Background talent and former background talent: Any stories about celebrities’ diva-ish onset behavior?

Careful...snitches get stitches!

[Quote] I worked on “The O.C.” one day during its fourth season (after Marissa was written out) and the regulars there would talk about what a bitch Mischa Barton had been. A few extras were smoking close by where Mischa was having a cigarette, and she yelled, “Oh, so it looks like the background think they can smoke with us, huh!?”

What were the other actors like?

Interesting about Gilmore girls. Years ago sone extra posted on Facebook that Alexis Bliedel was quite nasty.

According to an old reddit thread John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer were standoffish on the set of the office.

Background life must be different in these covid times, as the main talent are kept isolated in "zone A". Anyone worked on any CBS dramas? Or any Gary Cole encounters?

I loved My Boys.

R3, I met one PA who had worked on “Gilmore Girls.” I don’t remember his exact words, but he more or less said that he didn’t like Lauren Graham or Alexis Bledel because they had awful personalities.

Background people need to remember to stay in the background.

I was in a scene with Malcolm McDowell on the new Gossip Girl and he was lovely. Spoke and joked around with us lowly background folks. Very, very nice. Anna Kendrick came off like a real pill on Love Life. There was a lot of eye rolling every time she spoke.

I JUST mentioned this on another thread, but a college classmate of mine (costume design) had an internship as Debra Jo Rupp's dresser in (what I thought was New Jersey, but turned out to be Hartford Connecticut) summerstock. She said Rupp was lovely.

My friend was an extra on several episodes of Drop Dead Diva during college and said all the actors were incredibly nice on that show.

I worked as an extra twice on two different major feature films that were shooting in London.

Most of the extras who do it regularly are absolute nut jobs and having to to sit around all day or all night listening to their stories of petty imagined slights and delusions of grandeur was mind-numbing - esp. when they pull out their phones and start forcing you to look at every photo they have of previous sets they’ve been on with the odd supporting player who deigned to take a photo with them thus elevating themselves to god-like status. And then they go a IMDb and add themselves to the cast with made up character names like “Man in airport” or something. It’s like being in a mental ward all day.

It wasn’t for me.

Might it have been you, r12, when cast as Antony Armstrong-Jones when you were trying to sniff up my snatch?

The biggest divas I witnessed on set who regularly came to set late, were ornery the moment attention was not on them and acted more like leading ladies were Rob Lowe, David Boreanaz and Thomas Gibson

R12 you’re making me nostalgic. That’s what I loved about this, you meet so many real characters doing background work.

I agree, r15. Most appealing though was being a near invisible silent witness in the midst of director/crew/actor formal and informal discussions, just observing while following minimal instructions and carrying little responsibility by comparison. Did stand in and double work as a side hustle on a long running British drama. It was a fun, smooth running set full of big personalities who worked seamlessly together. My notable observation was seeing how tough it could be for guest actors, some of them well established names, to jump in for just a few days filming and try to fit in with that tight group. Stressful for them at times. Saw a lot of chain smoking, fly swilling from flasks plus a couple of dramatic door slamming exits.

R16 more details please! Which drama?

[Quote] I was in a scene with Malcolm McDowell on the new Gossip Girl

Of all the shows to guest star on....i did not see that coming.

JESUS, I love insider threads. Give me more.

R9 I was in a scene with Malcolm McDowell on Franklin and Bash and he was lovely as well

If you're interested in who's actually NICE in Hollywood to background actors: Henry Winkler, Lady Gaga, Patricia Arquette, Sterling Brown, Jorja Fox, Parker Posey, Bellamy Young, Kerry Washington, Dennis Haysbert, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Lamorne Morris, Bob Saget, Gina Rodriguez (unusually kind), Wilmer Valderrama , Eva Longoria, Michael Weatherly, Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen (yes, really), Bradley Whitford, Marcia Gay Harden, Camryn Manheim, General Hospital's Briana Nicole Henry

One of my roommates was an extra on Desperate Housewives. She said Teri Hatcher is as klutzy in real life as her character, Terri Hatcher bumped into her accidentally, apologized and asked my roommate if she was okay. My roommate also said Marcia Cross smiled at her briefly when passing by.

I’ve heard that Felicity Huffman was nasty to work with. Of the four lead actresses on that show, she was the least pretty, you’d think that she’d have a more humble attitude. No, she was quite the diva.

[quote]Of the four lead actresses on that show, she was the least pretty, you’d think that she’d have a more humble attitude. No, she was quite the diva.

She was considered the best actress, even flirting with Oscar. So, I'm sure, that went to her head.

This is gonna date me, but Celeste Holm, when I worked background in the 80's, was insufferable. A snob like you wouldn't believe.

[quote]I personally never observed bad behavior, but I always heard that Lauren Graham of “Gilmore Girls” had a horrible personality.

I have a friend who has been in television for decades and has even won a couple of Emmys, and he was a huge Lauren Graham fan. He told us one day on Twitter about six years ago that he was finally going to get to meet her, then we never heard anything about it again. He deleted the tweet and hasn't said a thing about her since. I haven't had the heart to ask him what happened.

