The Wrap Party. To Let My Hair Down or Make Merry Moderately?

Jennifer Carriere Author

Mar 24, 2023 |

Have you ever been hammering away on a show, completely consumed by delivering excellence 14 hours a day, week after week for months, all the while falling off of your hobbies, social life, self-care, and sleep?

I have.

Normally, when I come up for air after an intense show, I go straight into rest and recovery mode. Sleep, water, exercise, friends, dates, eating dinner at not 1AM.

But if production tempts me with a good time at an epic wrap party, I may be inclined to put off the healthy routine stuff for a day or two to go tear it up with my film set fam one last time.

I love my colleagues. It does’t matter what show I’m on. I invariably love, admire, and respect them. After birthing a film or tv series together, I really want to party. But, I also want to be re-hired. Cue: my internal dialogue.

My goal is generally, “I want people to remember I was there, not to remember carrying me to an Uber.” However, sometimes we just really deserve to let our hair down. Right?

Deciding how to show out at the wrap party requires a little prep for me.

There are the self-talks. “Jennifer, remember last time when you bought shots for the whole camera crew until the bartender cut us off.” “Jennifer, remember the time you slept it off in the backseat of your car and was awakened by a security guard at dawn, with nowhere to pee.” “Jennifer, remember the time your date forgot to mention that they were also bringing another date, who they introduced as a “friend.” (An experience that taught me not to date coworkers, as we were stuck on the same shows for the following four years, which I could have done without.) “Jennifer remember the time you got turnt and took the afterparty to that club where the security guards walk around the dance floor holding machine guns?”

There are the date considerations. “Bring a GF or that dude I like?”

There are the alcohol considerations. "Moderation or mayhem or no-thank-you-I’m-not-drinking-right-now”?

There are the transportation considerations. "I love driving but hate parking in the city. I love Uber-ing but hate waiting when I’m ready to bail.”

There are the “impressions I want to leave my cast and crew with” considerations.

There are the “I want these people to re-hire me” considerations.

All of which have led me to the following conclusion: by erring on the side of caution lately, I’ve skipped a few too many wrap parties. As demonstrated above, I’ve been overthinking it.

The wrap party is about celebration, appreciation, gratitude, and joy. Whether your date left with someone else, or your 1st AD admired your sequined short-shorts too zealously, or you had to Uber and leave your car for tomorrow, or you paid a $100 cover at the afterparty venue, or you had to push back re-starting your morning workouts by a day to recover… The wrap party is so worth it. And (so long as you have a plan for total safety getting home) you should go and enjoy yourself with your film set fam. Don’t worry about showing out in front of them. Film families are families. We birthed a show together after all! We’ve seen the best and the worst of each other on set. And it’s so worth it to make some film family memories together.

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