Xochi Blymyer:
My Life as an A.D.

I started my movie life off, as a kid traveling with my parents around the world, my dad, Pat Blymyer is a gaffer and my mom, Sugar "Ginger" Blymyer is a hairdresser. I went to school with Native American kids on a South Dakota reservation, with kids on Abaco Island in the Bahamas in a 3 room schoolhouse where there were only 10 kids in my class and in many other states around the U.S. We spent a summer in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in the jungles and beaches, a hot steamy summer in Louisiana and a Christmas in Veracruz, Mexico. When it was time to decide what I wanted as a career, the one thing I knew I wanted to do was be in the movie business. Where else can you go to places that you never thought you would go, meet people as you become a local for a few months while you work in their town and have everyday be a different adventure? And so, in 1987 my movie career began…

My dad, Pat Blymyer put me to work as a Stand-in on "No Secrets". The first show was a movie of the week shot on Catalina Island in California. What a way to begin. I stood in for Kelly Martin and did a lot of crouching to be the right size! It wasn't tourist time yet on Catalina those few weeks so it was like our own personal island.

Next, I was once again a Stand-in on "Action Jackson". I actually was standing In for Vanity and any white people in the movie like Craig T. Nelson and Sharon Stone. This time I saw all the worst parts of downtown Los Angeles, including alleys, dirty streets and vacant buildings. I was laying on the sidewalk one afternoon for lighting Sharon Stone and my dad came up to me and asked what my mother would think if she saw what kind of work I was doing! That's the glamorous show biz!

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