Spontaneous Background Acting

Background actors need to use a delicate blend of preparation and spontaneity, just like actors.

One of the skills I used while starring in a funny little CSUN student film A Taste For Danger last spring in Burbank and Northridge was making lines that we had rehearsed, shot several times and even altered seem to be spontaneous. It was also my job to make movements created in blocking look like they were inevitable. Those are common skills for film actors who must APPEAR to be thinking and speaking on the spot, for the first time. Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are. All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.

There’s a lesson therein for background actors.

In the classes I teach for beginning background actors, I stress the importance of motivating your movement and understanding your place in the scene while making it look absolutely spontaneous and “in the moment,” ten or twenty times in a row.  Probably most extras never consider this level of involvement and, sadly, it shows in their performance. The reason we’re called background actors and not background furniture is that we are supposed to portray real people who are doing real things in a real setting in order to make the cohesive whole seem - ready for it? - REAL.

In order to appear real, background actors need to do some serious thinking about what they are doing. For example, I spent eight hours one day in summer 2009 shooting an episode of the FX drama, Sons of Anarchy. The Ron Perlman/Katey Segal motorcycle club series is a hot show (check it out) with a professional cast and crew who - on the day I joined them - were cranking out one setup after another.  My job in one scene in particular was to walk up the street and cross another.  Simple, huh?  But, in order to appear to be an actual guy in an actual town, I made some decisions before we started the first take.

I was costumed in what wardrobe calls a “Texas Tuxedo;” denim jeans, denim jacket and brown Rockport shoes.  A hasty conversation with the young woman who started from the same liquor store as me and walked the other direction created a “moment” and motivation that served to make our walks seem spontaneous and real. When they called “background,” we walked out the door, paused for a beat while she kissed my cheek and we bid one another farewell, and I started my walk. While walking, I thought about the date we were going to have at the end of the week, smiled to myself at the scent of her perfume on my cheek and headed up the street to my job at the hardware store.

Was any of this in the script? Of course not. Was any of this evident to a casual viewer of the episode? Nope. Did the director even notice? Not on your life.  What it did was give me the motivation to make that walk 18 times in the next hour and make every time look like it was happening for the first time. That’s my job.

Michael Caine: “The greatest advice I can give to someone who wants to act in film is to listen and react. Movie acting is a delicate blend of careful preparation and spontaneity.”

There is, of course, the danger of over preparation, of loss of spontaneity; over rehearsal is the most terrible thing you can imagine.  Frankly, most background actors don’t even consider spontaneity. They just show up and cross in the back or speak silently at the restaurant table without regard for whether their background acting looks spontaneous or not.

Probably the prime example of a lack of spontaneity is the young boy background actor in the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece North By Northwest who stuck his fingers in his ears BEFORE a shot rang out.

During the scene at the Mount Rushmore visitor center - when Eva Marie Saint is just about to shoot Cary Grant - a little boy in the background sticks his fingers in his ears because he knows the blanks that are about to be fired are going to be loud. How did he know? Obviously there were several takes before the final “shot” was right.

Another special aspect of creating a spontaneous background performance on camera is what Wing Chun fighters call “economy of movement,” taking the straightest possible path to the target. In other words, don’t make a move unless it is inevitable from what is going on in the scene. Improperly motivated movement is anathema to good film acting. You’ve all seen them in the background: those lackluster extras who walk six steps to the right and then turn because that’s what the director asked them to do. Obviously, you should do what the director asks you to do but there’s no reason you cannot furnish your own motivation for doing it. No body gives a shit why you do it, except you.  SO do it well.

“Our spontaneous action is always the best. You cannot, with your best deliberation and heed, come so close to any question as your spontaneous glance shall bring you.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet, essayist and lecturer.

Not My Stepping Stone

My background acting career grew from my decades-long love of film and television. I grew up losing myself in the silver screen and I wanted to be part of the magic. The late Robert Altman gave me my first job in the biz, working with Glenda Jackson and Carol Burnett on the ill-fated HEALTH.  I was hooked.  After working as an extra on 45 feature films back East, I moved to LA in 1998 and created a blog to help beginning background actors get started and to encourage experienced extras to treat our profession with respect.Background actors have a unique, tangible connection to the film and television industry. We’re insiders, right there on set with director, crew, and cast, professionals all. We should strive to be as professional as the others with whom we’re working.

