tali122

When extras appear in movies they are told never to try to talk or make smalltalk with the stars of the movie- but are they allowed to chat with supporting cast members?
Also what credited extras who have very small parts in a movie- do the same restrictions apply to them aswell?

harryfielder

Tali, prof extras know that you don't go up to a main artist and give him GBH of the Donald (Peers)
If you work on a show for weeks/months you get to know them and of course you chat with them. You become part of the team.
After 32 years in the game I still talk /phone /email many actors that I met years ago. It's nice to be nice'''
This was a great team to work for...

THE PERSUADERS…Tony Curtis…Roger Moore…
Nearly another years work all down to Ricky Green the 2nd A.D. (Where are you Rick)?
I was booked to do a couple of days stand/in for Tony while his regular stand/in Alan (Butch) Meecham was off sick. I got on well with Tony because he liked my Cockney accent. (Well I was born N1/E1)
Now I would either stand/in for Tony, Roger or one of the guest Artists on that episode.(Including Terry Thomas)
Tony was the best to work for because he always had time for you.
He would come on the set early morning and ask how the wife and kids were.
He would tell me of his tough upbringing as a child in the Bronx and how he learned to be tough. He had to be he said.
(As a young man I was madly in love with his ex wife Janet Leigh but I thought it better not to tell him)
One day off set he was doing handstands and ask me would I like to join him. (By now you would have guessed that I’m not the fittest man in the film game)
So I declined saying ‘’Tone, I have trouble standing the right way up never mind upside down’’. He was a very fit man and so should be after working with Burt Lancaster on TRAPEZE.
As I said I was on The Persuaders for nearly a year thanks to Tony, Roger and Ricky Green. (I like the film business)

http://www.turnipnet.com/aitch/aitch/gallery.htm

Anthony McKay

from Wikipedia "Donald Peers (10 July 1908 - 9 August 1973) was a popular Welsh singer.

Peers was born in Betws, near Ammanford and quickly established himself as a crooner with several British dance bands in the 1930s. After the war he achieved enormous success as a balladeer on Radio Luxembourg. At the peak of fame he displaced Bing Crosby as the number one male singer in the UK. He died in 1973 after falling onstage in Brighton."

In a couple of years I'm sure people will be looking up the word "radio" and "crooner" and who the hell is this "Bing Crosby" character!

John Llewellyn Moxey

I can't remember any extra being told not to talk to the stars. I agree with Harry, the professional ones knew better. Maybe they gave the new comers the nod. Extras are a great bunch, in the UK and over here. You can't make films without them!

John

batman

When I did extra work I was never told not to talk to anyone. However, as Aitch and John have said, one knew when to speak to the 'stars' and when not to. When I 'graduated' to small speaking roles it didn't change much, but because you had to work more directly with the leading actors you got to know them a bit better and it became 'acceptable' to initiate conversation rather than just respond when spoken to. It may seem odd if you've never been on a set, but I never found any of that 'hierachy' thing a problem. I was there to do a job, either as part of a crowd or as a member of the full cast, and you just get on with it. The majority of leading actors were always pleasant to us lot, some of them even invited me to the odd party now and again.

Bats.

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09