We all want to live in Hollywood. Everyone in LA is currently or at least has considered becoming a big Hollywood star. But is it all it's cracked up to be? Who knows, that is a slim 1% of the entertainment population that actually find lucrative success in the business. (It's pathetic, is t it?) The multitude that is "the rest of us" are met with lukewarm unfulfilled passions as we either meander towards a different career altogether, or gripe with that facts that we can't come to grips with reality. One of the frequent jobs that pathetic failed actors such as myself take are...Background Acting!! 🎉🎉🎉
Okay, so to be fair, relatively every star that you know, save Ashton Kutcher and Will Smith has probably done some background acting in their early years. It's really just part of the process. The average time it takes anyone in entertainment to have real success is about ten years. Whether it be in music, acting, or screenwriting, these are tough industries if you want to be a star.
Again, many famous stars are now notably noticed in the background's of many films. Some notable stars include:
Sylvester Stallone~ Wood Allen's Bananas, as a subway mugger, in 1971. He was also in Jane Fonda's 1971 psychological thriller, Klute as a disco patron, though he went uncredited.
Brad Pitt In 1987's Less Than Zero, Brad Pitt was an extra billed as "Partygoer / Preppie Guy at Fight."
Clint Eastwood~ Wood was an uncredited extra in many films during the 1950s before breaking out as a movie star.
Phil Collins Was an extra in the audience at age 13, cheering and screaming for The Beatles in their film A Hard Day's Night
Renée Zellweger~ Was an extra playing one of the party girls in 1993's Dazed and Confused
John Wayne was an extra in several silent films in the 1920s before his first starring role in 1930's The Big Trail.
Clark Gable
Clark Gable was also an extra in several 1920s silents, including **Erich von Stroheim's ** The Merry Widow.
Megan Fox
Megan Fox was an extra in Bad Boys 2 (2003) as a dancer in a club scene.
James Dean
In the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy Sailor Beware (1951), James Dean was an extra with one line: "The guy's a professional."
Ben Affleck & Matt Damon
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were extras for the Fenway Park scenes in Field of Dreams (1989).
Jackie Chan
As a teenager, Jackie Chan was an extra in two Bruce Lee films: Fists of Fury (1971) and Enter the Dragon (1973).
Bruce Willis
Look carefully and you'll spot Bruce Willis as an extra in the courtroom scene of Paul Newman's 1981 film, The Verdict.
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe is often referred to as an extra in her first-ever screen appearance, 1948's Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! Marilyn has one line ("Hi Rad") and can also be briefly glimpsed sitting in a canoe with another actress. (Floss)
So as you can see, everyone has to start somewhere! So stop making fun of me just because I'm not some big mumbo jumbo star already!!! 😡😡😡
But again, it's a process in the making, and I'm still in process mode. So, that being said, let me show you a few samples of what I've done as a BG so far, and what that kind of life is like!!
First off, I've ran into the gorgeous, very beautiful
Karrueche
She might be best known for being Chris Brown's ex-lovebug, but this girl's Vietnamese, and Jamaican heritage have given her a class of beauty that only she resides in. She's already breaking out into her own personal career without her the man of her past, and I met her while she was doing some charity work for the homeless shelter I was staying at, Covenant House CA..
Okay, so that is obviously not a good sign already, I'm an aspiring actor/nurse in LA and I went through a chronological period of homelessness? Yes, LA kicked my ass, and damn near sent me packing when I came out here, but I have had some fun, and learned invaluable lessons about life and myself during my time struggling. One of them was to always be yourself, and love yourself, no matter how difficult life may seem.
Blake McGrath
Before I fully learned these lessons I was in a music video for a friend of a friend, Blake McGrath called Danja (can be found on YouTube) which this video was shot late 2012, and released the following year..
Zendaya
Of course, you can really just barely see me for a moment in the former Dancing With The Stars contestant's video, but that summer in 2012, just a little bit before that, I was playing basketball as a youth in the pilot episode of Matthew Perry's Go On with the kid from Everybody Hates Chris, and I was also in the background for a Google commercial, and I was also in Disney's Shake It Up starring Zendaya on season 3, episode 3 "Spirit It Up*"
The episode is still viewable on YouTube if you just type in "shake it up spirit it up"
As you can see, I got really into my role near the end of the pep rally scene, haha.
It was pretty cool, I just sat around all day, hung out with friends, and ate some BOMB tacos! And that's pretty much mostly what Background Acting is, sitting around all day, chit-chatting with your friends and eating free food.
I'm just saying
And during orientation at the free prestigious, background acting agency Central Casting, I was like
So if anyone every comes out to
Hollywood
Be sure to sign up there, and take a few days off to spend sometime around some of the other stars, you're not really supposed to talk to them while they're working, but it's still nice to being around the movies sets if you're into that kind of thing. Sooo much work goes into making these movies and tv shows, and it's a huge demand of shooting, re-shooting, repositioning the camera, getting the lighting just right, and encouraging the principal actors to nail their lines is a huge joint effort and it's a beautiful process to see.
As always, thank you for your time, and don't be shy, make sure to
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and have a blessed Saturday, and a wonderful weekend!! 😬
Citations:
19 Famous People Who Started as Extras." Mental Floss. N.p., 08 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 July 2017.