Extras (We Eat Your Leftovers)

Lunch on the first day of filming presented a dilemma. We extras quickly learned that contrary to our expectations, we were not honored guests. After waiting for the cast and crew to eat, and watching to see what delicacies they brought back to their VIP tables, we were finally invited to have lunch. The food looked generous and amazing – barbequed ribs, chicken, fish, macaroni and cheese, corn, rice, baked beans, a big time salad bar, and a table with cookies and cheesecake and ice cream. However, there were both paper and nice plates; also a choice between silverware or plastic flatware. Was there a flatware hierarchy in place? Was someone watching to make sure the extras kept their grubby mitts off the good plates? I meekly used the disposable plates on the first day, but secretly began plotting a future upgrade.

The food, by the way, was delicious. In the morning, craft services set out fresh fruit - washed and sliced and irresistibly juicy. Muffins, bagels, and a variety of cereals were offered to us. After all, when call time is at 6:15 AM, there must be some incentive to entice the naive and keep the seasoned pros from grumbling. The extras didn’t get to have dinner (despite working until 10 or 11 PM), but the crew and cast were offered plates of sandwiches right in front of us. Also, there was a man walking around in overalls with a tray, asking if we wanted some sausage.

The craft services table was our boredom relief and munchie defeater. Fruit, power bars, candy, crackers, trail mix, sodas, and water were plentiful (if you could get to the table and scarf it down in between takes). The trail mix was suspiciously heavy on raisins, while lacking in nuts and chocolate. The longer the hours got, the bigger the conspiracy theories. Oh, we dreamed up some grand plans with that trail mix, like filling a champagne glass with raisins and seeing if we could get away with sipping from it during a scene.

For filming scenes, there was a whole crew putting together food and beverages for the tables to make it look like we were at a party. For champagne, we drank ginger ale during the day. At night, the ginger ale was swapped with sparkling funk juice. Grape juice was the stand-in for red wine, and the water tasted fresh from the backyard hose. Some of the extras had to eat the red velvet and chocolate cake for their scenes. Others came back to a table of partially masticated bon-bons. For the wedding reception, quail were vulgarly splayed out over a mashed potato ball, with a sprig of rosemary jutting out between its stiff legs. As the hours passed, those little devil birds started to reek. The prop food was real, and provided an endless source of amusement for all.

The best food related story that I heard about involved Hollis’ beans. The actress playing Hollis got a plate and scooped up some baked beans and an ear of corn. Then she realized the beans had meat in them, and I hear she kind of panicked. She snatched up that ear of corn in one hand, and held the plate of beans, while looking around with a confused “what do I do?” look. So one of the extras handed her a clean plate, and she put her corn on it, and handed him the offending plate of beans. He used that plate of beans for his lunch, and has my favorite actor-to-extra encounter story. For the rest of his life, he will be able to say that he ate Hollis’s beans. Now I really hope she becomes famous!