I’ve always loved movies! As far back as I can remember, I was never happier than being in front of the TV watching something. I never dreamed I would be on a movie set, as an extra (or background artist), but dreams do come true.
Back in 1999, a good friend of mine would get a lot of modelling work, which also included extra work. She was called Mel, and she had long, curly hair and a nice smile, so she would often get picked for work as an extra.
One time, she told me that she was picked for a car commercial. The shoot was in the South of France, and she would be in a convertible driving along a beautiful cliffside road. She, and a guy, spent all day just driving up and down the road, with a helicopter filming them.
Talk about lucky. I wish I had long curly hair and a nice smile. This was her and the guy she shot that video with.
Anyway, she called me out of the blue one day and asked if I could spare a couple of days to be an extra in a movie. HELL YES! I was self-employed at the time, running a business with my father, and he said it was cool.
The shoot was taking place in Newquay in the South West of England. This was a couple of hours’ drive from me. My friend picked me up, and off we headed. Newquay is known as a surfing beach and is a lovely spot on the coast.
The Magical Legend Of The Leprechauns
The movie I was going to ‘discovered’ as an extra in was… The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns. You must have seen it; it was on TV and everything. It wasn’t actually a movie, but a TV movie… well, a two-part series made by Hallmark.
The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns had an impressive cast of Randy Quaid, Whoopi Goldberg, Roger Daltrey, Colm Meaney, Kieran Culkin, Zoe Wanamaker, Orla Brady, Kevin McKidd, Michael Williams, Peter Serafinowicz, and Daniel Betts.
This was my first movie set, both as an extra or as anything else. It was interesting to see the cameras set up, the sound guys with their big booms, and the actors just relaxing between takes. The scene was a lead-up to a horse and cart race which they filmed right there and it looked good.
In the one scene I was in, Randy Quaid was playing a character who is having a holiday (or vacation for our colonial friends) in Ireland. He saves the life of a leprechaun and is shown that his house has many of them living there. Jut like the Borrowers, but not stealing little gits and all with Irish accents, t’ be sure, t’ be sure.
There’s a love story in there, it’s Hallmark after all, and there’s another love story as a subplot akin to Romeo and Juliet involving the “little people” which ends in a big war. I have seen it once, but I don’t need to watch it again.
Extra, Extra, Extra
If you have ever been on a movie set, either as a main star, or as an extra, you’ll know there’s a lot of waiting around. I was hanging around with my friend Mel and some other extras she knew. Under a canopy, on set, was Randy Quaid, reading a book. All of us are egging each other on to talk to him. In the end, I approached him and had a chat and he was really nice.
In the end he was having a chat with most of the extras. Genuinely a nice guy.
I got chatting to some of the crew as well. A couple of them had been carpenters on The Phantom Menace. Annoyingly, they told me they had Star Wars Crew t-shirts, and I could have had one if they had known. Nice guys.
Peter Serafinowicz was there. He’d been on British TV. Back at the time, I knew his face but not who he was. I had a chat with him and, again, he was also a nice guy. It was many years after this that I found out he was the voice of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. Another missed opportunity.
Spot The Tit Competition
Anyway, enough of all this name-dropping. Here is my big moment! I was very young, no beard, and I have highlighted who is who. I had to put it on Rumble because of YouTube copyright rules:
I think you’ll agree, my work as an extra was outstanding. If I hadn’t put the red mark around my face, you wouldn’t have even noticed me. I know this as many of my friends to who I’ve shown this clip didn’t notice me.
Fine, I did look at the camera, more than a few times, but that’s only because I didn’t know what I was doing. I will say that the director gave me no notes, no backstory, or anything. So, I think I did quite well.
Have you ever been an extra? I have another story, but I’ll save it for another day.