Extras, Extras! Part 3: How Things Work

Free Will, God’s Will, Written-in-the-Stars Destiny, Mathematical Scientific Probability, Newtonian Cause-and-Effect, There-Are-No-Accidents-or-Coincidences/Everything-Happens-for-a-Reason, Utter Randomness, Mind Manifesting a la "The Secret", Pure Consciousness, Dumb Luck, or Some Combination Thereof

Recently, on the set of the season finale of “Blue Bloods,” I won the background actor’s Jackpot.   Nabbed the brass ring, seized the Holy Grail, scored the pot of gold at then end of the rainbow:  I was given not a featured extra spot, not even an “under 5” (less than 5 words of dialogue).  No, I was asked, by the director, to open the scene by ad libbing a few lines on camera.

Bingo.

First, a little context:  April 2012, Friday the 13^th.  The show was nearly ready to wrap for the season, just one more day of shooting after this one.  I was in Scenes 1 and 3, meaning I had to arrive early and would leave late, change locations and outfits several times, and wait around idly for hours in the middle of the day while Scene 2 was being shot.  Which, as any background actor knows, sucks.  How I envied the ND-BG (non-descript background) people in Scenes 1 and/or 2 who would finish in a few hours, and the 5pm call time of the emergency crew extras – detectives, hazmat specialists - in Scene 3; all would receive the same day rate as me for a fraction of the time commitment. (Screw OT; I generally prefer to shoot-n-run, so I can get out and get on with my life.) Playing a commuter in Scene 1 and television reporter in Scene 3, there for the duration, I looking at a 12-hour day …

Scene 1 entailed an MTA bag check at Foley Square station, a lot of walking into and out of the subway, up and down stairs … hours free while they shot Scene 2, followed by a walk-away lunch on the Lower East Side, during which I tried to kill time in conversation, unsuccessfully attempting to nap, taking an afternoon walk to Brooklyn over the Williamsburg Bridge gawking at the Hasidim and the hipsters …

In Scene 3, a big disaster/emergency scene, I would portray one of several on-camera reporters covering the event.  My previously-impeccable hair and make-up, now 12 hrs. old, withered further as we were put in position while the crew finessed shots and camera angles and waited for the sun to set.  As the tech and principals rehearsed, the assistant director gave the reporters an action - power your nose, talk to the cameraman, mime a new take.  Then, a miracle happened: the director approached and decided to open the scene with an on-camera reporter – me - not the exotic bi-racial PYT, not the beautiful AFTRA Latina who spent 45 minutes in hair and make-up, not the classic white guy, not the cool looking black dude – me - announcing the story.  Only God knows why.

He says, “Why don’t you say something like ‘coming to you live from the Williamsburg Bridge, details sketchy …’ Start on Background,”  and then disappears.

Suddenly, I’m thrust out of the lowly background.  Suddenly, I’m someone on set.  Suddenly, I exist.  Suddenly, I matter.  I have been granted a line!

Like a hordes of locusts, I’m descended up by about 10 pairs of hands – “Hi, I’m Ken in wardrobe”, “Hi, can you write your name, address and social on this paper?”, “I just want to smooth down your hair a little”, “Let’s lose the coat and scarf”, “You’re a bit shiny, maybe a little powder”, “What was your name, dear?”…

No rehearsal, no scripted dialogue – cameras rolling, just improv a few lines.  On the spot.

I run possibilities through my head a few times. “Background!  And, action!”  And then wing it:  “Gooooood evening.  We’re coming to you live from the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge and as you can see behind me we have some major police activity unfolding … “  And pan off to the principal actors.  Six or seven takes; my only direction, like the principals, is to “speed it up.”  I guess it did okay.

