Category: auditions

How Not to Be a Background Actor for Life

Do you have that Extra smell? I certainly hope not. Both for the sake of your career success and its longevity. What is that Extra smell? Discover if you have it or not in this week’s Answers for Actors…

Do you have that Extra smell? I certainly hope not.

For the sake of your career’s success and its longevity I trust that if you engage in Extra employment as an actor that you’re doing so for the enjoyment of being on set with fellow actors, networking and/or for financial survival. If you believe being an Extra will lead you to the Hollywood Walk of Fame…sorry, you have that Extra smell.

Extras (or Background Actors, a politically correct term dictated by SAG-AFTRA) are of course the actors required to fill-out the background of a screen story. Without Extras the world of film and television would look as empty as a movie theater playing a double feature marathon of Heaven’s Gate and Ishtar.

Some actors utilize being an Extra as their civilian job; an occupation to pay life’s bills while strongly pursuing elsewhere through training and auditions their art of story-telling. Great! No problem there.

Some actors are full-time Extras. This is their occupation. Year-after-year full-time Background Actors are able to stitch together a living wage. They enjoy the on set camaraderie. And they are content with the status of an Extra. They have no delusions that their participation in our business as a Background Actor will propel them to above-the-title talent. Fine-n-dandy.

But… then there are the actors who have that Extra smell.

Possibly you’ve encountered them on your journey. You may recognize these ‘actors’ who believe their stunning beauty or unusual look, once glimpsed on the screen for less than a nanosecond, will have a director or producer shout, “Get me that actor! That’s the star of my next budget-busting-blockbuster!” These Extra smell actors are often deeply mired into conspiracy theories thinking Disney is gaining global domination via KFC buckets. They’re Glenn Becks without the chalkboard.

What further defines an actor with that Extra smell?

If you have on your resume a plethora of credits which read like the following actual credit from an actor’s resume: “Professional business man on the park bench reading The Wall Street Journal as Jennifer Anniston jogged by”, you have that Extra smell.

If when you open your closet you refer to your wardrobe by project name such as, “For my date tonight I think I’ll wear The Lovely Bones.” You have that Extra smell.

If on your smart phone there’s an application listing of all the public bathrooms that can be used as a changing room while on location, you have that Extra smell.

If you have more autographs of the principals you’ve “worked with” than principal credits on your resume, you have that Extra smell.

If you have a composite card that displays you in various costumes from your ‘roles’ as an Extra and send that as a headshot to casting for principal work consideration, you have that Extra smell.

If you send your picture and resume to a casting office that casts only principals and you ask to be considered for Extra work, you have that Extra smell.

If you were a non-union background actor on a union film (meaning SAG Extras got seconds of screen-time while the audience saw the back of your head as a blip) and you list the credit on your resume as ‘Featured’, you have that Extra smell.

If you find yourself proposing sexual favors to a nineteen year-old PA for a chance he/she/it will introduce you to the DP, you have that Extra smell.

If when at craft services you complain to the caterer that their tri-colored pasta salad has been deteriorating in quality over the past several years, you have that Extra smell.

If you think the director happens to silently notice you (whether on-set or by your exiting the location’s Port-O-Potty) he will instantly, without hearing you speak, catapult you to principal…you have that Extra smell.

If while on set in the Extra’s tent/holding shamble you find yourself gazing dreamily at a nearby honeywagon and fantasize it’s an oasis of stardom, you have that Extra smell.

If while dressed uniformly like your peer Extras for a scene you notice that your robe has a silver buckle upon its sash while the Extra standing aside you has a sash with a gold buckle and this ‘slight’ in lower metallic grade upon your costume causes you ire, you have that Extra smell.

If you go to set, as an Extra, with a backpack bulging with screenplays you’ve written (to star yourself in) and your sole intent for the day is to distribute them to anyone on set who might get your puss and opus on screen, you have that Extra smell.

If you’re working on a James Cameron film (as an Extra) and the closest you’ve gotten to Mr. Cameron is the third AD but when speaking to fellow Extras you find yourself saying, “James thinks I would be fantastic for the president alien who stops the oil tanker from plowing into the Statue of Liberty”, you have that Extra smell.

If you claim to have been a screen actor for more than twenty years but while on set someone mentions Mali Finn and Mary Colquhoun and you respond with, “I caught their act in Vegas”, you have that Extra smell.

If when watching a movie, that you did not participate in, you find yourself ignoring the principals and watching the Extras to evaluate their performance, you have that Extra smell.

If you’ve been lobbying SAG-AFTRA, The Academy of Motion Pictures & Sciences and The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences that each has an award category ‘Best Extra in a Comedy, Drama or Musical’, you have that Extra smell.

Having that Extra smell is being the delusional actor who foolishly believes that by solely being a repetitive Extra they’re preordained for: above the title billing, limousines, paparazzi, invites to Jay Leno’s couch, a sex scandal leading to drug re-hab, and then a career rebirth as they’re welcomed back with a warm embrace by Oprah.

There’s nothing wrong with working as an Extra if the work is put into proper perspective by the participant. Look upon the experience as a paycheck and networking opportunity. If Extra work is approached with self-fantasies of leading to your eventual fame, well… you have that Extra smell.

I and my talent representation and casting colleagues continually advise actors who want to seriously pursue principal work on screen to minimize or delete entirely their Extra credits from the resume sent to principal casting directors and Legit talent agents.

