Lights, Camera, Exhaustion: I Worked as a Movie Extra for 6 Grueling Yet Awesome Days

You probably know that I’m a big advocate of trying out new and sometimes adventurous things. Not only can it be fun to learn or do something completely different, but it helps you to find new passions, learn what you like and dislike, and make some new cool memories along the way.

So when we were on our road trip this past year and I learned there was a call out for those wanting to be a movie extra in a very big production film, I raised an eyebrow and thought, “Why not?” and applied. The movie was going to have a portion of it filmed in Northeast Ohio about 45 minutes from home so that wasn’t too bad either.

The odds weren’t in my favor so I was amazed that I was chosen and became really excited about doing it.

5½ years of early retirement and it was back to work! Ok, it was only for 6 days but it was like having a real job again where I needed to show up on time to work, report to a boss, and get paid for the job.

Being a movie extra was such a cool experience and it was fascinating to see the inner workings of a big production film being made. I learned a heckuva lot throughout my time doing this.

However, I was surprised by just how much work was actually involved as a simple background extra. I was completely beat up by the end of my legendary time as part of this job.

So I’m going to take you through my experience and what it’s like to be a movie extra for a really big film… and this one is really big.

Important note: This is going to be a somewhat difficult post to write. I signed an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that limits a lot of what I’d like to say until the movie comes out. But I’m going to give it a whirl to write this the best I can without crossing that line.

I don’t even want to name this movie here, but if you use Google (or something like my preferred privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo) to search for something like “movie filmed in cleveland summer 2025”, you’ll likely figure out what this big production is pretty quickly.

A fun idea for me and my daughter to do together… not so much!

One night during our 8 months of RV road trip adventure time, I stumbled across an article from a local news station in Ohio discussing how they were casting for a pretty big production that would be filming in the area. They were after folks who wanted to be a movie extra – a background extra specifically.

This was for the type of movie that my family enjoys watching a lot so I thought this could be a fun endeavor that my daughter, Faith, and I could do together. I brought it up and she was all in. I asked Lisa as well and she was out – hard pass. 🙂

Applying to be a movie extra is no easy chore either! The application was long but not that big of a deal. What was a hassle was that they wanted headshots and full-body photos submitted with several requirements on what to wear and how to take the photos. The problem was that we were on the road in an RV where my wardrobe consisted mostly of t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops, along with no great places to shoot the photos (they wanted them done indoors).

We got it done though. Faith is one of those stylish people so she was good and we managed to scrounge up something for me. We then brought a blanket into a clubhouse area of an RV campground, hung it up, and the photo shoot was a go!

I thought Faith would be a lock for this and I would be out of luck, but in the end, I got called and Faith didn’t. She was disappointed, of course, but still wanted me to do it.

I felt bad though because just to rub it in, the first day of shooting happened to be on her birthday. Sorry, Faith – not only did you not get the job as a movie extra and I did, but I’m leaving on your birthday to do the thing you were excited about. Ugh. It was fine though – I’ve got a great daughter for sure! She was excited and super supportive of me rolling with this.

I learned later that there were thousands and thousands of applications from people wanting to be a movie extra for this movie and there were only a fraction chosen.

It’s fascinating to see how a big production movie is made

I guess if I’m going to see how the big movies are made, this is definitely the perfect one to start with. The budget hasn’t formally been revealed but if rumors are true, it’s likely to be one of the most expensive films of this type ever made.

I’ve absolutely loved seeing the behind-the-scenes process of “how the sausage is made” so to speak. Granted, as a movie extra, I’m only still getting a small glimpse of the whole project, but it’s still captivating.

The amount of detail that went into transforming a real city into a movie city is incredible. Not just the storefronts which are so believably real, but also the street signs over the road, the banners hanging throughout announcing events in this dream world, and even the items in the businesses and stores I looked into were on par with what each place should have to be accurate. Heck, there were even folded tourist brochures that actually contained relevant city information if you opened them up.

And then watching how the director worked through the assistant directors (ADs) to get each part of the job done was really cool. The ADs did a great job, too, of somehow managing hundreds of us movie extras, along with the stand-ins, and the real stars to play out the scenes they envisioned. And the director is pretty well known so standing just a few feet away from him during the filming of several scenes was a little surreal.

It was interesting to see how a single scene would be filmed several times in different ways so they could later be melded together to form a seamless story with different angles throughout.

And it was intriguing to see that even small pieces might be filmed separately to be spliced together later. For instance, when the lead actor was walking maybe 150-200 yards from one place to another with things taking place around, the whole path might be broken up into three different sections of filming. In other words, it’s a heckuva lot of work for everyone involved spending so much time and energy doing each little bit over and over again.

I did have a scene that we redid several times where I was just a few feet from the lead actor. It was cool how down-to-earth he is and a few of us had some small talk in between takes.

Then there are the stunts and various facets of movie magic. We all know that there’s a lot of work that goes into post-production with technology to make things appear that aren’t there during the filming. But it was fun to see how they do this with green screens, wires, perspective, and other little tricks while filming to make that magic ready to be applied later.

