I got to work with former “Hercules” and “Xena” actress Alexandra Tydings on a film called “Three Birthdays” in 2022.
For those of you who may not know, before I came to Journal, I worked as an actor in NYC. After graduating college, that was my bread and butter. Not all people who work in film and TV are famous. A lot of us are just regular working people. I’ll talk a little bit about how I got into the industry and what my work entailed.
While in college, I did some background acting, also known as extra work. Do you ever see those people in the background running from the giant monster? People in a restaurant eating as the main characters talk? That’s what I did. The very first gig I worked on was a film called “Man of the Year” which we filmed at Saturday Night Live’s studio.
After graduating college, I struggled to get a steady job in journalism. The economy was going through a recession and newspapers were hiring people who knew about computers and writing. I only knew one of those. A friend who was a casting director reached out to me and offered to sign me up for his agency so that I could get steady extra work.
After signing up with my friend’s casting agency, the work started to pour in. I eventually joined the Screen Actors Guild union in 2013 after sufficing the requirements to join. Joining the union opened up many perks including higher pay, health insurance, pension, and getting more upgrades.
Joining the union allowed me to work my way up to being a stand-in (a person who substitutes for the actor before filming, for technical purposes such as lighting and camera setup), a double, and a stuntman.
I don’t have an agent, so I self-submitted myself when I would see job openings online. Casting agents reach out to me to confirm the date and any other necessary material I need to bring (wardrobe, car, etc.) Call times are usually extremely early, about 6 or 7 a.m. There’s a lot of waiting. It is not the glamorous job many think it is. Lots of time is devoted to marking spots, performance rehearsals, camera rehearsals, lighting, and more technical stuff before we start shooting.
What made it fun though was that work was almost different every day. A different location, different set, different people, and most important of all different catering (free food is always good food). Some days would be boring. Other days would be a high-energy set where coffee was not needed like on the film “Noah.” I did enjoy my time on set and it helped me meet great people and keep me financially afloat for many years. Will I ever go back? Who knows.
