Which films or programmes have you been an extra in?

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I was in a BBC detective programme - I've forgotten what it was called - as a fisherman. In one scene we were unloading a boat on the sand and there were so many takes that the tide came in and gradually engulfed the boat, so we picked up some crates and carried them forward along the beah, pretending to sort them out. I was very disappointed with the editing when the programme went out, because the tide kept going in and back out again during the scene in question.

In another scene I had to push a wide barrow through a busy fish market and I could see that there was a barrel in the way. As an extra in a busy scene you don't dare say anything, so I just ploughed my way forward into the barrel, wrecking the whole take.

I found the older actors very friendly; they treated the extras as equals, and the young ones stroppy and full of themselves. We were all ready for one scene when the young female lead threw a diva strop and said she couldn't go on unless she had her dinner. Which annoyed the director, who'd been trying to make up for rain delays.

A friend of mine was a soldier in "Revolution" and Al Pacino had a go at him for overacting next to him in the pay queue.

I never want to be an extra again. The imprecision and disorganisation disillusioned me. Everything was done in a shambolic hit-or-miss rush, and then takes were done over and over again as a result of the poor preparation.

― R the V (Jake Proudlock), Monday, 12 January 2004 10:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Grange hill, Eastenders.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 12 January 2004 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

What A Girl Wants (crap film, came out last year) (i haven't seen it)

― pete b. (pete b.), Monday, 12 January 2004 10:30 (twenty-two years ago)

My wife was an extra in John Waters' Polyester. She was one of the pregnant teens who go on a hayride in the raid.

― Lee G (Lee G), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00008NFR3.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I was in a local TV docudrama about my university paper. I was filmed delivering the stacks of paper to each college one Friday evening. They followed me in a taxi. Made me do retakes, the lot.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.dacre.org/flash/www/gbq03865.jpg

Except you can't see me. But I was there, in the screaming crowds, when they come down the Mound during the chase at the end.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I was in a bbc documentary when i was 6 weeks old, it was about birth and babies all over the world. I had to distinguish between a bell and a buzzer. I've still got the bbc receipt somewhere.

― leigh (leigh), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

i was in the audience for Every Secound Counts once (best i can do sorry)

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.tvheaven.ca/Kuaautos.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I was on Saturday Superstore.

and won't be on queer eye for a straight guy.

― chris (chris), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

My wife and I were unpaid, un-asked extras in a non-sex scene in a porn movie. It took a while to figure out what was going on.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 12 January 2004 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure if I want to ask for more details, Colin.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 12 January 2004 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm in the yyy's 'maps' video.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 12 January 2004 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I've told the story here before. A fancy hotel restaurant in Mauritius.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 12 January 2004 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Like I've said elsewhere, I'm a Suede video and a Sleeper video and some bad English film about North London Jews.

I also played a Russian deli owner in a student film in NYC.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 12 January 2004 17:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Dom you poor bastard

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 12 January 2004 17:57 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm in the yyy's 'maps' video

oooooh, where where?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 12 January 2004 17:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been an audience member for a few tv shows, but I guess that's a different question.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 12 January 2004 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

oooooh, where where?

i'm in the first row of the audience. you can see me when the camera pans across. third in from the left, i think. girl in black & white spotted top, black hair.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 12 January 2004 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I actually once had the starring role in a commercial for a local youth psychiatric hospital when I was 12 years old.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 12 January 2004 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Um, why does a psyc hospital need a commercial? "Get all your sanity needs fulfilled here!"

― oops (Oops), Monday, 12 January 2004 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Now 25% less kerrrrrazaaay!

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 12 January 2004 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I was in an Alien Ant Farm video. I had to leave because I had trouble pretending like I was at all interested.

― dean! (deangulberry), Monday, 12 January 2004 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

ha. my friend got booted from an o town video for lack of enthusiasm.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 12 January 2004 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I was in an Alien Ant Farm video. I had to leave because I had trouble pretending like I was at all interested.

Man, I'd LOVE to be in an Alien Ant Farm video! Hook me up!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 12 January 2004 18:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooh, I was an extra on the pilot of "Now and Again" where there was a gas attack on a Tokyo subway car, except it was filmed on a PATH train with Japanese posters stuck on the wall. They put fake blood on my nose.

Then... I was a teenage heroin addict runaway in an episode of Third Watch - filmed in Harlem somewhere.

― phil-two (phil-two), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Man, I'd LOVE to be in an Alien Ant Farm video! Hook me up!

No, it was terrible. We were just walking down the street and passed the Vine Theatre; someone said they were shooting a video for "Movies" inside. We wanted to eat and had time to kill so we went in and it was silly. We sat in a theatre and pretended to be excited, waving fists .. etc. We only stayed for like 30 minutes and then we grabbed some food and left. Turns out that you can barely even notice the crowd in the video. Although you can see the back of my head and fist-a-wagglin'.

― dean! (deangulberry), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I was a volunteer grip for a short film that got nominated for an Oscar. You can't see me but my name was in the credits.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 01:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I wasnt in anything, but a large number of my friends were extras (some even with walk-on parts) in this steaming heap:

http://www.daddymonkey.com/images/damned.jpg

My friends with walkon roles ended up on the cutting room floor but apparently theyre on the DVD or something. Everyone just pretends it never happened now, kind of like the end scene in "Perfume" after they all ate Grenouille. No one wants to own up to it.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 01:56 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm in the lightning bolt video "the power of salad and milkshakes", i'm featured standing on a table at kimo's in san francisco.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 02:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Me once honestly earned 3 roubles for hanging around a full dull day - 'participating in a mass scene', ie - in the mid-seventies 'stonian movie Indrek (Tallinnfilm; director M.Mikiver). It being a 'mass scene', me mug is abso-indis-fucking-tinguishible from the rest on the screen. Yay, cinematography! :)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 02:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I was featured in a Captain Kangaroo episode, though I wasn't an extra or anything. Hm.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 02:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Nothing notable for me (aside from walking through the odd TV shot) but one of my high school boyfriends was a video extra for Survivor's cheese-bag clasic 'The Search Is Over'. He was one of the people carrying the anonymous black umbrellas.

― Kim (Kim), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 03:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I was in a Canadian TV show named Higher Ground, starring pre-Darth Vader Hayden Christensen. And I was in a bizarre movie named Stark Raving Mad, which will never come to theaters: http://imdb.com/title/tt0286152/

― sym (shmuel), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 04:37 (twenty-two years ago)

...a large number of my friends were extras (some even with walk-on parts) in this steaming heap:

A location scout came and wanted to use my house in that film. I told her to shove it.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 04:45 (twenty-two years ago)

And boy, that was a pretty good piece of judgement right there.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 04:45 (twenty-two years ago)

ahh i remember when the auditions were on. those were the days

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 04:46 (twenty-two years ago)

My great uncle had a line in Jaws. He lived on Martha's Vineyard and was one of the town folk at a meeting when discussing the shark.

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 06:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I am going to be on NHK's "NY Streets"

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 08:32 (twenty-two years ago)

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