Now before some actors misinterpret that statement and post on an online message board misinformation stating, “Paul Russell said….” let me re-state more plainly: Take the paychecks. Remove or minimize the Extra credits upon the resume if you want to be considered for principal work on screen. Have a separate resume listing your history as an Extra for casting directors who cast background actors.

Extras are the underdog necessity of our creativity but if you as an actor wish to elevate to the next level of principal work best you pursue and then promote on your resume Under Five (U/5) employ and above.

And what if Extra credits are all an actor has listed under the Film/TV header of their resume and you want to grow beyond an Extra? Minimize. Actors with that Extra smell who want to be principals will often put every walk-on upon their resume. Which in turn leads the purveyor (casting, directors and talent agents) of the actor’s work history to ponder, “Has a look bur probably can’t act.” Or worse, “What mental deficiency within this actor is keeping directors from trusting him/her with an Under Five or better?”

There’s nothing disgraceful about being an Extra (other than the sometimes disgraceful treatment of Extras on set). Being an Extra produces a paycheck. The work provides you new contacts. The temporary employ won’t be an end-solution for becoming a star. Which by-the-by, fame should never be the reason for being an actor and if that is your sole intent for being in the arts…you have that Extra smell.

My Best,
Paul

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Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Temple and the University of the Arts. He writes a column for Back Stage and is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.

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What am I Doing Wrong?! – Actors Turning a Negative to Postives

Looking beyond the factors that you can not control (rude auditors, attention deficit disordered agents, persnickety producers, anemic economies) what can you commandeer in your career and improve upon to better yourself?

This week: Actors who get too comfortable

What am I doing wrong? I ask myself this question. Often. It’s not that I’m a pessimist (O.K. I know some readers will be thinking to themselves, Uh, Paul… hello rain cloud to sour opening line of a novel; you’re dark and stormy.) No. I’m not. I’m a realist who likes to look at life with honesty rather than peppermint pink Pollyanna confection. (Although I do love Disney theme parks and snow on Christmas.)

So what am I doing wrong? I have some challenges.  But I’m also doing many things right.  Yet I refuse passive comfortableness with whatever success(es) I attain. I view my achievements — and failures — with a critical eye so as to learn how to repeat or improve my fortunes and deter deficits. An actor, as an ever evolving artist, must continually do the same. There will always be potential within yourself for improvement. No one remains perpetually flawless like the Hope Diamond. If all lives were perfection then why the hell do many in the cell-phone addiction collective find themselves bitching occasionally about dropped calls (Hello AT&T? What are you doing wrong?).

There are some actors among us who will blame others for the lack of progress within their own career and whine, “People just don’t recognize what I have to offer,” to anyone who will begrudgingly listen. When I’m the audibly assaulted my reply slapped back is, “Why?” Lesser life-engaged actors often snap back with a curt, “Because people are ignorant morons.” Uh-huh… Ignorant is as ignorant denies.

If you’re not getting the response craved to the efforts of your desires then wouldn’t it be prudent to turn inward and ask, What am I doing wrong? Now, granted you may not be in complete error for underachieving towards your goals. We can’t control every aspect of how others respond to us. But if fruitless patterns persist; marketing materials get crickets in response, your acting or singing rarely register a call-back, meetings and interviews often don’t bring invites to return; then something within what you’re doing may well be wrong. Patterns exist for a reason; repetitive behavior. So what’s so wrong with tossing the ego aside for some self-reflection and delve into your psyche to question, What am I doing wrong?

And for those who look upon that question as a harsh negative no more delightful than a greasy spoon dinner plate laden with soggy spinach then here’s the Café Du Monde sugar powdered beignet; “What could I be doing better?” How you ask yourself the question for improvement (either listless vegetable or deep-fried delight) is just semantics. The end result – change for the better – is the goal.

So looking beyond the factors that you can not control (rude auditors, attention deficit disordered agents, persnickety producers, anemic economies) what can you commandeer in your career and improve upon to better yourself? Nearly every week as you look at your business that is acting (you are the CEO of your company are you not?) you should be asking yourself; “What can I do better?” “What am I doing wrong?”

There’s nothing wrong with asking, “What am I doing wrong?” The answer returned may be, Nothing, I’m doing my best at the moment. Great! A week later though you may query the same question and while the mind was distracted with other matters the mass of gray cells may have developed a new answer to, “What am I doing wrong?” You could hear your inner voice coming back to tout, You’re doing a lot of things right but… have you tried this idea… ?

The answers to the questions we ask ourselves don’t always come to us when we would like them to. That’s why I suggest a routine of perpetually examining what can be improved upon. If Apple never did such for itself, actors, possibly you, palming a nifty iPhone while reading this, would have to eye the same on a cumbersome home PC with a television set-like monitor. (So last century.)

Asking yourself “What am I doing wrong?” is not a negative. It’s a positive step for expanding your abilities and skills. And if you’re terribly shy or discordant towards the ‘wrong’ ending phrase then why not ask yourself each week, “What am I doing or not doing that could be explored and improved upon?” If you don’t get an answer, don’t believe yourself a god in abstention or cognoscente challenged; your mind is just taking a breather to formulate a response. Go easy on yourself. Ask a week or two later and the synapses could shoot back, You’re doing fine, almost too comfortable, with getting the level of work you’ve had. Have you thought about shooting higher in your ambitions? Then the next question to yourself would be, “How do I achieve that?” “Where do I begin?”

The mind and spirit are then off to a positive journey because you asked a simple, self-evaluating query, “What am I doing wrong?” And that’s not such a negative thing.

Beignet anyone?

My Best,
Paul

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Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Temple and the University of the Arts. He writes a column for Back Stage and is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.

 

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