There are no small parts...

When most people hear the word “background” in Hollywood, they roll their eyes. Most actors are actors because they love to be in the spotlight. Background actors, or “extras”, are often compared to furniture. They are an afterthought, and most agents, casting directors, and business-of-acting teachers will caution you to leave any extra work off of your resume. You don’t want to be confused as someone who wants to be a professional extra, which is completely different than a real “actor." Or is it?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to do background for an independent feature film. It was was a favor to my friend, a casting director who had been given the task of rounding up a gaggle of extras to do unpaid work, not an easy feat in this town. Because it was a favor, it took my ego out of it. As an actor, my ego is about twice the size of that of a normal, person, and bruises like a peach, so it's helpful when I don't have to look out for it all the time.

My roommate and I headed down to location at 5:30 am, where a van was waiting to shuttle us to the first shooting location, a japanese restaurant.

Because we were friends of the casting director, she hooked us up with Featured extra positions: Waitstaff. That basically just means the camera will be pretty close, so you better make sure you got a manicure.

After putting on the pastel-yellow american apparel shirts and black aprons, we were ready to serve. I was chosen to give the menus to the principal actors, take their drink orders, and then deliver their drinks: two coffees and a mimosa. Simple enough right?

Well, I was terrified. I've only ever served food publicly once, and I spilled pea-soup on an Armani tux at a Bar mitzvah. What if I spill hot coffee all over the actors and give them all 3rd degree burns and ruin the movie???

But, I am an actor, and not one to turn down a challenge, so I nodded and smiled when given the task. I was really glad that something told me to go to the nail salon earlier this week.

The 2nd Assistant Director, the "extras" director, gave me my cue lines. I had to listen very carefully to make sure that I entered on the right lines. Then he gave me my blocking. Then he changed the cue lines. Then he changed my blocking. About three or four more times. Eventually, he locked it in, and we were almost ready to start shooting.

The first part was easy. I just had to walk over, smile, mentally take their drink orders while passing out the menus. The only thing I had to remember was to make sure to give the "special menu", the only one which had all of the menu items printed, rather than just blank paper, to the person who the camera was on. So, I just had to make sure they were stacked correctly the whole time.

The drinks were another story. Not only was I already a nervous wreck on the inside, but the prop girls didn't let me touch the tray until right before I had to deliver it. I also had to use one hand to uncover the coffee cups right before I delivered them. I was praying to every Saint and deity I could conjure.

I guess it worked because when I finally got to the table, I only shook a tiny bit when I took the first coffee of the tray, and even less with the mimosa, and finished strong with giving the last coffee to the mom. I had managed not to spill a drop!

Then, I did the same thing about a hundred more times and it got smoother and smoother. In fact, about three or four takes into the first scene, the lead actor spilled it all over himself and they had to delay shooting til they steam cleaned his pants and shirt.

The principal actors were so kind and we all interacted and it was different every time. I wasn't an extra! I was a waiter! Just like the other actors weren't actors, they were a mom, a dad, and a daughter with a big dilemma.

No one treated us like we were beneath them. Between takes, Robert Carlyle introduced himself to me as "Bobby," and we joked about how disgusting the prop food started to look.

Everything was going great until the very last set-up of the morning. In the first take, I knocked the mimosa into the coffee cup and splattered O.J. all over the table. And, In the second take, I tripped over this pipe that had been sticking out of the ground that I had managed to avoid for the previous six hours. After that take was over, I went over the grab the menus, and quietly apologized to the director and actors. They all cracked up and asked if I was ok. I felt an incredible warmth permeate the room. I smiled sheepishly and laughed too as I confirmed that I was fine.

Kathleen, playing the mom, came up to me after, and apologized for laughing. I assured her there was no need to apologize. It had warmed my heart to hear that sound. Anytime I can make a whole room of people laugh, I've done my job. Savannah, the daughter, told me that, once, her mom tripped at a restaurant and she started laughing, but then she tried to help her mom up, and ended up tripping too!

And after six hours of endless standing, with no trailer to go back to between takes and no second-team to relieve me during set changes, I was wrapped, and got to enjoy a delicious gourmet japanese lunch.

Later on at the second location, a Korean church parking lot, I was just a lowly non-featured extra and had to wait ten seconds from action and walk across the parking lot.

There were two little Korean children sitting and watching the production, and I sat down next to them. They started bombarding me with questions about the movie and I tried my best to explain about the cameras and the lighting and the crew. Then she asked me, "Is acting hard?" I took a beat before I answered, but then said,

"No. But sometimes grown-ups forget how easy it is."

"Let's say you have to play a firefighter in a movie. You've never done that before, right?"

She nodded

"But you can imagine what it would be like, right?"

She nodded again.

"So you need to imagine what it would be like to be a firefighter, and then you have to actually believe that you have become a firefighter."

She looked at me and said, "Oh my goodness! I can't believe I'm talking to a real actor!"

Then, it occurred to me, doing background doesn't make me less of an actor. I've never been a waiter before, but in that moment I was. I had to worry about the normal things waiters do: smiling and being friendly, passing out menus, remembering drink orders, not spilling the drinks. And then I had to worry about the normal things actors worry about: maintaining focus, listening for my cues, hitting my marks, not spilling the drinks.

I hope that extra work will be a minimal part of my career as an actor, but if an opportunity comes my way and I can take it, I'm not going to turn it down. I get to be on set, listen to the director, watch more experienced actors at work, see how the production functions, flirt with the guys on the crew, and eat free food, why not?