Have you ever watched a television show or movie and wondered about the random subway riders or dog walkers in a scene? Probably not, huh? Well, thanks for nothing. Today's peak into my world is about those anonymous blurs on your screen - background actors!!! We are fillers of space and doers of everything and nothing while the stars steal the show.
The first question you may ask yourself...or rather should ask yourself is how does an absolutely stunning and fabulous woman end up in the background of anything? Well, my story begins several months ago when I decided to take up acting as a hobby. I had absolutely no clue how to start the process. Furthermore, I had more lofty ideas than training or experience. So like most people with no inkling, I turned to Craigslist. I found an abundance of ads for background actors with promises of big bucks and steady work. BINGO! I just knew I was on my way to being discovered by some famous director who peered through the mass of extras to see me...looking like Halle Berry's 3rd cousin.
Of course, I nearly tripped over my own feet running to the nearest background agency. Just as I planned, I was sent off to the set of a new television show immediately. (Little did I know the writer's strike would dry up the abundance of work promised in the ad and the big bucks part was a misprint all together.) While I assumed the agency saw I was a star in the making, I later discovered, many agencies simply look for warm bodies to fill spots in the abyss of nothingness. For the most part, one just needs to be sane to get sent out on these jobs. "Don't harass the stars." "Move where you are told to move." "And for God's sake...Be quiet." After you've learned those lessons, you are ready to work behind all the greats...Denzel, Tom, Halle, Russell, etc (of course I'm on a first name basis with all of them.)
Even with all my discoveries about my work in the dregs of the entertainment industry, I still fell in love. I enjoy rubbing elbows with people who have fan clubs, whether I'm seen or not. Regardless of how meaningless the work seems to the rest of the world, I know there is no office without workers, no clothing store without patrons, and no college campus without students. Extras provide context for the storyline. The most impressive part of it all is the bond that is shared between all the people in the periphery of a scene. We know at the end of the day, we're getting a pay check for pretending to do work. How many people can say that? Even if I'm put in the back of the background, I know that one day someone will see me pretending to read a newspaper or walking the dog behind Robert De Niro and say, "that girls got something special." "I haven't seen anyone so thoroughly read a newspaper...turned upside down!"
Want to see me working the background like a pair of discount pumps? Tune in to one of the following shows this month:
-Gossip Girl (dancing my buns off at the club)
-Law & Order (giving detectives the stink eye when they search through my office records)
-Law & Order SVU (protesting- Mariska Hargitay actually pushed me in this episode...ra, ha, ha)
-As the World Turns (shopping in "Old Town" and having some coffee in "Java")
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