Posted by Disappointed Extras on March 27, 2001 at 12:19:58:
We just finished up a long stretch of endless, freezing cold nights working as extras on the Mothman set and we're wondering if anyone even noticed? We spent eleven 12-hour nights sitting in cars, some with heat, some without, usually too far away from the action to even see what was going on, all in the hopes of possibly getting to see Mr. Gere and watch him work. (Contrary to popular belief, most of us were not there for the six bucks an hour!) Instead, we were mostly background headlights! There were nights that we wondered why we were even there! We were told to drive our car somewhere, park it, leave it running, and leave the lights on. We'd sit there and not even hear from one of the PA's or anyone involved with the movie for 5 or 6 hours! Meanwhile, we have to wonder what kind of damage we did to our vehicles by letting them idle for that many hours. Why didn't they just rent some more cars to park along the road? They didn't need people, they needed cars. Maybe if the casting company would have told us this up front, we wouldn't have been nearly as disappointed. But, then again, they probably wouldn't have had enough extras sign up if they'd have been totally honest.
"Wanted: 100 people to abuse their vehicles by leaving them idle for hours on end. During this time you will be totally bored and will be told nothing about what is going on. At times, some of you will be removed from your warm cars and placed in junk cars, without heat, to continue doing the same thing. (This is the carrot we will dangle to make you believe you might get close enough to see what is going on or possibly catch a glimpse of one of the movie's stars. This belief, however, will not be realized for most of you.) During this time, total strangers will be permitted, by us, to use your personal vehicle. For all of your efforts, we will pay you minimum wage and an extra $25 for your car. In the meantime, you will more than likely be unable to work your regular job or spend much time with your family.
How many extras do you think would have responded to that ad? What a way to treat people who were kind enough to welcome this production crew into our town and support everything they were trying to do.
We wonder if Gere realizes how poorly some of the extras were treated? We kept coming back, night after night, hoping that he would take the time to recognize our efforts. How difficult would it have been for him to give us ten minutes of his time so that we could have at least gotten a picture of him to show for our efforts? What a boost it would have been to everyone sitting in "holding" to have him take the time to stop in and say, "Hi, thanks for all your hard work." That's all it would have taken for us to walk away from this with good memories instead a bad taste in our mouths for the movie business. Yes, we realize that there are some extras that had a great experience. Those were the lucky ones who always seemed to get close to the action. Maybe we are a little bitter right now because we are so sleep deprived. Maybe someday we'll look back on this and laugh about how naive we were. Maybe someday. But right now we don't feel like laughing.