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

When you watch a war movie, or a fantasy adventure, or a superhero movie – basically, any genre in which large scale battles inevitably ensue – you never stop to think about the masses of people attempting to make the action look real, assuming them to be either qualified stuntmen or the product of CGI. Of course, this is not always the case, and sometimes extras get hurt in the fray.

Several supporting artists were hurt during the filming of James Cameron’s Oscar darling Titanic, with most of the injuries happening during the film’s climatic sinking. As Jack and Rose cling to the ship’s railings, other passengers aren’t so lucky and fall to their deaths, colliding with protruding doors and exposed propellers along the way. Extras brave enough to volunteer for the scene were rewarded with cracked ribs, broken ankles, fractured cheekbones and one instance of a ruptured spleen.

It takes a dedicated extra to go through actual physical pain and stay in character, as an unfortunate warrior found out in The Last Samurai. As Tom Cruise leads his new comrades into battle against those trying to bring their noble way of life to an end, one extra does an incredible job at pretending that he wasn’t crying in pain under his Samurai garb after being kicked. In the groin. By a horse.