Why Extras Should Not Act

I was booked to play a theater patron for the A&E Biography of a man named Stanford White. He was an architect and had an affair with a married woman, whose husband ended up shooting and killing him at a theater. It takes place a little after the turn of the century so the people working were all dressed up in period costumes. There were only 7 of us. Everyone was a seasoned extra.

One gentleman was pegged to play Stanford White. If you have never seen Biography, they use voiceovers to tell the story of the individual and use reenactments shot in a very stylized way to show you what happened. This was where Stanford was shot in the theater. There were two couples, myself included, at tables and then one table with just the gentleman playing Stanford White. The tables were all dressed in period props. Each table had a big kerosene lamp in the middle, china plates, silverware, crystal ashtrays, and glasses with drinks in them. Very nice lace tablecloths coverd them all and the table and chairs themselves are authentic furniture from the time period. There is no dialogue so the director was talking us through it and giving us direction the whole time the cameras were running.

The man playing Stanford must have either been very nervous, or has never really acted in his life. He was about fifty and seemed to know what he was doing, until the cameras began to roll. The director was talking him through what he wanted the man to do and apparently the man needed constant talking going on because every time there was a lapse in the directors voice, the man would talk to him. Which would be fine except Stanford is at a table by himself and it would look like he was either talking to himself, or TO THE GUY HOLDING THE CAMERA IN FRONT OF HIM.

Here is one such exchange between Stanford, and the Director.

Director: Okay, sit down. Now look around to see who is there at the theater with you, no, no don’t look directly behind you because we can’t see your face. Just glance around, smile at someone. No don’t smile behind you, imagine there are other people around you. Now go ahead and take a sip of your drink.

(Pause)

Stanford: Was that good or do you want me to keep taking sips?

Director: Don’t talk, even though we can’t hear you we don’t want to see you lips moving. Okay, take one drink then just observe and enjoy the show. No, no, don’t clap, no one else is clapping.

Stanford: So I don’t like the show?

Director: Okay, no, you DO like the show but if we are going to clap everyone needs to clap. Okay, everyone, clap. There you go. Remember couples, talk to each other, and tell each other that you like the show. No, no, Stanford you are there by yourself so you don’t have to talk to anyone.

Stanford: Do you want to cut that one and take the clapping over again?

Director: No, no. Don’t talk. We can still see your mouth moving. We got the clapping just fine. Just enjoy the show. Maybe take another sip of your drink.

Stanford: Should I get another drink, this one is almost out.

Director: No, no. Just pretend to take a drink. No talking, we don’t want the people watching this to see your mouth move.

Stanford. Oh, oh yeah. Okay

Director: Okay, everyone is having a good time. Keep it lively; everyone is interested in the show.

(Pause)

Stanford: Should I take another drink?

Director: (sighs) No, no. That’s fine. Let’s do the scene where you are shot.

So we cut and go to the next scene, which is where the husband walks in and shoots Stanford. For safety reasons, they don’t have the guy doing the shooting aiming the pistol directly at Stanford. They have him shooting just to the side of him, which also gives Stanford a little room to roll onto the floor when he gets shoot. We are going to take it slow so no one gets hurt. With the style that they are shooting it in, no one is going to notice that we are going at half speed. So the husband slowly walks up to Stanford, slowly raises his gun, and fires. Stanford rolls out of his chair with such intensity that I thought he was jumping out of an airplane over Europe in 1943. His leg catches the tablecloth and pulls almost everything off of the table. The plates, silverware and his drink glass go crashing onto the ground. And we all look as the large kerosene lamp, which is lit, is rocking on the corner of the table. The safety guy goes running over and pulls the lamp off of the table. Stanford stands up and then notices that he has spilled his drink all over his costume. He has to go to the dressing room and clean up. Once he is gone the safety guy says to the director,

“Maybe we should have these lamps for this shot because if that had fallen, it would have exploded.”

So they remove the lamp on that table and shoot the scene at a different angle.

Before the next take the Director tell Stanford to take it easy, that there is no reason to hurry and hurt himself, just gently roll off of the chair. Stanford is thinking to himself and says to everyone,

“Could we move all of the tables away from mine about three feet, I want to have enough room to land. He only had about five feet already in between each table but I guess he thought that he might need more. The director told him no and that all he had to do was gently roll off of the chair. We do another take and Stanford again rolls out of the chair like he was in a John Woo movie. I could tell that the director was getting impatient because that was the last take of that shot.

The last thing we had to do was shoot a view of all of the feet running around right after the shooting started. Everyone in the theater is running for their lives, so they want pandemonium. They are only shooting our feet so it should be really easy. Should be. The director tells everyone what she wants them to do, when she wants them to run and in what order. She points to one of the woman and tells her that she is going to be the last feet we see so really run by quickly. We start shooting and the director is talking us through it.

Director: Okay action. Number 1 go, knock over the chair, Number 2 go okay, hesitate now take off, Number 3 and 4 go at the same time, good. Now number 5 run by. Run by. Number 5, right now! You, run through! Hey, run through!

The woman was standing there looking at the director like she didn’t understand English. Finally she understood and casually walks through the shot. The director wanted to do it again. She walked us through it and again, the last woman casually walked through. The director was not too happy and told the woman to not run through this time. We shoot it one last time and one of the guy’s knocks over the table, spilling everything on it. Except the kerosene lamp that they had already removed. Thank God!

That was it for the day. The director thanked everyone and said that everyone did a good job. But I could tell that inside of her head she was saying to herself, “That’s why extras should not act!”