Earning A Living In The Film and TV Extras Business

Earning A Living In The Film and TV Extras Business

Extra, Walk-On, Supporting Artist, Background Artist, are typical market place terms which can apply to the kind of employment you would expect to enjoy, when considering any job opportunities within the TV and film extras industry. You can also be really lucky and get selected to be a Featured Artist, for which you may very well be required to interact with actors, possibly even speaking a line or two. Featured Artists are typically planned in advance, particularly if there is a very specific need, maybe a precise image, hair colour, ethnic culture etc, although it can be the case that you would simply be picked out whilst on set.

Film and TV extras - featured artist opportunities

It has happened to me on a few occasions, but one that sticks out was while I was employed on an episode of Inspector Morse and the Director called for someone who would be happy smoking a cigar! Up went my hand and I secured myself a primary role! Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of cigars as well as the fact that the scene was reshot more than a few times, each of which required me to be puffing away on my King Edward. This left me beginning to feel very queasy towards the end of the filming! The plus side to all of this was finding myself in the TV Times a couple of weeks later in a screenshot from that week's episode. The late John Thaw as Inspector Morse positioned in the foreground, plus me in the background!

The sad thing is, I never got a chance to chat with John Thaw, but during my period of time in the industry I have had the pleasure of being able to meet such actors as George Cole, Angela Lansbury and Roger Moore, not to mention the questionable excitement of sucking "The Duchess of York's" toes!

Film and TV extras with toe sucking responsibilities

I received a call for me to work on an American made for TV' film about Princess Diana. It was shortly after Fergie' (the Duchess of York) had hit the head lines regarding her infamous toe sucking interlude in the South of France with her financial expert John Bryant. I had been told to bring swim shorts along with me as I would be filling the role of John Bryant. I had mentioned the issue related to toe sucking' when I first received the phone call, but was advised that there would definitely be none of that' ... just how misguided they were!

After we got on set (sadly in a studio rather than the South of France!) the movie director thought that toe sucking' was most definitely the order of the day and proceeded to persuade me to make love' to "Fergie's" feet! I'm not a great enthusiast of feet but gratefully the actress playing Fergie (previous Coronation Street actress Tracy Brabin) had made sure that her feet were clean and pleasant smelling'!

Basically the movie got ridiculed in the Uk press, however one crtiic stated that the cringe generating scenes were only relieved by toe sucking' in the sunshine. Therefore I believe that my toe sucking' technique must have been pretty impressive!

Having spent considerable time working within the TV extras and film extras business I've been subjected to many similar and unpredicatble scenarios, so, if you are looking into TV or film extras career options, you ought to be completely aware of just what you are letting your self in for and what you're most likely to get out of the experience!

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