Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

It might not be Hollywood but I can lay claim to starring in a Chinese movie! OK, so I am overstating my role in what should be my big screen debut, I was merely an extra in a low budget film but it did star two famous Chinese actors! So how did I end up appearing in this soon to be Oscar nominated flick? Please read on...

During the summer of 2013, having returned to China for my third stint, I was broke and searching the Beijinger.com, which is Beijing's answer to Gumtree, which in turn is England's answer to Craigslist. Anyway, these searches were proving to be anything but fruitful and despite checking every day, I was coming up with nothing. But throw enough mud at a wall... One day, my friend Jess received a call regarding an email she had sent containing our head-shots to a casting agent after seeing their classified ad, which sought after 'Foreign people to appear in a Chinese movie'. They were keen for us to come along the following day to work as background artists on the set of that movie.

'We' should have been three, unfortunately the timing of the filming coincided with Jess's boyfriend Chris's birthday weekend and as you might imagine Chris hadn't quite recovered enough from the gallons of alcohol he had consumed. He opted to stay home and relax opposed to standing on a set for 9 hours, he probably made the right call.

It was an early start, with Jess and I grabbing the subway at 5.30am, meeting our contact Moli at 6.15am outside the Military Museum, Beijing. Actually, Moli's opening question was one the most intriguing I have known as a way of introduction, "do you have any black friends?" she asked. We assumed that she possibly needing more people of different ethnicity for the movie and it wasn't just an unusually unique way to greet people that she'd developed.

When Jess had spoken to Moli the day before, she was informed that the scene being filmed that day was set in an airport. We were to dress as we would for a flight and bring luggage. I wore a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up and khaki cargo shorts with flip flops and my backpack, which I'd filled with two pillows to give it a more realistic shape.

So Moli led us to the set, which was located in the Beijing Art Museum. After a short wait for the other extras to arrive, we were separated into two lines - boys and girls. They explained that they would be selecting a handful of us to change into costumes of customs officers, NYPD police officers and SWAT members. They picked mainly big guys, a group of athletic Italians and a group of Russians accounted for most of the police officers. The two guys tasked with casting the roles, walked up and down the line inspecting us as if we were soldiers stood to attention on a parade square. One of the two pointed at me, no less than three times and every time his friend simply shook his head, that made me feel good about myself.

In hindsight being overlooked for one of the cool costumed roles, was probably a good thing, as I got to stand and chat to Jess whenever we weren't filming. At first, it was a lot of fun and quite exciting. But when you have done the same scene twenty-odd times, the novelty of being a film star wears off!

So, like I said, we knew we were going to be on an airport looking set. After the bullshit 'who looks tough enough to be a NYPD cop' selection process, we were led through to a large room, little did I know at this point that I would be spending the next nine hours there. As we caught glimpse of the set, I became eager to start background artisting my socks off! It looked exactly like the customs and immigration services that you'd expect to see at any international airport. Though on closer inspection everything was a little flimsy and obviously it was a set and I hadn't stepped through a portal into a real airport! The set was plastered with logos for JFK Airport and a big 'Welcome to New York' sign! No points for guessing which city this scene would be based in!

My friend Jess, acting her little socks off

I may have missed out on being a cop, but I was about to be given my chance to shine. A woman, started to pick out people to be at the front of the set for when the filming started. All the best looking people were chosen, plus me, not sure why but I wasn't going to complain about getting to stand around with lots of hot chicks and cool dudes. I was given direction. "Walk through the scanner, and collect your bag from the conveyor belt, please". This was it, my big scene, I was going to walk through that scanner and collect my bag like no-one had ever walked through a scanner and collected a bag before. I was gonna show all the losers behind me how it was done, steal the scene and probably end up being asked to do a few lines... So I walked through, went to grab my bag and then.... "Cut!", 'Ah come on! What happened? Who messed it up? It wasn't me, I walked through the scanner with style, I acted my arse off as I went to pick that bag up', I thought to myself as I was pushed back into my original position by a member of the crew.

After about twenty takes of that, they moved the set around and were ready to film the next part, though this time, I wasn't at the front, but why? What had I done? Maybe my acting was too good? Maybe I should play it a little bit cooler? Yeah, that's it, just relax... Wait? I am at the back with all the losers, what's going on? Don't they know who I am?

A view of the set from just behind the crew and the cameras

One particular scene was filmed more times than any other, this was because of a group of girls that kept laughing, amateurs. In this scene, we were informed that someone would shout 'bomb' and we all had to scream and hit the floor, Jess and I did such a good job of this that one of the Director's assistants moved us closer to the front, citing how good we were doing. Who's laughing now NYPD boys? Anyway, each time we all hit the floor, it would go silent soon after until this bunch of cretins starting to giggle, much to the annoyance of everyone else in the room, particularly the Director.

The highlight of the day for me was when we saw about ten Chinese people in blonde and auburn wigs rolled out to provide further background artistry, I can only assume that the casting agency had failed to supply enough genuine Western people. It was hilarious, imagine it, ten sort of confused looking Chinese people with ridiculous Bon Jovi-esque wigs being forced to make up the numbers!

The shooting went on for about nine hours in total, probably the longest working day I have ever endured. I was aching so much from standing around and also crouching during some scenes (as directed, not just for the fun of it).

After all that, we went to collect our pay for the day, the girl in charge of payments, asked me to sign on the dotted line before handing me the cash, "Who shall I make it out to?" I asked, "Sorry?" she replied, "Its okay, I'll just sign my name for you" I winked at her, "Yeah it's for our records" she claimed, "Of course it is" I said, winking again and then strutting away down the corridor with the 400RMB (about £40) earnings in my pocket.

A star is born? My big screen debut, on the set of 'Old Boys'

I am yet to be approached by Martin Scorsese or James Cameron, but that's probably because they are unaware of my debut on the silver screen, mind you, I am not sure when it will be premiering myself! All I do know is that it called 'Old Boys' and it is a feature length remake of a popular internet short starring the Chopsticks Brothers - I know that sounds like they might be the Chuckle Brothers of China but apparently they are critically acclaimed actors who write and sing too! Anyway, I will keep you posted on the film's release!

In all seriousness though, both Jess and I agreed to discovering a new level of respect for people who work in the film industry, I think Jess put it perfectly - "Even the crappiest film you've ever seen, someone has worked really hard on that".