How do you become a Background Actor
Pick a film, any film. Pick an exterior scene. It might be a modern city, a medieval village, or a futuristic spaceport but they will have one thing in common. People in the background. That Roman legionary picking his nose over George Clooney's shoulder? The woman with the hairy nose talking on her mobile phone in the street while Spiderman dodges the attacks of Ian McKellen's Green Goblin? The colourful alien scratching his bum in the middle of Arnie's big speech about how we should all just get along? They are all actors, of a kind. And you can be one too.
Becoming a film extra has always been a popular casual job. The money is not bad, the work is incredibly easy (variations on standing around and pretending to talk to other film extras, usually), the food is great, and you might get to bore people to the point of insanity about that time you once bumped into Matt Damon in a lift, and – quick look, you can just see my knee at the edge of the close-up on the dying crack dealer! Yes, the final attraction is that you might one day get to see yourself on telly. Or at the cinema, but most film extras aren't too interested until their work is available on DVD, because then they can freeze frame their twenty-fifth of a second of fame and harangue all their friends for not spotting them sooner.
How can you get involved in this exciting world of standing around car parks being patronised by second unit assistant directors? Well, in a number of ways.
As with almost any other occupation these days, recruitment agencies have got in on the act, of course. Pick up almost any local newspaper and there will be a classified ad somewhere promising extra work in Harry Potter, Doctor Who and the next Star Wars film. Clue: there is no next Star Wars film. Many of these 'agencies' are scams, designed to grab a few hundred quid from pushy parents and the fame-hungry in return for registering aspiring young actors on to their 'books' and taking a bunch of rubbish headshots that you don't need. If you are interested in becoming a film extra, joining an agency is probably the easiest way of getting your face in front of people, but do some research before signing up with anyone, and certainly before giving anybody any money.
If agencies don't appeal, and recruitment consultants aren't any more appealing when they're pretending to work in showbiz, then if a film crew comes to your area, you will often find a casting call for extras in the classified pages of the local press. You'll probably find this leads to a group audition where anyone liable to scare the horses is advised to wear a very large hat, and then you'll get the gig as long as you're unremarkable enough. The going rate for paid extra work tends to be in the region of $100 a day, although rates vary according to the production's budget. Never try and be funny about money, you really are just moving scenery, and directors won't hesitate to fire an uppity extra on the spot. Hell, the director doesn't even do the firing, they let the tea boy do it.
Attentive readers may well have detected a touch of cynicism about extras in this piece, and they're right. There's a movement among extras to try and call themselves 'supporting artistes' and amusing things like that, and to pass themselves off as professional actors. A lot of real actors HATE extras because of this sort of thing, and this is why you may find that during your exciting day on a film set, 'the talent' gives you an extremely wide berth. Make no mistake, if you become a film extra through a casting call or agency, that's all you will ever be. The only actor who's likely to come and talk to you excitedly about his next project is Martin Lawrence, and then God help you, frankly.
There is more than one way on to the screen, however, and if you are actually interested in acting, as opposed to scoring $100 and a nice buffet meal while watching Brad Pitt get kicked in the face in front of a green screen half a mile away, there are better ways to get involved. Independent film-makers and anyone else on a tight budget often reach out to amateur dramatic or community theatre groups with offers of extra work. Payment is usually nominal, and sometimes only covers travel expenses, if that, but you usually still get the food, and because you're making a real contribution to the production by giving up your time, you're treated with a lot more respect. Actors like talking to other actors, so you can even strike up a rapport with a star or two which just isn't possible if they think you're just one of the first dozen unemployed people that the casting director equivalent of the Child Catcher found on their last sweep of the High Street. People take more of an interest in volunteers than in the low-paid, and you might find that by supporting independent and low-budget film-making in this way, you'll be remembered and invited back for the next paying gig. If you actually want to make a career in screen acting, you need to just be on set as much as possible, and never mind about the money. You can make all the money you need by writing articles about Android apps for Helium, so get out there and act for the love of it.
To get anecdotal for a moment, I have recently done two days of filming and a week as a supernumary with a touring theatre production, slotted around my full-time job. Off the back of that, I'm getting some paid work next year, and several credits which should end up on IMDB, as long as I don't have to put them up there myself. On one day's filming, my sister-in-law got promoted to having her very own line of dialogue, simply through giving up her time and being extremely polite to everyone. This is all through joining an amateur dramatics group and making friends with people with connections.
The best way to become a film extra is to forget the financial side ($100 is nice for a day's work, sure, but you're not going to be working every day, or even every month), and even the catering, and involve yourself with acting projects at the community level. Make yourself available for work on student films and low-budget projects, be incredibly polite and amenable to everyone, as people have a habit of getting better jobs as they gain experience, and everyone remembers a friendly face. Get as much experience, at whatever level, of being around a film set. Learn that when they call for quiet on set they really mean it, and never interrupt the technical talk with an acting query. Or with anything at all. Remember above all that however much younger than you everyone appears to be, extras really are the lowest of the low, and everyone will get on just fine. If the paid extra work comes along later, then great, but if you're interested in becoming an extra, you probably have other ambitions within film and television, and this is your chance to take a step towards them. But take a book along – your first day on a film set is fascinating, your second is deadly dull.
