In the classic 1952 film Singin' in the Rain, Gene Kelly's character, Don Lockwood, gets his big break when a stuntman on the set of the silent film he is working on is knocked unconscious. Frustrated by the prospect of replacing the injured extra, the director shouts, "It'll take us hours to get another one from Central Casting." Seizing the opportunity, Lockwood approaches the director and, one choreographed bar brawl later, is plucked from obscurity. A star is born.
Mirroring Lockwood's rise to fame is undoubtedly the dream of every aspiring actor who arrives in Hollywood. Despite the one-in-100 chance of getting a line--according to director Roland Emmerich--it is a gamble thousands of background performers--on commercials, television shows, and feature films--are willing to take. While this may not be unexpected, what is surprising is the number of actors who elect not to work as extras, instead waiting tables, walking dogs, or substitute teaching. At almost $300 for an eight-hour day on a commercial and $122 for TV shows and films, it's hard to imagine any aspiring actor wouldn't jump at the chance to join the Screen Actors Guild and go to work on a set. But for many actors, the stigma that surrounds extra work is a price that's just too high to pay.
That stigma traces back to Hollywood's golden age, in the 1920s. At the time, the motion picture was still new, and the country was headed toward economic depression. Poverty-stricken Angelenos and starstruck Midwesterners clamored outside the studio gates like day laborers for the opportunity to earn a little more than $1, plus a 35 cent cafeteria lunch, for their work as a movie extra. Pioneer film director D.W. Griffith was known for sending his assistant directors out to Skid Row to cull bodies for his big productions. Because the business was still largely unregulated, treatment of the extras came second to the vision of the auteurs.
It was not until a rape scandal, involving popular comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and a female extra, shook box office receipts that the studio czars attempted to stem the tide of young women pouring into Los Angeles to work as "extra girls" by hiring prescreened professional extras. Then, as now, Central Casting, founded in 1925, was the company most used to screen and hire out background players. Though the policy did little to discourage the migration, it led to the establishment of background talent agencies.
Going Into the Background
Still the largest extras casting agency in the business, today's Central Casting provides background actors for blockbuster films, including Men in Black II, as well as edgier films such as Seven, starring Brad Pitt--who, at the time, was still registered with Central Casting. Pitt is said to have approached the extras talent manager on-set and jokingly complained that he had not worked in a while. In addition to major commercials, Central Casting also provides extras for 90 percent of the television shows that shoot in the L.A. area. According to Summer Wesson, senior casting director for Central Casting, about 300 people show up at the firm's offices in Burbank every day to register for background work.
Wesson, who casts background for Lifetime's Strong Medicine and Fox's The O.C., believes working as an extra is a great way for aspiring actors to get started. While she admits there is a high demand for beautiful young women, she also works on a number of shows, including Invasion, a one-hour drama set to debut on ABC in the fall, that specifically request extras with interesting faces. Shows set in major cities such as Chicago and New York require talent without tanned and perfectly toned bodies.
"It's on-the-job training," says Sylvie Forrest, who works regularly as an extra and stand-in on Strong Medicine. A thirtysomething brunette with a French accent, Forrest is also a flight attendant for United Airlines. After 9/11, she decided to explore her longtime interest in acting. She experimented by working as a nonunion extra on a network television show, for which she earned $89 for an eight-hour day.
"I knew I would love it," says Forrest, who immediately registered with Central Casting and devoted all her days off to working as an extra. Aside from earning the three SAG vouchers required to become eligible to join the Guild, Forrest believes the 16-hour days have helped her develop an appreciation for the demands of the craft. Her interactions with the principal cast and assistant directors have made her more confident about her skills as an actor and provided her with an arena to test the techniques she learns in her acting classes. Forrest hopes her next step will be landing an agent and auditioning for principal roles.
Realistic expectations are a must, though. "Don't do [extra work] thinking you're going to get discovered," says Susan Shopmaker, a New York City–based casting director known for her work on commercials and independent films, including John Cameron Mitchell's upcoming Shortbus. Though she is not biased against actors who work as background performers, Shopmaker tends to bring in actors she has worked with before. She searches for new talent at Off-Off-Broadway theatres in Manhattan. For commercials, which are really about a specific look, Shopmaker has been known to scout shopping malls in Poughkeepsie and soccer games in the suburbs to find the right person.
Getting an Upgrade
For actors who have spent weeks, months, even years diligently sending out headshots and resumes without much success, there is sanity in doing extra work. Every job brings the prospect of a "break." You're not going to get upgraded waiting tables or working at Starbucks," says Harry Hirshorn, a 38-year-old full-time extra. He became SAG-eligible through a Taft-Hartley waiver on a Honda commercial in the late 1990s.
Film- and television director Harry Winer, who has helmed episodes of Alias and Summerland, agrees. Though he has never plucked an extra out of obscurity, there have been several times when Winer was not satisfied with the look of a featured extra and upgraded one of the general background hired for the day. "Many times extras stand out, some because of their attentiveness or inventiveness or commitment to what they have been asked to do--creating a real moment even when asked to move from left to right," says Winer, who has arranged auditions with casting directors for extras.
But bringing imagination to the work should not be confused with showcasing. Extras have been known to disrupt a scene by staring into the camera or subtly changing the blocking to change their placement in the scene setup. Doing what the assistant directors ask is critical to future employment and can also lead to upgrades. Forrest credits her professionalism with getting her vouchers so quickly. Debra Mooradian, a 38-year-old nonunion extra who plays an age range of 16 to 21, always befriends the talent wrangler and never wanders from the workspace. She earned one of her vouchers on Six Feet Under when a stand-in didn't show up and the key set production assistant replaced him with Mooradian, who had never done stand-in work before.
