10 Things They Never Tell You About Being A Hollywood Movie Extra

When you arrive on set, you’ll instantly be able to distinguish between the first-timers and the more experienced supporting artists. Apart from the fact that most seasoned extras can normally be overheard discussing the time they had a 30 second chat with Leonardo DiCaprio or handed Robert Downy Jr a handkerchief just in time to catch his sneeze, they will also be the ones that turn up with a few packs of cigarettes.

You might be thinking that the wise ones turn up with smokes to counteract the stress of a long, tiresome day, though half of the extras that turn up with cigarettes carry them just in case they are asked if they smoke, regardless of whether they actually do or not. While herbal cigarettes made up of innocuous substances (normally clover, rose petals and marshmallow leaves suffused with vanilla, ginseng or menthol, depending on preference) are used in Hollywood, smoking them convincingly requires a seasoned hand.

It depends on the production, though movies that require smokers want someone who knows how to handle a cigarette, not someone who will inhale the whole thing in one go in their enthusiasm and cough their guts up halfway through a take. These are long days in which one scene will be shot numerous times from multiple angles, and if that scene requires background smokers, extras used to going through 40 a day definitely have the upper hand.