Stop dismissing calls for extras as nothing but an opportunity to languish in a crowd and grab the bull by the horns—just as the actors and industry professionals who form the H.U.R.D. Casting Network in Louisiana have been doing.
Launched in 2003 by film extra-turned-organizer Wayne Douglas Morgan, the online community has hurtled off the Internet and into real space on both coasts, into audition rooms and politicians’ offices and onto television.
Before he was another nameless face on the set of “Dreamer,” starring Dakota Fanning and Kurt Russell, Morgan had no experience in the film industry and had just left the Naval Academy. But after being around actors desperate to land their next gig, he started taking matters into his own hands, collecting contact information.
“At the end of the first day I had about 500 email addresses,” says Morgan. “And I started talking and asking people on set, ‘Where do we go?’ Everyone just kept saying, ‘Follow the herd.’ So we came up with ‘Helping yoU Reach Dreams.’ ” He built a website and made business cards soon thereafter. The H.U.R.D. Casting Network now has over 7,000 members, according to Morgan, and the Meetup page online has nearly 1,300.
So what exactly is H.U.R.D.? According to Morgan, it’s a source of information for actors seeking auditions, the low-down on decent agents in various cities, singular obstacles performers might face in their industry, and collaborating on projects. “It’s just about like-minded people creating,” says the founder. “If you have a dream, even if it’s not film or TV—you want to write a book, you want to be a ballerina—come talk to me! Someone in my network will know how to write a book and will mentor you and help you to reach your dreams.”
Since he launched the network, Morgan has gone on to be Lindsay Lohan’s bodyguard, become a film producer and casting director, and landed a speaking role on “Treme,” one of the many productions that took up residence in Louisiana since tax incentives made it cheaper for shows and films to get made in the state.
They’re part of what has made Morgan’s work so successful and all the more vital. With more projects moving to states like Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas, local actors have much more opportunity to get cast in both speaking and extras roles.
“[Louisiana] has changed a lot. We hardly had any crew when I first started; we barely had enough for one or two [shoots],” says Morgan. “Now we’re Hollywood South and movies are filming here so often that you can load up your résumé. You might not get the bigger roles because a lot of actors have put in the time and earned them, but you can get good, meaty roles here. You can be diverse and work on different things.”
He cites “NCIS: New Orleans” and “The Originals” as sources of steady work for a lot of local actors.
“If we continue to build an infrastructure like we have been, working with studios opening up here, there’s tons of work,” he adds. “Actors just have to be willing to come out here and immerse themselves.”
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