Being an extra in the background of TV shows seems like the sweetest gig ever.
You turn up, get put in a costume, and then get paid to sit/stand there, “raspberry-raspberry-raspberry” fake-talking to another person, and then you go home.
Of course, the gig does come with its own challenges too. Boredom, for one, especially when you might have to to pop up in the background of a scene that takes hours – even days – to film.
Then there’s the risk of blowing your big extra moment altogether, as happened to one extra in an episode of Friends, the clip of which has gone viral in the last few days.
https://twitter.com/NicksTurners/status/750804550441992196
Eagle-eyed Twitter user Nick Turner spotted this mistake in the season 6 episode of the comedy, ‘The One Where Paul’s The Man’. Ross is talking to the others in Central Perk, and at one point a woman can be seen in the background sipping on coffee.
But as soon as she takes a sip, she then starts chewing for some reason.
YOU HAD ONE JOB!
Naturally, some people jumped to the extra’s defence with possible explanations for the chewy coffee…
Friends itself has commented on the struggles and challenges of the background extra in its own storylines. Remember when Joey just couldn’t nail his brief movie part as the victim of a plague in a scene with guest star Jean Claude Van Damme?
And then there was this storyline where Phoebe failed abysmally to “get into character” as a nurse on Joey’s soap opera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxJZBh4LJ7U
