- For all the hoopla of Oscar night,
there is one group of Hollywood professionals
the Academy always overlooks.
They're the anonymous performers from Central Casting,
deserving of some extra attention
as Lee Cowan is about to show us.
("You Ought To Be In Pictures")
- Next in line?
♪ You oughta be in pictures ♪
Perfect go right in and have a seat.
- Thank you.
- [Lee] These are some of the most familiar faces
you'll probably never recognize, hoping to be stereotyped,
- Mob guy.
- '60s or '70s.
- Yeah the lawyer, do my CSI.
- [Man] Into gray seals, three.
- [Lee] Faces are photographed, body parts are measured,
names don't matter here, it's all about size,
- Bend your elbow.
- [Lee] shape and type.
- Your Will Smiths of the world,
you know your Denzels, right here.
- That's you? - That's me, all day.
- [Lee] Leroy's is the classic Hollywood dream.
Like everyone here, he's hoping to become a Hollywood extra.
(clapperboard clicks)
The extras are Hollywood's house plants,
cinematic wallflowers, the face in the crowd,
(people cheer)
perhaps just the crowd itself.
- [Man] I gotcha, jump.
- [Lee] They are the unknown souls,
drowning with Leonardo DiCaprio.
- Never get behind people traveling with infants.
- [Lee] They are the nameless airport passengers,
being chided by George Clooney.
They are the Israelites faithfully following
Charlton Heston through the parted waters of the Red Sea,
(people cheer)
or they're baseball fans.
- Let's play ball.
- [Lee] So naturally cheering on Robert Redford.
- In some ways they're the unsung heroes of the movie world,
but being unsung is kind of part of
the job description isn't it.
- [Lee] Film historian Leonard Maltin says,
there isn't a lot said or written about extras
precisely because, they're not supposed to be interesting.
- You're not there to improvise,
you're not there to show off,
you're there to be part of the background,
be an authentic-looking part of the background.
- [Lee] So where do directors shop for that background?
Well in a place that sounds more like a punchline
than a business, Central Casting.
- No one believes there really is a Central Casting.
The first statement is always,
there's really a Central Casting?
- [Lee] Jennifer Bender is a VP
of one of the biggest cliches in Hollywood.
- [Woman] K-A-T-E-R.
- [Lee] Part temp agency, part circus recruiter.
- We get called, we want three blondes, two brunettes,
two African Americans, and an Asian,
between the ages of 20s and 30s.
I mean that's by definition what we do.
- But it would make most human resources departments
heads blow-up. - Exactly, exactly.
- [Lee] It's been around a long time.
- [Woman] Central Casting.
- [Lee] Since 1925.
Created as a better, more organized alternative
to the perils of Hollywood's casting couch.
- All right now, give me everything you've got you people.
Ready now, don't be extras, be a nation.
- [Lee] Legendary director Cecil B. DeMille
was a frequent client.
He even appeared in a short film about Central Casting,
and its talent in waiting.
- [Narrator] From the ends of the Earth they come,
waiting for the magic call.
- Snap into it girls, you're five minutes late now.
- [Narrator] The magic call that may be the lucky break.
- Put your first, your middle, and your last.
- [Lee] Today, Central Casting's mission
remains the same as it ever was.
- Hey Tory it's Jason at Central how you doing?
- [Lee] And 87 years later, remains a booming business.
- Hey Noelle, it's Summer at Central Casting.
Calling to see if you can work Friday on "NCIS LA".
- [Lee] It hires between 2,000 and 3,000 extras
every single day.
Including casting Oscar-nominated films like "Moneyball".
(crowd cheers)
- [Lee] How many people are we talking about?
- That movie had thousands, thousands,
I mean we had to fill up stadiums.
- Chris Bustard was in charge of finding them all
at the request of producer and star, Brad Pitt.
Fitting because after all,
Central Casting is where Pitt got his start.
And you just had a sense that it was gonna work out?
- Hell no, I didn't have an idea.
I had no idea what I was doin'.
But I got, you know I landed, I had a meal at McDonald's,
I got the paper, and by the end of the week I was an extra.
