To keep it sounding the same I added the ‘e’.