R21 juicy list but I question Michael Weatherly. You must have tasty big badonkadonks. My lesbo heart is glad to see Jorja Fox there.

I would think most "number one on the call sheet" leads like Tom Selleck, Mark Harmon, William Petersen etc hideout in their trailers mostly.

R24 is Miss Bette Davis.

JK, R24, many reports of Celeste Holme's cuntiness and pretentiousness

[quote]He deleted the tweet and hasn't said a thing about her since. I haven't had the heart to ask him what happened.

When it comes to getting us gossip, people have been stripped of their Datalounge rights for acts of far less cowardness.

[quote] Charlie Sheen (yes, really),

Okay, that’s interesting to me and would love to hear more. Is that why so much of his personal shit got a pass for so long?

The problem is he's a genuine friend, r28, and I don't want to potentially hurt his feelings. I was just trying to be chatty by mentioning it.

R21 Is this list based on your experiences working with these actors or 'word on the street' ?

Instead of quotes without reference, might we have just the r#?

Asking respectfully, after trying to locate the original Charlie Sheen post.

R29, remember, there was that recent video of Charlie Sheen kissing a (straight) male fan on the lips. That’s how nice he is.

Charlie Sheen could easily be a party monster psycho off the set, but not bring that onto the set. That could easily explain why he's still employable. If he's easy to work with, arrives on time, knows his lines, and is kind to people, what's not to like?

I did some background and crew work in my early 20s to make a little extra money and it was mostly mind-mumblingly boring and as R12 is right on the money. Some of the sets reminded me of something out of The Day of the Locust. All these wannabe famous people saying how they once took a picture with Rob Lowe which means they became BFFs and how the craft service on this film isn't as good as the stuff they had on the J Lo movie they did 12 years ago. They were mostly horrible, annoying people with so much desperation it made me sick to my stomach.

All the real actors I worked around were pleasant. They wouldn't all go out of their way to talk to background people or crew, but many of them would and were lovely.

I was shopping recently at an exclusive grocery store when I ran into none other than a major A-List Hollywood celebrity while squeezing the organic avocados. Mer... no, let's call her by a pseudonym... "Mrs. Gummer" commented on the rising cost of said fruits and we had a lovely discussion about inflation as well as the stalemate on the Ukrainian border. As we chose our respective fruits and placed them delicately in our shopping totes, I leaned in and whispered "Death Becomes Her is my favorite film". "Mrs. Gummer" leaned in and replied "you're an idiot".

I was an extra on a movie helmed by a first-time director. In one scene, I, along with the other “nosy neighbors,” went to see what was going on when a cop car was parked in the driveway. In the movie, the teenage children were holding their neglectful parents hostage in their own home. In one scene, the older extras were told to be supportive of the parents, while the younger ones were to be supportive of the children. In another scene, the even younger sibling was alleging police brutality - “Attica, Attica” - and we were all told to be supportive. I asked the director what sense it made for me in one scene to be on the side of the establishment, while then supporting the revolutionary shouts of a child in another scene. He told me I didn’t have to endorse the child’s rantings.

At the late end of shooting that day, in what was the coldest day of the winter, the extras waited and waited outdoors for our bus to take us back to our cars. Tired of waiting, I tried to get on one departing bus that had plenty of available seats. I was told that this bus was exclusively for crew members. In response, I yelled, “Attica, Attica.”

I see what you did there, R21.

I can add Matthew Modine to R21’s list. A very nice man.

Is Michael Weatherly a soap star or something? Never heard of him.

He was on Bull and NCIS

I worked background on the NBC series Ed and the fat redhead on it, Leslie something, actually refused to get on a van with bg when she was too slow to get in the principal van. We’d laugh amongst ourselves at her, Julie Bowen and the male lead (forget his name) would act on set like they were actually on a hit show.

peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots peas and carrots

R43 Sweetie, medication is our friend.

R44 doesn’t know

"it was mostly mind-mumblingly boring"

Apparently R35's mind remains affected to this day.

It's funny how for the most part (that is, except for Celeste Holm), the ones who have reputations for being rude to the extras are the ones who are not very talented.

R31 I worked in scenes with them

R26 Jorja Fox is very cool. Vegan and so down-to-earth you'd never know she has millions and millions AND MILLIONS of dollars

She bought several gifts for the crew and background actors over the summer on CSI-Vegas and even drove up to Santa Clarita on a hundred degree day when she wasn't scheduled to work to pass them out personally

She also lived with Madonna's sister Paula in the 80s

Teri Hatcher has a nervous energy with her eyes darting all over the room and everybody constantly. She separated herself in every way from the other women.

Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross and Vanessa Williams were very close with each other, with Eva sitting on Marcia's lap for few minutes and even falling asleep next to them on set (in a church pew) for little while

When Michael Weatherly was on NCIS he would initiate conversation and even asked random personal questions about me minutes before delivering dialogue in a lengthy scene

His replacement Wilmer Valderamma is equally friendly and says hello to everyone on set

My least favorite part of bg work is having to deal with 20 something PA’s who can sometimes be quite rude and nasty.

