My Day as an Extra, Part 1

Wednesday was a long (but interesting) day.

Note: I'm going to try to describe my experiences as completely as possible without giving away any plot details or actual dialogue from the movie. Bear with me. To read more about the production from The Man himself, check out his blog, HERE.)

My call time was 7:00 AM at the Monroeville Mall. So, I set my alarm for 3 AM and left the house at 4 AM so I had a little “lost time” in case my directions weren’t entirely accurate. Traffic was (not surprisingly) light and I pulled into the mall at just after 6:00. We were instructed to park and enter at the back of the mall, near Burlington Coat Factory. The production, with all its trucks and trailers, was pretty easy to spot. I pulled into a parking space and was greeted by an A.D. (Assistant Director) who told me to stay warm in my car until they needed me, around 7:15. Slowly, more extras joined our little section of the parking lot and by 7:00 we were a full complement of 20 “background actors.” Another A.D. came along and asked several of us to pull our cars over to a section of parking lot that was being sprayed with powdery fake snow and instructed where to park. The flocking truck then sprayed each of our vehicles and we were told to run the wipers so it looked like we just pulled in. Then, the A.D. told us to grab our wardrobe and forms and walk with her to Extras Holding. We were instructed to leave our cars unlocked and put the keys in the visor.

(I’m a city boy. My vehicle is always locked. Leaving mine unlocked all day made me incredibly paranoid, but I was assured that security would keep an eye on it.)

Allysa, the A.D. who was our wrangler for the day, took us to Extras Holding, and checked us in. Holding was an unheated room at the back of the mall with two small bathrooms adjacent. This was our base for the day. Extras are allowed to go to the bathroom and outside to smoke, but otherwise they are kept in Holding. After a few minutes, we were paraded back outside to the mini-metropolis of trucks and trailers to have our wardrobe approved. It was still dark outside. I grabbed my garment bag and trotted along. The wardrobe supervisor lined us up and then walked the line, pointing and saying, “Love it,” “Love it,” “Love it,” “Oh, that won’t do – do you have another shirt?” My shirt/sweater/jeans outfit got the nod. For the rest of the day, I never opened my garment bag with the additional three outfits we were required to bring, complete with shoes. Then, we went back to Holding to wait.

Around 8:00 we were called to the set – the hallway in the mall leading out to the portion of parking lot that had been prepared with fake snow. This proved to be a false alarm – The Powers That Be decided not to use us, so we trundled back to Holding. From our vantage point inside the mall, I could see a rusty pickup truck set-up in the shot with a female blond stunt double ("Second Unit") in the driver’s seat. The A.D. told us this would be a near-miss accident scene and they couldn’t have anyone outside. They thought they might be able to see into the mall and wanted to have people walking around, but the glass doors were opaque in the early morning sun.

(The “accident” thing didn’t make me feel any better about having my unlocked car parked so near the pickup. On the plus side, my car may make it into the movie even if I don’t.)

Back in Holding, the A.D. said they would bring us some breakfast from craft services. A truck pulled up with coffee, which I availed myself of immediately. Breakfast consisted of a half-dozen leftover muffins and some plain donuts that looked suspiciously well-handled. I decided to wait for the hot lunch promised on our call sheet.

I had plenty of time to talk to the other “background actors” and learned most of them were from Mosser Casting and had performed the same function in other movies, notably the as-yet-unreleased “Adventureland.” They were a pretty wide cross-section of humanity – all sizes, shapes and ages. There were soccer moms and college kids and an elderly couple dressed in their Sunday finest. Most were pretty friendly and somehow, I gravitated into a small group of theater people. We talked about shows we had been in and roles we had played. I felt terribly bohemian.

Props came in and gave most of us gift bags or wrapped presents to carry on set. Apparently, there had been an emergency call to get the Extras props as soon as possible. About an hour later, six extras were selected to be taken to the set. I wasn’t one of them. The six returned a while later, saying that they stood in another hallway and weren’t used. One lady, coincidentally also there from Kevin’s web board, was selected to go out to her car, get out and enter the mall. At 11:15, another group of 20 Extras arrived – all hastily called in by the casting company to hurry up and wait with the rest of us.

Around noon, Catering started putting condiments on our tables and I could smell food being set-up in the room next to our holding cell. Our wrangler assured us that lunch would be a delight: rosemary chicken, steamed veggies – the works. Around 12:30, Catering reappeared and took most of the folding chairs for use in the dining room, leaving us standing. At 1:15, a different A.D. dismissed us for a “Walkaround Lunch” and told we could go buy something in the mall food court and be back in Holding by 2:15. Yup, that was it. My theater pals and I went to a cheesesteak place and grabbed a quick bite before returning to Holding – just in time to be called to the set!

And this time, it was for real!