I believe background acting is a worthwhile profession, not just a stepping stone on the road to super stardom. Like many others, I am proud to be in the background. Background Acting can be more than a means to an end and it’s an honorable profession that started back when movies began. There are those who believe the only conceivable reason one would choose to be a background actor is to claw one’s way up the ladder into being a “real actor.” However, others here in Los Angeles have chosen professional background acting as a career, not just as a stepping stone to fame. We actually enjoy our work for its own sake and we thrive in an environment that brings no fame but much satisfaction. 

Some actors say background work is not “acting.”Actually, when you’re doing it right, background acting is an extremely specialized form of acting that not everyone can learn. It is full of nuance and sense memory and attitude without the benefit of speech, focus or close-up.

Think of the advantages of a career as a professional background actor:

• You are on set and on screen and you’re part of the skilled team that makes the product.
• You are paid, fed and respected.
• No professional head shots needed.
• No reel necessary.
• You do not need to learn lines, pay a manager or agent or take expensive classes.
• The success of the production does not rest on your shoulders.
• You don’t need to participate in publicity photo shoots, promotions or red carpet events.
• You don’t get bad reviews, dodge paparazzi or have your every move analyzed by idiots.
• You don’t spend years clawing your way to the top where others strive to bring you down.

These days, I work more television than feature films, probably because I have aged into the less popular age range of 55-65 instead of “18 to look 12.” But, I still love the work.

Last summer, I did 14 hours on an episode of Hawthorne (TNT) for 3 seconds of screen time.  In the fall, I worked 5 hours at Studio 22 on the Warner Brothers lot doing a Cold Case and ended up on screen for 10 seconds in what we extras pray for; a “star walk.” That’s when one of the stars walks by you toward the camera. It meant I was on screen in the center of the frame through his entire walk, before and after he passed me.

I am so in love with what I do that I worked two days with 450 other extras on a stockholders meeting episode of The Office (NBC) and wasn’t seen at all but still loved the experience. I worked an episode of Sons of Anarchy (FX) last summer that involved walking back and forth on a street in Tjunga for six hours and came home smiling from the experience. (Partially because of Craig Duda, who was working as the extras wrangler on that particular shoot. Funny, funny guy.)

But, bottom line, I love being part of the entire tapestry. There are the unexpected highs (thought the Raising the Bar (TNT) wrangler hated me because she put me in the camera right corner of the court room only to discover I am directly behind the defendant when she is found guility, giving me six seconds of face time at a dramatic moment) and lows (signed for an independent feature and drove to Malibu only to be required to climb down and back up a 100-foot cliff to shoot a scene. Got so sick from the exertion, I had to bail on the shoot, which I never do.) However, I still love what I do.

I believe in treating background acting as a reputable profession and sharing the skills and attitude necessary to be good at it. I chose to be a background actor and I love what I do. Background acting is not my stepping stone; it is my raison d’être..  

THE BACKGROUND ACTOR

 

Lary Crews was a background actor in 45 feature films shot on the East Coast and in Las Vegas, including Body Heat, Minority Report, Casino, Licence to Kill  and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous.  Crews moved to Los Angeles in 1998 and has acted in feature films, TV and student films while teaching beginning extras the ropes with his award-winning blog, BackGround Acting LA®.

 

Most recently, Lary appeared in the TV shows Hawthorne, The Office, Raising The Bar, David Faustino’s Star-Ving, Cold Case, Heroes, Tim & Eric Awesome Show Good Job! and Sons of Anarchy and in the feature films, Growth and Ground Zero. He also stars in the short films, A Taste for Danger, Sandcastles: A Mockumentary and The Grandfather Paradox, and is featured in Space Rangers, We’re Closed, Coffee and Cream, The Delivery, The Visitor, and Handy Market.

 

http://www.larycrews.info