Photo Source: Melody Garcia
"It was two days of overnight shooting," Preston recalls. "Two very long nights, where he made me laugh all night long, both nights. After the second night of shooting, we went to breakfast at the Stardust Diner on 34th Street. Then two days later, we went on our first official date. We became engaged Sept. 18, 2009, and married March 12, 2010."
"And we've been 'going the distance' ever since," Plaut pipes in.
Both actors came to background work with their sights set on making money in a palatable venue. Preston, an actor since childhood, had been in New York several years and was eking out a modest living as a caterer. She couldn't afford health insurance for a decade and decided the time had come to switch gears.
"Why not make background work my survival job?" she recalls thinking. "Many actors have the attitude 'Oh, I don't do that.' They do nonpaying showcases, don't have health insurance, are members of no union, and have never been on a film set. But being a background player is beneath them."
Within one week of signing up with Central Casting, Preston landed her first gig. Eight months later, she was working steadily. By the end of the first year, she had made enough money to pay for health insurance. Six years down the pike, she now earns pension credit from SAG and AFTRA.
"It kills me when actors say you can't get health insurance being a background player," she says. "I know it's possible. But CDs who do background work have to know you exist. There are thousands upon thousands of background players, and now with actors posting their pictures on the Internet, there are that many more. I still send hard copy and postcards and even thank-you notes. The purpose is to keep my face in front of them. It's old-school marketing. Whenever I feel a lull in work, I send postcards, and I get work."
Plaut had just started his acting career when he met Preston. "Going the Distance" was his first professional feature film. He had some standup comedy experience and had toyed with the idea of acting but earned his living in a host of unsatisfying careers—from administration to finance to teaching to working as an emergency medical technician. When Plaut gave legitimate performing a shot he threw himself into it full-throttle. After enrolling in a monologue class, reading Back Stage, running to endless auditions, and booking a few student films and a web series with no pay, he signed up with Central Casting. Two weeks later, he had his appointment with destiny on the set of "Going the Distance." Within a month and a half he was steadily employed as a background player.
Plaut and Preston, who work an average of two to three days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day, have performed together on such shows as "Blue Bloods," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," and "Mercy" and the pilots for "Weekends at Bellevue" and "Unforgettable." Preston says their natural chemistry is appreciated by CDs, who often cast them to play EMT partners. Plaut adds that he makes more money playing an EMT than he ever did in life. Ironically, it also feels more real, he says.
Plaut and Preston insist that being a couple has professional traction. It's viewed as charming, and they use their relationship as a marketing tool. "If I got background work, I asked the CD if there was something for my boyfriend and then my fiancé and now my husband," Preston says.
Platform for Networking
Nevertheless, the work is awash in challenges—from last-minute assignments to long hours to to uncomfortable conditions to lugging suitcases of clothes. It's not uncommon for background players to be asked to bring an array of costumes and changes.
Plain old boredom can be a problem if actors don't come with a book, tablet, or laptop. Plaut mentions an actor friend who runs an online business while waiting in the holding area. Downtime is also an opportunity to submit yourself for other acting gigs, he says.
"It's important to avoid the 'background idiots,' " he continues. "They're either complaining about everything or taking pictures of themselves in each costume. If you're serious about acting, it's better to sit at a table by yourself until you find other serious actors as opposed to boisterous actors who turn out to be problems later in the day."
Preston and Plaut say their hours on the set are best used for networking intelligently with serious actors as well as with directors, producers, and crew members. Thanks to mixing and mingling, Plaut landed an additional gig as a set dresser, which has become yet another opportunity to generate income and make contacts.
"I don't hang out in the holding cell," asserts Plaut. "I talk to the crew and find out who is doing what in future projects. Networking is not my handing out cards but sitting down at lunch to talk to directors and producers and let them know my wife and I are actors. They request our pictures. Has it led to anything? Not yet, but it will. CDs say casting is 'top of the mind.' I want to put myself and my wife at the top of everyone's thought process."
"I've met so many producers and directors," adds Preston. "One of the advantages of episodic TV is that you get to meet different directors on each episode. But you should be respectful to everybody, wardrobe people and production assistants. That production assistant may be the producer's son. Treat everyone as an equal."
"I may be aggressive," says Plaut. "But I'm always careful not to step into someone's space."
Still, the question remains: If the actors become too identified with background work, will they run the risk of being typecast as an extra? Preston says she vacillates on the topic but really doesn't know. It's no fluke that both actors exclude those credits from their résumé. Yet, in the end each is convinced the benefits far outweigh the potential liabilities.
"Any opportunity is a good opportunity," Plaut says.
One thing is clear: Background work was surely an opportunity for love to flourish.
