Will Extra Work Kill Your Acting Career

Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus. And if you're watching this on YouTube, don't forget to click the subscription button and the little bell, the notification button. And that way, every time I upload a new video, you will be notified. So should actors do extra work? Great question. And I can tell you, there is no one right answer. Like with most things in the industry, I know sometimes people will say, this is the only way to do it. If you don't follow my directions, it's gonna kill your career. Look, there is no one right answer for this, and there are some actors who refuse to do extra work, never did extra work. They've found it beneath them. They're actors. They're not going to just be working as extras. They feel it's going to kill their career. They're just going to be viewed as extras, and that's fine. I mean, look, that's a very legitimate way of thinking. I happen to have a different, uh, different way of thinking on that one. My thought is, look, if you're just getting started, you really haven't had much experience in the industry, I would definitely do some extra work. Uh, you know, look, you never know what kind of work you're going to get. You could be one of 10,000 people in a football stadium, in which case you're probably not going to learn very much about what's taking place on on a set, but you could also be sitting at the table next to the principal actors, and you're going to get a wonderful opportunity to learn so much, not only about the process that the actors are using to make the scenes real and believable. You also will get an opportunity to see how is a TV show actually made, how is a film actually made? How are commercials made? Hopefully you'll get a chance to learn about some of the crew, what their job description is, what they do, and just get a better sense of the realities of working in the industry. The other thing also that can be really helpful when you're doing extra work is networking. And talk to some of the other actors and learn about things that are going on. Maybe there's some great acting classes, great acting teachers that you don't know about. Maybe there are some agents that you should be reaching out to. Maybe there are new projects coming up that you didn't have a clue about. And just making connections with other people in the industry is always really, really helpful to you. So, you know, my thought is, yeah, do some extra work. I wouldn't recommend doing it 5 days a week or, you know, doing it so much that that's All you're doing, and it is true, you know, if all you're doing is extra work, the casting directors might be viewing you as extras. But also, you know, one thing to keep in mind, you know, if you're doing extra work, you're going to be dealing primarily with the extras casting director. Quite often they have other casting directors who are casting principal roles. So, you know, sometimes they, they wouldn't even know that you did extra work. You know, certainly you're not going to put it on your resume. And once again, here's the one exception. You know, maybe if you've done absolutely nothing in the industry, then maybe I would put one, maybe, maybe 2 days of extra work on your resume. Make it very clear that you worked as an extra. Don't say, I was the bartender, and try to make it seem like maybe you were really a day player in there. You don't want to be Pretending that you got cast in a role when you weren't, it's not good for your career to do that because people can so easily find out whether you were really an extra or a principal actor. And then anything else that you might have on your resume is going to be suspect, and it also makes you look like an untrustworthy and unprofessional person. So, you know, just put You know, extra. And that way people will see, okay, the person's just getting started, they really haven't done anything, but at least the person has been on a set and they know what's going on. You're not so new to the industry that you are clueless as to what takes place during a shoot. So I do think that can be helpful. The one thing you do have to be careful of, if there is a project that you really would like to audition for to try to get a principal job with, then I wouldn't do extra work because if you are seen, even though you might be in the background. But let's say you are a police officer and you're one of 30 police officers, but you happen to be seen in the shot. You're not going to get a chance to audition for any other role on that particular project because you've already been placed as a police officer, even though you were just an extra. So those are projects I would stay away from. But I don't— my thought is, why not get as much experience as you can? And I'll tell you, if you are in the union, you can actually make some money doing it, you know, depending on how long of a day it is. But, you know, you could easily make $200, $250 a day. I remember I was working on a film, and actually I had— I know I wasn't— actually, I did audition, didn't get the role, and they offered me 9 days of extra work. And actually, as it turns out, it was It was a very interesting experience, but because we were shooting 12, 13, 14 hours typically a day, I was making like over $400 a day just as an extra. And it was a great experience. I got a chance to meet some really, really talented actors. And so I can tell you, for me, I was really glad that I did the work. Once again, you got to be careful and you want to make sure you pick and choose what you work on and how often you work So anyhow, I hope this was helpful to you. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Have you ever done extra work? Do you refuse to do extra work? Either way, leave your comments below so that way we can learn from you also. And if you can, I'd love to have you support this channel. There is a PayPal link. You can make a donation, whatever is good for you, whatever you can afford, whatever you think would be of help. That would be great. I'd appreciate anything that you can donate here just to keep the channel going. Up and going and looking good, and it will allow me to continue to spend more time putting new videos up here. Feel free to share this link with anybody in the industry. And look, I hope we get a chance to talk together again soon. If you do have any quick questions, you can always reach me at howtoactandmodel.com, and there's a contact link, and shoot me a question. I'd be more than happy to try to help you. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.