For some background performers, though, the work can become mundane. According to Jey Wada, a Directors Guild of America first assistant director who has worked in TV commercial production, many extras become jaded after about six months and lose sight of their professionalism. They begin arriving late, complaining, and bringing their personal problems to the set. Assistant directors often need to bring a background actor back to match a previous angle, and no one can find them. Wada believes putting professionalism first is the best way to get to the next step.
Stepping Back and Loving It
For Mariah Roncetti, a 30-ish cool blonde from Indianapolis, Ind., working as an extra is about anonymity, not fame. Roncetti was an actor on the come, with small parts in Edward Scissorhands and Reality Bites. Although Roncetti was auditioning alongside actors such as Juliette Lewis and Giovanni Ribisi, she was not making a living. In 1998, Roncetti, mentally exhausted by the pressures of professional acting, walked away and began working as an extra in commercials. "There are some days that are nightmares," admits Roncetti, referring to an extra gig where she spent 15 hours sitting in a parking lot and only two hours working. On other jobs, she has been left in mud and sprayed with water. But there are weekend jobs for which she has earned double rate ($600) for half an hour of work.
Though she says it was strange to work as background with actors she used to audition against for principle parts, Roncetti was able to get past her own ego. Now married with a 17-month-old son, Roncetti appreciates the decent wages and the ability to leave the pressures of work behind when she is released for the day.
"Most actors feel like they failed when they do extra work," says Kristen Greenberg, founder of Extra Extra Casting, a background talent agency specializing in casting commercials. A former actor, Greenberg found it tough to be an aging (30-year-old) woman in Hollywood. She was inspired to open her L.A. office because of her own rewarding experiences working background. Eight years later, Greenberg has relationships with A-list TV commercial production companies and prestigious advertising agencies, and an office in New York City. Of the 3,000 background talents in her database, about 50–60 of them earn between $40,000 and $100,000 per year, not including residuals. Summer Wesson says it is difficult to measure the success rate of extras at Central Casting, as only about 20 percent check in on a regular basis. The standard SAG rate is $291.80 for eight hours plus overtime until the next two hours, then double-time after that. Weekend jobs are double, paying almost $600 per day plus overtime. Stand-in rates are the same, except for a few well-knowns, who can negotiate slightly higher rates.
New York City–based casting director Karen Etcoff started her extras casting company Kee Casting 18 years ago because she saw how many talented actors weren't getting enough attention from their agents. Etcoff, who began her career in casting on an Art Carney Coca-Cola commercial, has seen the treatment of extras improve over the years. "Directors appreciate them," she says. "Every person is a character."
On Robert Redford's Quiz Show, Etcoff was given the responsibility of creating the Van Doren family and assembling the camera operators on the sound stage of 21. After researching trade unions from the period, Etcoff learned that the camera operators then were typically Irish. For Etcoff, extras casting is very creative; perhaps none more so than the upcoming Fur, Steven Shainberg's biopic on photographer Diane Arbus. For the film, which stars Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr., Etcoff was called on to find very tall and very small people.
Known for meticulously choosing every actor herself, Etcoff says it's a myth that actors who work as background will never be considered for principle parts. She often brings in extras she has worked with to audition for speaking parts. In one case, an actor who works regularly as an extra was cast as a principle in the Bridget Fonda–starrer Delivering Milo. Etcoff also believes working as an extra can help in the audition process because it teaches actors to listen to what is being asked of them by a director or a producer. "People think if they have a look, they'll get chosen," she says. "Training is important."
While there is no doubt background work is like playing the lottery, it seems the lessons learned through extra work can help clinch the big moment. For some, it is a comedic one-liner; for others, it's about sharing a moment with another dramatic actor. For Hirshorn, who hopes to segue out of full-time extra work and back into writing, his fantasy job is to be the Jack in the Box guy. "That way, I could make a lot of money, and nobody would see me," he says.
Waiver, Hello
According to Ilyanne Kichaven, spokesperson for the Screen Actors Guild, while background work is a viable way to enter the union, the Guild emphasizes that it is extremely difficult for people to have a long-term career as an extra. With 65,000 members in the Guild, only 75 percent to 80 percent meet the yearly minimum of $13,000 required to maintain their benefits. Kichaven admits, "The unemployment numbers are daunting at times."
With just one day of principle work with a spoken line, a performer becomes SAG-eligible. Other performers become eligible through the Taft-Hartley act, which waives performers possessing a special skill, certain look, or ability to create a particular delivery into the union. The waiver results in an instant upgrade from background to principle. In the case of television commercials, the performer is not required to have a speaking part; the performer can be upgraded based on being integral to the selling of the product. However, the production--or in the case of a commercial, the advertising agency--must have enough money in its budget to upgrade the performer. The production entity must also prove to the Guild that it used its best efforts to cast a union performer in the part.
At the time of joining, the SAG-eligible performer must pay the initiation membership dues of $1,440, provide proof of SAG-covered employment, and submit a headshot. Eligible performers have the option of deferring membership for two SAG productions. They are required to join on the third and must pay dues ($50) every six months. SAG is currently revising the entrance for background performers by developing a point system in which union and nonunion jobs, along with educational seminars and sanctioned events, count toward eligibility.
Finally, remember that background casting agencies commission the production, not the talent. The only fee background actors who register for work at any extras casting agency should pay is the industry-standard photograph fee, typically $25. Photos of the actors are placed in registration books sent out to production companies and casting directors. Extra Extra, for example, updates its registration books every two years. BSW