The year was 2016 and as a new vegan I had just booked my first commercial of the year for a technology company in San Francisco, California. Before 2016, I was an avid meat-eater, who weighed 210 pounds and ate hamburgers almost every day.
I live about an hour from San Francisco, California, therefore I know S.F. happens to be one of the best places to be vegan in the United States. However, getting up and ready by 5am to be on set by 6am meant no time for breakfast the morning I woke up to shoot this commercial. Not thinking twice about it, I hurried along to set with a rumbling stomach, ready to dive into whatever vegan food they had waiting for me.
I’ve seen a slow change in food options offered on set
Typically, if I have booked a role: the company I am filming for will ask me if I have any ‘dietary restrictions’, but this company did not. When I arrived to set I quickly parked my car, hurried into hair and makeup, discussed scene details with the director and producers, and then started bonding with my scene partner. I felt like I was ready for the day until I remembered I hadn’t eaten anything at all and, looking at the time, over an hour had flown by since I arrived on set. When you’re on a smaller set with fewer people, you typically want to eat something before doing pretty much anything. The reason for this is to get a good overview of the best food options before they start disappearing. However, I was already an hour behind that schedule. Nonetheless, I was excited to eat whatever they had available for me to devour. When I found the craft services table, my mouth literally felt as if it had just dropped to the floor in disbelief. Looking at the display of food they offered, the food options were: eggs, bacon, pre-buttered toast, slices of cheese and black coffee. Not a single fruit, vegetable, pot of houmous or even nondairy creamer in sight. Apparently, they did have a small container of orange juice, but unfortunately it ran out before I got there.