5 Reasons Why I Still Do Extra Work

A shot of me on a Navy Vessel where I was playing an
extra for a TV drama. 

As an actor, one of the things I heard a lot is that once you are getting speaking roles, you shouldn't do anything less than that anymore, because you only want people to see you doing good things. After 7 years of experience though, (and having some pretty substantial roles in things) I still like doing extra work for a lot of different reasons, and I think I will continue to do it for at least a while to come. Here are the five reasons that I still love to do it from time to time.

1) Experience is Experience and Any Experience is a Good One.
The fact of the matter is, when you are doing extra work, you aren't going to get much in the way of acting experience or screen time. Quite frankly, you will be lucky if anyone sees you in the final cut. At the same time though, one thing you can get a lot of is set experience. You can see how different directors work, how different sets are staged and dressed, how certain special effects are achieved and how things generally work and flow on bigger productions. Extra work is also a great way to learn about the bizarrely particular culture that the entertainment industry has, and a great chance to continue honing your own particular code of conduct on set- all while still getting paid and doing so in a context were your position is virtually inconsequential. The last thing you wanna do is seriously screw up while you are on a major production- if so, it could be your last for a while.

2) A paycheck's a Paycheck
Speaking of getting paid, another reason to keep doing extra work is the fact that plainly and simply, it's a paycheck. Granted, it's a substantially lower paycheck than when you get a major or substantial part, but speaking frankly I don't know if I've ever met any non-A-list actor who works 7 days a week, and every little bit helps. Most actors that I know of all have other things that they do on the side to get by- even fairly successful ones- but the fact of the matter is, unless you are the company president, an uber-successful Youtuber or someone else, who can set their own hours, the regular commitment required from most regular jobs will always be putting you in a position where keeping that job and moving forward in your acting career will always be at odds with each other.

One regret I've always had is that I was invited to an audition for a TV commercial that I had to skip because of my regular job schedule at the time. The person who ended up getting the lead in it (An African American who was about my age, weight, build, look) ended up having an incredible career (that is still going) launch from it. Who knows, had I made that audition, that might have been my career instead of his. At any rate, the point that I am making is that in doing extra work instead of another regular job, you can keep your schedule totally open so that when that one big opportunity comes, you can be available for it. (And thankfully, since that fateful lesson, in keeping my schedule open, I have been able to nail my share of huge projects. (Last year I was in the one of Japan's biggest movies of the year, the most popular drama of the year, and the biggest video game of the year all at the same time).

3) Networking
Another reason that its good to do extra work is because believe it or not, you can do some amazing networking that way. Sure, a lot of. people who are working as extras are doing so as a way to work their way into the entertainment industry- but not all of them. If you talk to everyone who you meet that way, oftentimes you will come to find out that some of the people working as an extra on that day, are assistant directors, directors, indie producers, stunties, visual effects people and all kinds of other members of the entertainment industry who just happen to be free and are looking for something to do. Even if none of these people are casting agents themselves, the fact of the matter is, in this industry, work can come from anywhere. Sometimes if they are working on a project, and they only need one person, actor, voice, narrator, and you are experienced, they will call you directly for it, so they don't have to deal with the rigamarole of having to call a casting agent, deal with auditions, etc. At this point in my career at least 30% of the work I get is freelance direct calls, and a lot of these are from contacts I made doing extra work.

4) Locating Scouting
Another great reason for doing extra work is for location scouting. While the advantages of knowing and seeing more locations is obvious for people interested in working behind the camera (production assistance, assistant directors, directors, etc), there are also advantages to knowing locations for actors as well. The fact of the matter is, no actor makes it on their own without self promotion. Self promotion includes getting lots of great photos taken, making demo reels, and at times, producing shorts of your own so that you can show yourself acting in the kinds of characters that you really want to play. In order to make these kinds of promos however, knowing a range of beautiful, breathtaking, grimy, dangerous-looking, or sophisticated locations is key. The location plays a greater part in a story than you can ever imagine, and it's the "story" (whether photographic or cinematic) that sells you.

5) (Paid) Freetime to do Stuff
Aside from all the other reasons that it is good to do extra work, there is still one other reason that I really love to do extra work- FREETIME. The fact of the matter is, as an extra, more often than not, most of the time you spend on set is just sitting around. As such, if you have other things that you like to do, or need to get done, when working as an extra, you can take care of those things, while actually still getting paid to do something else. As an actor playing an important role in something, you still may have your downtime, but often that time is spent practicing for your scene. As an extra, if you have to act at all, it usually isn't anything that you really need to think about, practice for, or seriously concentrate to do... And as such, you are free to spend 90% of the time concentrating on something else. For myself, this includes things like studying languages, cleaning out unnecessary photos or memory zappers on my phone, or the writing of blogs (like this one). In doing so, I can earn income, eat for free, and get time consuming things done all at the same time. Gotta love it.

As your acting or entertainment career progresses, the temptation to turn your nose up at extra work may be strong. In fact, it might even seem to make sense, as you wouldn't want to seem as though you are still doing "bottom-of-the-barrel" work when you are starting to do well. At the same time however, there are a lot of distinct advantages to it as well. Beyond that, insomuch as Ive seen, no one ever remembers the extras anyway. For everyone from the casting agent to the director to the other main actors, their main concerns are all much bigger than who is there as an extra and who is not. By definition, extras are supposed to be the people who they have to worry the least about. Furthermore at least as far as my career has shown, doing extra work doesn't seem to have had any detrimental effects on my getting good work in the least. If anything, it's had the opposite effect, because my agents appreciate the fact that I am so flexible and easy-going and push for me to get more good work.