Being a movie extra was a great opportunity to be right in the mix of things and have a better understanding of making a big film. You would think that 6 long days of this would give me perspective on the whole movie, but that’s just a drop in the bucket. This movie will likely take months to finish filming and I was only privy to the scenes where background actors were needed, which will probably only amount to just a sliver of the movie.

Being a movie extra is grueling

Being a part of and seeing how this film is being made was crazy awesome, but being a movie extra for a big production like this was hard. When I said that it was grueling in the header hear, that’s pretty accurate.

I was actually very surprised by just how demanding it turned out to be. In my mind, I figured that I would be sitting in a holding room, would periodically be called out to do a scene a few times, and then head back to the holding area after that.

Strangely enough, it was almost the exact opposite. We’d start in holding for just a brief time if at all and then we were called out to work. And the scenes would be done over and over and over and over… with a lot more overs that you could throw in there.

It was relatively rare that we’d get a chance to sit or even get back to the holding area throughout the day.

Oh, and you might figure the day would be 8 hours or so maybe? Not so much. On almost all of my days, my roll call was at 6 or 7 am and we’d get done around 8 pm or so. I put in over 72 hours in my 6 days there! I averaged just under 12.5 hours of work each of those days. Throw in the 45 minutes I needed to drive each way and it didn’t leave much room for much else, including sleep.

I worked a single day, then the next week I had four days in a row, and then the following week I worked my final day. So the first and last days weren’t a big deal because I had a break surrounding them, but those four days in a row were tough.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining. This was such an amazing experience that I was fine just doing what needed to be done. But I can tell you that I was beat up by the last of my consecutive days. There’s no way I could keep up with this if being a movie extra was a full-time job to do week after week. But for 6 days? Yeah, I can power through that.

Then there was the weather. It was hot – too hot… like in the mid to high 80s with the sun shining bright almost every day. And the film dictated that each movie extra was in something appropriate for maybe fall weather. I wore a suit on the first day, a different suit for my four days in a row, and then had on a sweater kind of jacket for my last day.

So imagine being on your feet in dress shoes (a lot of the ladies were in heels!) for 10-12 hours, in the hot sun, after only sleeping 4-6 hours the night before (I need a full 8!) for a handful of days. Let’s just say that there were a lot of exhausted people there.

As a final note, we did get breakfast and lunch provided to us. But with a few hundred background extras on set each day, lunch wasn’t the fancy spread you might expect. The food was fine but nothing too fancy in the to-go types of grab containers. It was usually just something like chicken, pasta, rice, and beans or something along those lines. Having so many carbs for each meal was an odd choice to offer to folks who need more energy, too. But it did the job and there were plenty of snacks as well.

Would I ever be a movie extra again?

When I look through what I just wrote above, it sounds a lot worse than it was. I seriously enjoyed this and had a lot of fun with really no complaints – I’m just telling it like it is. I’m super grateful that I got the opportunity to do this. This is another cool thing that I get to mark off my dream life bucket list.

As a side note, if you’d like a copy of my template for my awesome Bucket List Spreadsheet and Next-Chapter Ideas Matrix (as well as some other fun and useful spreadsheet tools I’ve created), jump on my mailing list and I’ll send you a welcome email with all the goodies…

It’s crazy to think that I’ve randomly done a commercial (for Walmart), starred in a TV show episode (House Hunters International), and now I’ve gotten to be a background extra for what has the potential to be the biggest movie of 2025. Maybe I should put together a resume and try to get a speaking role in a movie at some point! 😉

Would I ever want to be a movie extra again? This was so engrossing to me from start to finish. I learned a lot, got to be around and meet a lot of interesting people, and I was a part of something that I’ll get to see later. It was such a unique opportunity and I’m glad I got to do it.

But… would I do it again? Maybe. This was arduous. I’m now a year away from 50 and doing something so demanding like this was tough on me. When I was younger, this might have been easier but it sure took a toll.

That said, from other folks I talked to there, this was on a different level from projects they had done in the past. This movie had more extras, a tougher schedule with more hours, and being on your feet the entire time. Obviously, every movie will be different but that leaves the door open a little in my mind.

However, this movie is primo – top-of-the-line. So it wouldn’t be like I would be working my way up toward a bigger movie – I already did it!

So who knows? Right now, I’d probably take a hard pass on being a movie extra in an upcoming film. But if a calling for something interesting in the area comes up, I’d still consider it. Why not, right?

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In the meantime, I’m done and caught up on my sleep and I was able to let my back and feet rest up, too!

Now it’s a waiting game. Once the movie comes out next summer, I’ll be able to talk more freely about everything. I’ll be sure to let you know if I made it into the film or if all my time spent working so hard ended up on the cutting room floor!

Please note that I can’t say anything specific about the movie because of the NDA until the film is released next summer. I also can’t play around with it in the comments either. So if you allude to anything specific in the comments, I’ll probably need to delete your comment. Sorry about that!

Plan well, take action, and live your best life!

Thanks for reading!!

— Jim