- So was John Wayne, Ronald Reagan,
even Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria started as an extra.
Pretty humble beginnings that are enough
to keep some 300 new applicants
coming to Central Casting every week.
So if you're looking for someone
that has a lot of different,
like him, like that screams biker guy.
- [Summer] Yes, exactly.
- [Lee] Summer Wesson is one of the casting directors
who has at her fingertips, an unlimited database.
If her screen came alive it might sound something like this.
- Biker, down-scale bar patron, homeless.
- Cop, doctor, lawyer, news reporter, baseball player.
- Hair down, homeless, mental patient, lotsa mental patient.
Hair back, nun, medical technician, nurse.
- Are there people that have been an extra
in so many different films that they're almost like a star
in and of themselves?
- Absolutely.
There are several of them.
And I think there's a few that you'd probably recognize.
♪ Ah ♪
- [Lee] One of them may be Jesse Heiman,
dubbed the world's greatest extra in a YouTube clip
that was made believe it or not, by a fan.
(upbeat music)
Where are you in that one?
Oh there you are.
It's been viewed more than two million times,
highlighting Jesse's appearances in everything from "Glee"
to major motion pictures,
like "The Social Network", and "Spiderman".
So are you okay bein' the world's greatest extra?
- Well yes of course.
It's a title.
I have a title.
It's like I'm the Madonna of the extra world.
- [Lee] There are others you might have seen
and not know you've seen.
Like John Stall.
♪ Welcome back ♪
- [Lee] He's been an extra since he was cast
to sit behind John Travolta in "Welcome Back Kotter".
- [John] You're the lowest person on the totem pole,
you're an extra, literally just an extra.
- It does strike me though that to be successful at it
you sort of have to embrace the obscurity of it all.
- I always say you have to embrace the humility
because it really is a humbling position
unless you're able to just enjoy it for what it is.
(woman screams)
- [Lee] And what it is,
(camera clicks)
is hardly glamorous.
- A lotta people don't realize
how much talent it takes to be dead.
- [Lee] Howard is auditioning to play the part of a body.
As in a lifeless body on "NCIS."
- Take a deep breath Howard and just let your jaw hang.
- [Lee] Dignified?
Maybe not.
But difficult?
You bet.
His eyes can't flutter.
He has to be able to take shallow breaths.
And for "NCIS" executive producer Mark Horowitz,
the competition for that role is, well stiff.
- Then we're shooting, eyes'll be open, no blinking.
- The camera's moving on them and off of them all the time,
so they have to sort of stay in that character pose
during the course of the shot.
And it actually takes a bit of technique.
- Any luck on Khalid?
- [Lee] By far the most common technique for an extra
is simply walking.
In the biz it's called a cross,
as in crossing behind the stars.
Sounds easy, but rookies get it wrong every time.
- Hands at your side, looking straight ahead,
walking like a robot.
That would be the first mistake and a lotta people do it.
They don't think twice about it.
Start over here on the right hand side.
- [Lee] Suzanne Saltz is the second assistant director
on "NCIS LA" and most of her job
is choreographing the extras,
on this day more than two dozen of them,
like Yvonne Lavallee.
- What makes me a little crazy is when we do crosses
behind mini blinds, where the camera's like this high
off the ground and all they see is your waist
and we do it 500 times.
- [Man] Background.
- [Lee] But getting noticed
is not part of the job description.
Which is why Shirell Ferguson-Coleman
always makes sure that she has something to do,
and something to say.
The trick she says is to mouth words like peas and carrots
over and over again, but do it silently.
Okay now you're freakin' me out.
- That freak you out! (laughs)
("You Ought To Be In Pictures")
- [Lee] The hours are long, wages are minimal.
There's no comfy trailers for the extras.
(crowd yells)
All for those few moments of obscurity that just one day,
might pay off.
- Do you think it's easy to just sit there,
or just walk through back and forth, try it.
- [Lee] Came straight outta Central Casting as they say,
may be a cliche, but it's also a Hollywood badge of honor.
("You Ought To Be In Pictures")