Toronto Movie Extra

Admit it, you’ve always wanted to be a movie star.  And with Toronto known as Hollywood North, here’s you chance to be discovered…as a Movie Extra

Renee Zwelleger as a Movie Extra in Dazed and Confused

Walking downtown, you’ve probably seen the TV and movie production crews and I’m sure you’ve tried to spot a celebrity. But somewhere behind the scenes lurking in the background are the Movie Extras. They are the blurry, unknown restaurant diners, fans in a stadium and sidewalk strollers. Every movie needs them, and no scene would be realistic without them. Enter my summer of unemployment when I became a Movie Extra.

It’s relatively easy to become an Extra in Toronto. I found an agency in the Classifieds of NOW magazine (or check out the ACTRA website) and went for my “interview” at their office on Yonge Street.  Pretty much all you need are some current photos, pay the admin fee (I paid $75), and I was on their books. Easy as that.  It requires no talent, all you need to do is show up on time and do what you’re told. There’s just no guarantees you’ll make it on  film, there’s very little  glamour, and the money is crap. Welcome to being an Extra.

Within a week, I got my first call to play a Reporter in a made for TV Disney movie. Then I was a bar patron in a Mathew Perry movie,  a hippie in a Kirsten Dunst movie and cast as a Cheerleader. Unfortunately I never made it on screen in any of these.