After O.D’ ing on so much Theraflu that my body went into spasm, and trying to convince friends to take me to hospital (and failing…does anyone think I am a drama queen, I wonder?) I finally recover after 24 hours of thinking I’m dying to find myself plummeting eight floors with 14 rowdy and drunken revelers in a six-person lift at The Gramercy Hotel.

I was at the Janie Jones premiere after- party where I had listened to Abigail Breslin and Alessandro Nivola playing their beautiful acoustic music from the movie (how can AB be so young, so talented and so damn cool, it’s just not right.) Thankfully I had comfortably numbed myself with a couple of whiskeys that definitely softened the moment the lift stopped plummeting and jerked into its hanging position: suspended between floors with the door half open. I was hauled out through a 12inch gap after a half hour of incredibly intimate insights into human nature –only to make page six of the NY POST and New York Magazine for all the wrong reasons!

I read a script a while back where exactly this happened and I remember thinking that nobody would react like that. But we did. We had a full host of characters (most of us were actors, we should have just filmed it, we’d have had a blockbuster!) the angry leery one that started shouting; the stupid jokey banker who asked the girl next to him for a hand job; the silent ones that looked like they were going to pass out and of course the really cool and collected few that didn’t flinch.

Plus  the heroes who picked me up from the back corner where I was hiding and catapulted me out of the 12” gap without me realizing what was happening. Perhaps a good thing as I have seen too many movies where people get chopped in half on lift shafts and would I probably have just stayed there all night left to my own devices. Sadly my devices had me going from one emotion to the next like a psycho.

Firstly I got so hot and was squashed so tightly against the wall that I couldn’t get my jacket off.  I was wondering which would be worse : to be crushed to death by Alessandro Nivola; (OK that doesn’t sound so bad in hindsight) or for the lift to keep falling and then set alight and burn us all to death. Then, I found myself pondering on what a great story this was going to be, to actually getting excited to meet AND be rescued by the famous sexy NYC Fire Dept.

Sadly they never arrived. When we finally did get out we passed them gathered around the lift on the wrong floor! We were all in serious need of massive drink so we dashed over to Nickerbocker to eat churros and drink ourselves senseless and go over our war story…

The next day just as I thought life would get back to normal I woke up in the middle of a freak snow storm, I had gone to bed on a warm fall evening and woke up to a snow covered winter day. I had to wear every piece of clothing I had with me, piled on top of each other, to get to my casting. Sadly it wasn’t for the role of the Abominable Snowman and I am not sure how ‘young and sexy’ I looked in a vest,  two t-shirts, a sweat shirt, two cardigans, a hoody, a suit jacket, jeans with leg warmers over them and a sparkly hat (remember I was drunk when I packed!) And yes- the dreaded platforms. My argument is that they at least keep me elevated above the sludge, but that’s only if I can stay upright on them.

I find that part a struggle sometimes, especially when late, running up the street, being splashed by taxi cabs (that are all off duty) and trying to read my lines at the same time as attempting to keep my brolly from blowing inside out for the millionth time and not kill anyone. Being 5’3 on the sidewalk with a massive umbrella you are never going to be that popular, but my god do people have to literally push me over?That’s my excuse anyway, for finding myself sitting in the slush on my butt right outside NBC on a freak stormy day 20mins after my proposed meeting slot. Needless to say I don’t think I got the job.

Yes my faithful friend NYC has not let me down in the excitement department after finally wrapping PATIENT 001 and saying goodbye to the god awful wigs I felt I had good excuse to (literally) let my hair down and on cue my “bruvas from anova muva” came into town. My fave three boys (after my darling hubby of course) arrived and turned my very well behaved self (I am, honestly!) into a crazed, sleep deprived person who ‘so didn’t want the evening to end.’

