Yeah, I figured the rate was probably something like that. That’s pretty good for an extra.
People will pay 250 a day to look at my ass?
1 Like
If it looks like it could be the ass of the actor, sure!
The closest I came do doing that was I submitted to be in a scene in The Internship where I’d have to be wearing just a towel. They were looking for nerdy guys. I actually submitted a photo of myself in a towel (would just send a regular pic nowadays), but didn’t get it. I hope they deleted the pic and destroyed their computer so it never gets out.
There was once a casting call to be a dude willing to make out with a male actor and I fit the profile. Of all people, my wife and kids really wanted me to try to get it. It paid well (for extra work). I thought about it, but ultimately decided against it.
2 Likes
my son was an extra in an episode of Bluff City Law (before covid, obv, since it’s been cancelled), they had an episode where one of the lawyers represents a high school wrestler, and they asked his team to fill in the background at practices and tournaments. They get to the shoot and someone from the school school tells them they can’t do it because if they get paid to wrestle it might jeopardize their amateur status, they all were OK with doing it for free, but the school official said no to that as well, so they end up just sitting in the stands watching. I didn’t watch the episode, but I think they got some other kids to just stand around wearing singlets and headgear and basically all fo the “action” ended up offscreen. He made $80 for like three hours of shooting.
I have a random memory of Louis ck mentioning making $3k/wk in the 90s as a writer as if it was basically not worth it, so the actual numbers could literally be anything.
I do know a lot about what actors make, but it is very variable from actor to actor, and for each actor from year to year.
A series regular on a network TV show gets a pilot fee and an episodic fee, which is typically half of the pilot fee. Those fees vary greatly and depend largely on precedent. On the very low end a newer actor might get $50K for the pilot and $25K per episode. But they also might not be guaranteed to be in all episodes produced, could be 8/13, or whatever. For more experienced actors, or just people that are getting a lot of juice, that rises quickly. We just had a client get $50K an episode and he had to join the union to do the show 
The rise of streaming services has changed things considerably. Non-celeb/name talent is generally making less per episode on streaming shows, but when they book it the show is guaranteed to be shot. So instead of doing a pilot for $75K with the possibility of maybe doing 13 episodes at $37.5K per show IF it gets picked up, an actor might book a Netflix show and be guaranteed to shoot 10 episodes at $35K per episode.
For the actors who are recurring guest stars, it really depends on the actor, the show, how many they’ve done, etc. The best I can say about that is that almost nobody is making a ton of money (over six figures) doing recurring guest star gigs. The exceptions there are recognizable/celeb style people.
3 Likes
Residuals are complicated as fuck on TV shows, but once a show gets sold into syndication every SAG principal actor gets something. The stars of the show have negotiated percentages that are huge, but a percentage of the sale gets put into a pool that is split among the other eligible performers and distributed according to a formula I definitely can’t explain. Sometimes the amounts are incredibly tiny - there used to be a bar in the valley called Residuals where they’d give you a drink for any residual check under $1 (I think the bar is still there but the deal is no longer valid). But that’s mostly for an actor who did literally one day on a show at scale. For the Soup Nazi, he worked multiple days on multiple episodes, was definitely making more than scale, and the Seinfeld syndication deals were huge, so that explains that.
5 Likes
Some friend of a friend was on the Mickey Mouse Club during some of the same episodes as Brittney Spears. Disney charges some astronomical amount to documentaries and shows like Behind the Music for any footage. So every now and then this guy would just get a random check for several $K in the mail.
1 Like
That seems weird. I mean, I get it, but you’d think exceptions could be made.
dlk9s jr was a basketball player (“player” used very loosely) in a few episodes of the totally non-promoted Comedy Central show “Robbie.” Think it filmed in 2018?
He’s in a bunch of scenes standing around with the team, shooting in the background, etc., but here’s the best one. He’s in on the far right of the second row, sitting behind Rory Scovel:
And I’ll put this in spoilers for the dumb reason that I don’t know if it was a pic that was supposed to be shared, but whatever, it’s a few years later and nobody watched the show. The director took the photo and one of the actor’s parents asked him for it and then shared it with the other parents (my kid is in the orange shirt):
2 Likes
I just got a text asking if I was available to be an extra in a movie as a diner at an Olive Garden. $88/8 and $30 for a COVID test.
Unlimited breadsticks or no?
18 Likes
getting paid to eat unlimited breadsticks is the easiest snap call ever
4 Likes
I knew a guy who appeared in the credits for a Japanese game show and got like 12 cents every time one aired. He said it wasn’t worth it because he practically got carpal tunnel signing so many checks for nothing. Anyways never seen Seinfeld so I’m not going to comment on whatever the nazi soup guy gets.
13 Likes
There is literally a Seinfeld episode where he gets carpal tunnel from having to sign a bunch of tiny checks.
OMG I just got trolled by the best so I’ll leave it for posterity. LOL me, I’d forgotten the details:
12¢ royalty checks keep arriving from Jerry’s brief appearance on a Japanese television show, the “Super Terrific Happy Hour”.
9 Likes
Didn’t Bilzarian pay like a couple of million to be an extra, and then they cut his ass out of the final cut anyway?
3 Likes
Gunther from friends had 50 million in the bank, I imagine
1 Like
Drake is still raking in the cash from his days on Degrassi: The Next Generation — albeit not much.
In an Instagram post, the actor-turned-rapper revealed he still receives residual cheques for his time on the show.
On Tuesday, he posted a photo of a cheque dated March 31, 2017 with the caption “Degrassi money still coming in don’t sleeeeeeeep.”
The cheque only amounted to $8.25
What CNN shows me vs. what my brain sees:
9 Likes
OK, as long as we’re talking shop, I represented James Michael Tyler early in my career. He and his manager really always wanted people to be excited about hiring Gunther from Friends, and they were very much not. I think he was literally an extra for years before he did anything but wander around and serve coffee, and that’s really how people viewed him.
1 Like
AFAIK Donald Trump is in “Home Alone” because he wouldn’t let them use the Plaza if they didn’t use him. Producers assumed he wouldn’t actually end up in the film but in a test screening of an early cut people loved that scene so they kept it. I think it’s fair to say that the producers of Home Alone ruined America.
3 Likes