How to Get Cast as an Extra in a Movie

Does this sound too good to be true? Well, it’s true. You or your child can be in major motion pictures in your spare time. It’s called extra work. Anyone who is serious about becoming an actor has worked or is working as an extra. Actors do this as a way to get noticed by directors and to add work history to their resumes.

But the truth of the matter is that there are more extra roles in Hollywood then there will ever be actors. Every person that appears on a crowded side walk, in the bleachers of a baseball game or in anyway appears on screen in a movie or television show gets paid. Yes the hundreds of people Tom Cruise pushed his way pass in the crowd in the movie “War of the Worlds”, was a paid extra.

Now, you are not going to get rich doing extra wok and most likely you will never get discovered. But, if you have a free day or two, you can turn a boring summer day into some easy extra cash.

Here’s how it works. First you have to find and register with a reputable extra casting agency. You may have seen them online or advertising in your local papers. For the most part you want to stay away from those. They generally will charge you a registration fee as high as $300.00. They may even give you some free web space. You logon and apply for roles only to never get a call back. The reason why, is because most of those roles have already been filed several weeks ago. Extra casting calls usually get filled within hours of being posted. And most are never posted to the public. Casting Directors don’t troll the Internet looking at extra casting site to discover new talent. One director doesn’t have the time. Secondly, I told you that there is more extra work then there are actors, but there are thousands of people each day looking for extra work. So a director will never have to go trolling through websites. Trust me on this one.