I actually spent most of my time pimping for my boys, collecting pretty girls’ numbers whilst drinking and dancing till dawn every night, am most probably now known in NYC as ‘That British lesbian who got stuck in a lift’! 
 The boys were in from LA for the release of Janie Jones. Check it out, it’s such a beautiful, moving, amazing film – I swear I am not biased -   written, directed and produced by the clever boys. So obviously we felt it was our duty to paint the town every shade of red.  I went from supporting Elton John’s Aids Foundation to being supported myself on my fab new shoes (or perhaps better described as stilts) whilst hip hopping down in the Meat Packing district, from Boom Boom to Double 07 Club, musical bingo at Soho House, SL Club, Avenue Club (you name it, if it was a club we checked it out!) to the Gramercy Hotel lift disaster to even making it Up Town, via Mid Town were we popped into Ace Hotel’s ultra trendy bar for a few martinis to randomly rambling round the city bumping into friends who we would then follow to their next venue. 
Hence I am returning home without having done one of the cultural outings I promised myself so I am going to make a list below of all the things I would have done if I was not such a useless lush:

At the Elton John Aids Benefit

And later in a tight spot with 'the boys' at the ACE Hotel

Guggenheim
Never mind the art I love this building! How many crazy shootouts have you seen in movies set in this fantastic place?

Eykyn Maclean Matisse and the Model Exhibition
Having played one of Matisses’s ‘models’ in My Matisse on stage I was really looking forward to this.

Punchdrunk- Sleep No More.
The brilliant company taking NYC by storm with their sensorial experience.

Bowery Poetry Club
Just so cool and Annie Hall

MoMA
Even if just to find another naked French artist.

Brooklyn Night Market
So I could be hip and cross the bridge at night.

Walk the High Line
For SEEWATCHLOOK very cool street performance

If it wasn’t for the fact that the club lounge at JFK has thrown me out on my ass (what is the point of a lounge that closes at 20:30) and the only place serving alcohol is, yes of course, the “British” pub that is closing as I write, and the only food is Mac D or Vegan (far be it from me to call the USA extreme) I would be crying into my vegan soup with separation anxiety from my adopted home city.

But my airport experience is easing my departure anxiety and I am almost excited to touch down at Terminal 5…and see what the next journey brings. I have 10 hours at home with hubby and then off to Paris and more rambling adventures…xxx

Follow Rosie on Twitter

Main Image, Gramercy Hotel, New York ©Marianna Massev/ Corbic

Share This

About the author

rosie
Rosie Fellner is an actress and film producer. She was born in Ireland to British parents and moved to Spain at the age of nine where she finished school and ran away with the circus, literally, joining renowned troupe Turbozone! Afterwards she attended college and then drama school in London. She began her professional acting career in the cult TV show THE FAST SHOW alongside guest stars including Johnny Depp. Since then she has continued to entertain audiences through all mediums of performance, TV, film, radio and theatre starring with some of the worlds best loved talent including John Hurt, Geoffrey Rush and Heather Graham. Earlier this year Rosie starred opposite Sean Bean in the first film of the World War 2 trilogy AGE OF HEROES. She has just completed TWO JACKS alongside Sienna Miller, Jacqueline Bisset and Danny Huston and is currently filming NYC indie PATIENT 001 in which she has the starring role. Rosie runs her production company ROSEBUD PICTURES with her husband, Writer/Director Adrian Vitoria, and divides her time between London and New York.

Related Posts

Everything’s Rosie / Big Wheel Keeps on Turning

And that’s not to say that I don’t actually love doing housework-I do. But sometimes life is just too short and cleaning just too dangerous. All those evil liquids, I always end up with bleach marks on my fave T-shirt...

Everything’s Rosie / The Only Way is Essex

Oh the glammer! No, I’m not in Paris enjoying the tantrums and hedonism of fashion week, I have missed out on the Oscars and I don’t even know which island Prince Harry and his blue suede shoes are dancing on. I am in ESSEX....

Everything’s Rosie // Madonna, Man on a Ledge and – Soda Water?

Hmmm for the first time in my life I have absolutely nothing to say. My brain is in meltdown, it’s as blank as a cotton wool and cloud sandwich topped with snow- and its all Madonna’s fault! Well OK, maybe not personally...