Finding your way to success...with or without anyone's help: To Chase a Dream or Play it Safe Part 4

Success is a lot like running;
It only happens with a conscious and continuous
effort to move forward.

Lateef Crowder, who is probably the most famous Capoeirista in the world right now, started learning from his father, when he was old enough to walk. Andrew Shinn, a personal friend of mine (and US national Taekwondo champion at around 12 years old) also learned from his father (my own teacher, who was also a national Taekwondo champion). Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estavan are also both the children of famous Hollywood actor, Martin Sheen. Angelina Jolie made her first screen debut as a young girl alongside her father, who was also an actor. Donnie Yen, first started learning Kung Fu under his mother, who was a grandmaster. This is one of the things that no one tells you when you set out to chase a huge dream- most people who become extremely successful in something were born into networks where someone has already done it. At least in part, this is why within their lifetime they can go much farther than the rest of us. This is also why we occasionally see those people who seem to have no talent or sense of what they are doing in amazing positions. What for you is a distant dream, for them is an occupational path.

This does NOT however mean that you can't make it on your own. Lots of people do. Some people make it because they manage to get themselves into just the right place at just the right time, and they get "the big break". There is a saying that luck is nothing more than when opportunity meets preparation, and those who get the "big break" are perfect examples of that. They keep themselves in shape, and at the top of their game, and when that once in a lifetime chance comes, they are completely prepared to grab it, and run with it. And as long as they stay at the top of their game, and keep sharp, they continue to soar and succeed throughout their careers. Jason Statham is a prime example of this. He was only cast in his first role in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels because had actually had experience as a dealer on the black market. Even so though, he was in excellent shape, he did everything right, and now he's a top billed martial arts action star. (Despite the fact that he'd never actually done martial arts before- before his film career took off, he was actually an Olympic Diver).

Others, (like myself) find success by taking small steps at a time that eventually add up. I started as an martial arts extra in a Godzilla movie. Initially, having zero experience in the film industry, I made all kinds of mistakes...but always did a good enough job that I would get called back for another job. ...and the more experience I gained, naturally the better I got at what I did, the less mistakes I made, the more referrals I got to other directors, the more exposure I got, etc, and it all simply adds up over time. While I may not be super famous as an actor, I am currently working as a key player in one year project with a budget of over $60 million, and as such, I feel like I can call myself "successful" in my field.(Please dont ask me about it yet though- my contract I cant publically talk about it until release).

For those on this path, your ability to self-promote and network are absolutely essential. As one of my first business mentors told me, (an Internet marketing guru who I was blessed to have as a lifting partner at the gym) "[When you are starting off] No one is ever going to do your promo for you. You have to sell and promote yourself."

If you do not know how to do that however, fear not, because the most powerful tool known to man is lying in wait for you: the written word. Insomuch as I've seen, one of the biggest differences between people who make it big and people who don't is that successful people are often readers. This is the case for a myriad of reasons. 1) Because books give you access to the wisdom of those who have already made it. You can read their thoughts, understand how their minds might work the same (or differently from your own) and compare their experiences with yours. In order for me to find success, I've read dozens and dozens of books written by and/or about successful people, so I can compare and contrast. In doing so, I didn't have to waste a lot of time through trial and effort to find the best ways to make things happen. I can just see how they did it, and follow suite. Additionally, when I would run across hard times, I could compare how I felt with how they felt, and their general path or timeline with my own to measure my progress.

The other big reason to be a reader is because successful people usually all know the same kind of stuff, because they ALL READ THE SAME BOOKS. Successful business people have usually all read authors like Tim Ferris, Malcolm Gladwell or Robert Kiyosaki to name just a few. Great actors have all read, "An Actor Prepares" by Stanislavsky. As such, when you meet them, instead of sounding ignorant, if you read all the books they read, you can talk to them on their level, and as a function of that, they can see you as an equal. As a function of that, they will in-turn, share their networks with you, because they know you are smart enough and educated enough to not embarrass them. Beyond that, this also means that when you speak to them, you can talk to them in ways that are mutually beneficial, and you can shoot ideas off of each other.

In the case of one of my chief mentors, (who owns a business called English Adventure that has grown and expanded for every year of its existance) his bookshelves are stocked full of books related to things he needs to know for his business, and every time we meet, (even just casually) we have amazingly meaningful information exchanges. Even if his business isn't directly related to what I do, I can honestly say that these casual exchanges have helped me to better myself and improve my success rate in ways that never could have happened otherwise. The same also goes for my mentors in acting, directing, production, and of course, my first marketing mentor from the gym, Lance, who seemed to appreciate the fact that I read pretty much every book he suggested to me.

Anyway, the point that I am making is that success isn't a function of a single character trait, and there are multiple ways to find success. Some people make it because they are extremely aggressive, others because they are unusally talented, others because they are really smart, still others because they are extremely good with people, or any combination in between. In terms of finding your own path to success, you should not feel frustrated because things seem to be happening in a certain way for your competitors, because the way you find success may be a different path all together. As I have read time in time again in business books, don't worry about how the competition is doing. Just do you.