We wrap; teeth chattering from nerves and the dusk chill, I return to holding after signing page after page of a contract I can’t read in the dark while still outside on set.  It was there that the PA’s, Anastasia and Greg (?), tell me what I signed, the extent of my good fortune:

-- I receive a union waiver, increasing my eligibility to join

-- I will get credit on the show and in the IMDB

-- I will receive not only my background pay, but also Day Player pay, over 10 times more than I anticipated earning when I arrived that morning

-- I get bragging rights!

In a New York minute, something changed.  Just like that. 

Now, a little perspective:  I have been acting, in class and showcases, since 1988.  I began acting professionally (read:  for money) when I lost my job as Creative Director/Copywriter, after nearly 12 years at Club Med, in 1997.  I then took multiple days/nights of background work, sweltering in full period costume under the midday Manhattan summer sun in “The Cradle Will Rock” and “A Bronx Tale” or freezing my ass in Feb./Mar. outdoors shooting “The Siege” or “Sex and The City.” Physically demanding, mind-numbingly boring torture.  I also appeared in several spot and national commercials, landed lead roles in several indie films as well as a TV pilot, even won an acting award or two from several film festivals … with the 9/11 slump and my father falling seriously ill in 2003, I took a hiatus to spend time focusing on family matters and becoming a certified professional leadership/empowerment coach.  I returned to acting as part of my creative coaching services when I started A-Muse-In-Manhattan in 2007.  

So I’ve been doing this acting stuff a while.  Decades.  Multiple days on myriad shoots.  Everything from bottom-of-the-barrel background work to award-winning, high profile lead roles.  Incredibly, this is my first upgrade on a union job.  So what might explain my sudden good fortune? 

--All the years of hard work and dedication and honing my craft have finally paid off! That everything I’ve done and thought and dreamed ‘til now has brought me to this point, manifesting success! (Then what took so damn long?  And how do first-time actors, even non-actors, get upgrades on set for chatting up the PA’s, for wearing yellow, for being bald, for taking off their tops ...?) 

--The numbers game – “being in it to win it”
consistency/frequency x probability = success
finally came up in my favor!  (Why not sooner?  Why not more often?) 

--It was meant to be!  It was written in the stars!  It was my destiny to finally be chosen out of the pool of talent for this chance!  (So is this God’s will to give me this, now, but not that, then?  And not to the lovely Latina right next to me?  Why, God?)
-- I made manifest my desires with the power of my mind, by focusing my thoughts on what I want rather than what I fear!  (If only!  I would that this were indeed so; how different my life would be ...)

-- Must have been just dumb luck, pure and simple, that I happened to be standing in the director’s eye line, in the right place at the right time!  (But doesn't everything happen for a reason?  But didn’t I have any involvement/responsibility in bringing myself to that point in space at that moment in time?  Or did something/someone else bring me there?  Or did everything?)

--Does shit just happen, a mysterious and random unfolding of the events across the universe(s), over which we have no control, about which we write the narrative after-the-fact, based on our thoughts, beliefs, perceptions, memories, desires, etc.?  (So nothing and no one has any power to influence the course of history?)

--Is everything that happens all in my head?  Or your head?  Merely an expression of my consciousness, or your consciousness, or our collective consciousness?  (We’re only dreaming … it's just an illusion ...  what we perceive as real is just a halogram, a projection ...)

My studies have brought me here, to this point.  Trying to reconcile my coaching training, which promotes the complete power of the individual to determine, even dictate, his/her destiny, with other spiritual teachings that state that the individual has only one true power:  the ability to decide his/her reactions to whatever life delivers, over which he/she has little or no control whatsoever.  Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

My reaction to this recent moment torn from the background and thrust into the spotlight?  I much prefer it to life in the background … The event has indeed reignited in me a spark of passion, a belief in possibility. After years of “not much” “just okay” and “same-old, same-old,” yes, something wonderful, unexpected and unprecedented, can happen.  Just like that.  In an instant.  Ready or not. 

I’m ready.

© 2012  Tess Quadrozzi,  A-Muse-In-Manhattan