Become a Movie Extra!

by actorguru on September 1, 2008

in Getting Started

movieextrasDid you know that there are a lot of actors making a good living as movie extras?  In case you didn’t know, movie extras are those people who appear in the background (also called background players) in movies or television.  They usually don’t say anything but they play a vital role in movie and television production.  How could you have a film starring top quality movie stars with no other people involved in a scene?  That would be like something from The Twilight Zone.  So, know that being a movie extra is important.  Of course, we know that you have aspirations of being a big Hollywood movie star but why not get your feet wet by becoming an extra?  You can make up to a couple ofl hundred dollars a day or more.  That’s probably more than what you’re making a day on your current job.

Being a movie extra will help you get some experience in what happens on a movie set.  The great thing is there’s no experience necessary plus you get paid!  You can think of it as “on the job training”.  We found an organization that can help you get started and guess what?  You don’t necessarily have to come all the way to Hollywood to gain the experience you need to get started in the business.

Who knows, you may even get a speaking role through doing extra work.  It’s not uncommon for an extra (usually an aspiring actor anyway) to get “bumped up” to a speaking role in a television or movie project.  Also, doing extra work can help you get into the the majors unions like SAG and AFTRA.  We’ll cover more on how to get into the unions but for now we suggest you get started becoming a movie extra.  Try it out, see how you like it.

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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Yolanda September 2, 2008 at 2:01 pm

Great post I'll definitely pass this site around.

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Samantha. September 1, 2009 at 3:49 pm

Do you know any organisations that find work for extras in Australia?

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actorguru September 1, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Wow, that's a tough one Samantha. You may want to try contacting the below organizations to see if they can further assist you. Hope that helps.

http://www.actorscentre.com.au http://www.actorsaustralia.com.au http://www.theatre.asn.au/company/actors_centre_a…

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Samantha. September 2, 2009 at 3:51 pm

Thank you.

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