Once it was decided that we would try our hand at the character job, we now had to decide how we should dress. Since we met through a mutual love of Audrey Hepburn, and we had just dressed as her (in two different eras) for Halloween, my partner in crime and I decided to try that. We figured that if Elvis and Marilyn Monroe did alright, then surely Holly Golightly and Eliza Doolittle would do fairly well.

We showed up in the early afternoon, and as soon as we stepped off the elevator at H&H, a man asked for a picture with us. Taking it as a good sign, we posed with him and he tipped us. And we hadn’t even really started yet! So we sauntered down to the Boulevard and suddenly froze, overwhelmed. What did we do? How did this really work? There had been surprisingly little information about all this on the Internet, and we hadn’t thought to come up here in advance and talk to any characters. As we crept closer to the stars on the sidewalk, a guy dressed as Darth Vader in tights came up to us and pushed back his helmet.
“Are you two new here?” he asked. We nodded. “Okay, welcome to the Boulevard,” he said, and shook our hands, introducing himself. He very nicely went over the rules; what line in the sidewalk delineated public from private property, and how we were only supposed to pose and photograph on the public side, and how we must do something to show that we were “off” when crossing onto private property, either by removing a mask or some other piece of the costume so we wouldn’t be approached. Grateful, we thanked him, and he moved off to take a break.

Clinging to each other, we slowly crept up the Walk towards the Chinese Theatre. In front of the Kodak Theatre there was a Jack Sparrow loudly heckling the tourists, shouting, “I need your money!” As we walked past, he called out to us.
“Excuse me, ladies.”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to need your phone numbers.” Puzzled, we looked at each other, then asked why. Was this how the characters worked? “I’m going to need your phone numbers so we can meet up tonight and have a little fun.” Exchanging looks again, we didn’t know what to say or do next. We weren’t sure if he was just being bawdy in character to put on a good show, or if he really was being a pervert.
“I don’t think I should,” my partner said.
“Oh, but we’d have so much fun!” he argued. “Just give me your numbers and we’ll meet up afterwards, go to my place and see what happens,” he said with a leer.
“Eh, no,” I said, and we moved away. He called out after us, but we kept walking. “I hope they’re not all like that,” I muttered.
“Seriously,” she replied.

There were a few more characters in front of the Chinese Theatre; a Batman and Joker, a Marilyn Monroe, and another Jack Sparrow. They all eventually approached us, introduced themselves and asked how we’d heard about character work, and gave us their tips and tricks to get good business. We were amazed at how kind everyone seemed to be there, and how helpful they were to the newbies. It could have been so easy to shut us out and watch us struggle and fail, but they seemed genuinely glad to see two new faces and admired our costumes. A few tourists began to approach us and asked for photos, and the nearby characters told the photo seekers the rules so we would be sure to get a tip. We couldn’t believe how well this was going.

Later on in the day Superman arrived. It quickly became apparent that he was the unofficial leader of the characters, and he spent the rest of the day with us, talking about the history of the characters, what usually happened there, and what days and times worked best for getting good money. When he was approached for pictures he would ask if they wanted us in the pictures as well and most said yes, so he helped us greatly on our first day.

At the end of the day, though, we hadn’t done as well as we’d hoped. One source on the Internet had said that characters earned anywhere from $100-600 a day, and we had only done about $20 each. The other characters had done better, if only because not many people recognized us. The Japanese tourists could figure us out, since Audrey was and still is hugely popular there, but most people either didn’t think we were dressed up, or saw the Ascot dress from My Fair Lady and shouted, “Mary Poppins!”

Standing in front of a tour van and debating on whether it was worth it to stick around, a tour guide started asking about the costumes. When he found out we were both dressed as Audrey Hepburn he suggested we go up the street to a small café on Las Palmas called Café Audrey. It was apparently designed around dear Audrey, and he was sure the owners would love to see us walk in. Intrigued, we decided to try it out and grab a snack before heading home. As soon as we walked in the girl behind the counter gasped, “Oh my god, let me get the owner. She’s going to love this!” and disappeared. She came back a minute later and took our orders, and asked us to sit to wait for the manager and our food. The café was very cute, with a large poster of Audrey from Sabrina on one wall and another wall made up of smaller portraits and quotes from the Audrey Style book. The soundtrack to Amélie was playing, adding to the quaint European feel of the café just off of Hollywood Boulevard.

After we had eaten the owner gushed over us and took some photos, and asked us to come in again soon. A few hints were dropped that they might be interested in working with us in some aspect, where we would dress up and promote the café. Intrigued, we said our goodbyes and walked back towards H&H and the car. We stopped by to say goodbye and thanks to the characters who helped us out so much, and Superman in particular encouraged us to come back the next day. It was going to be the Hollywood Christmas Parade, and while the Boulevard would be closed off on that block, there would apparently be a street fair of sorts and it looked to be good business. We decided we’d give it a go, and left for the day.