Nora Dunn urgently stomped around the Bones stage looking for "the fucking sound guy" to take her mic because she had to take a dump

R52 the nastiness and the overworked unhappiness of the crew members across the board is one of the most disappointing aspects of background and changes how you look at your favorite movies and TV shows

Doing BG work is like having a 12 hour long garage sale. There are spurts of activity but it's mostly just sitting around all day. It is so boring on film sets, you have no idea.

R55 sometimes you're done in a couple hours when there is still morning rush hour traffic

R29 Martin Sheen is one of the nicest actors in Hollywood, even now on Grace and Frankie. Charlie has the same temperament as his Dad and obviously learned manners and how to "act polite." He actually introduces himself by name to everyone in the scene with him

This may also be surprising, but Denise Richards is unassuming and says hello, holds doors, doesn't have a diva vibe at all in real life

David Boreanaz was foolishly sending revealing sexual Snapchats within weeks of Bones ending to regular BG on the show, so his jerk-off video last year was no surprise

Emmy Rossum screaming at (and ultimately hung up on) by the veterinarian receptionist because her assistant was in the waiting room with her dog and wasn't seen immediately

While on the set of Shameless R60

Angeline Jolie was a sweetheart.

R51 Are you still with NCIS? What is Gary Cole like, does he keep to himself? Are you one of the background agents/office workers in the ncis building?

Nuts to think each cast member has a body double stand-in, an assistant, etc. Sets must get crowded.

The real-life friendship of Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander on "Rizzoli and Isles" disintegrated by the final season. They didn't speak and barely made eye contact on the show and off. Angie was jealous of Sasha, who is the better trained actress and married to Sophia Loren's son, while Angie's marriage was falling apart. Conservative Angie also didn't approve of Sasha's nude scenes on Shameless and pretty much iced her out as soon as she saw them. She wanted to change to show to just "Rizzoli" and was hoping for a spin-off for her character, which didn't happen. Angie's daughter was given a bullshit role on the show, even as Angie talked about raising them "far away from Hollywood" in North Carolina.

I've worked as a background wrangler, so spent all day sitting with them. I was told some of the craziest stories about their lives. I sat with two guys who bonded over being bisexual and on the down low and their women don't know. At the end of the day, I saw them exchanging phone numbers.

People would tell me the most intimate things because they knew they would never see me again.

Jenna Elfman acting like she was a big deal while shooting a scene in Silverlake and being escorted everywhere. After hours of NO ONE approaching or noticing her, she actually ended up standing next to the curb facing Thursday evening traffic in LA, scrolling her phone, dying to be treated like someone special

R62 spill everything about Angie please

She introduced herself as Angie to several bg and shook hands with a few she was going to be interacting with in the scene. She even asked their opinion about how they should cross and made chit chat in between takes. I was also on a movie with Jennifer Aniston who was more concerned about being touched up in between takes.

The rudest, most disrespectful actor I've seen in action was Breckin Meyer holding his head down to his phone immediately between takes while ignoring an eyerolling Beau Bridges as they shot a scene together

Lucy Hale was the Teri Hatcher / Bea Arthur of "Pretty Little Liars"

The other three lead actresses were friends in real-life. They all would get a heads-up when Lucy approached the set. She thought they wasted too much time joking around

I have a face for radio but have worked on and off in the industry and....in DL language, "adjacent" to it.

I had a friend who did background work in somewhat the same time frame as OP but apparently a stint as background on Grey's Anatomy pretty much nuked his dream of being an actor - mean actors, especially Dempsey and Heigl, and a 26 hour shoot (despite the fact that even the background folks have time limits). After that he moved back to the Midwest.

I have about a half dozen friends who have done hair/makeup/dresser work on Broadway and NY soap operas. Can't remember many divas mentioned but my dresser friend had notes (but alas, not photos) of which actor had substantial endowments - including one that loved to go commando, and one that needed mid-length boxers with an extra layer sewn in, or his cock knob would be visible on camera).

I also had a friend who did Cher's hair in the 70 (much older than me, must be in his late 70s now) and he said she was "a mouthy broad" but a nice one, and when he saw Moonstruck he laughed, saying that was close to the real her.

I knew a set designer who did consulting work for Ugly Betty - he said that Vanessa Williams is unbelievably nice. I asked about America Ferrera and he said, "Well....(long pause)....Vanessa was just so, so, so nice!"

R59 and before that he would flash people on the set of Buffy.

R70 I think there was some drama about Lucy sleeping with one of Ashley's bfs. It's funny how those two turned out to be bi.

Any stories about Julian Morris on the Pretty Little Liars set?

R72, I never heard about Lucy being bi. But Ashley and Tyler, supposedly dating each other, were actually bi and probably in a PR romance.

Any peen sightings?

R72 I saw it mentioned on the LChat recently. She did an interview and it was a "being attracted to the personality" type answer lol

Stories have been repeated that FRIENDS was a really unpleasant set for guest stars and when they used them, background extras. Super-unfriendly and diva-ish. And the director and crew just went along with it all.

One story involved a rare on-location outdoor shoot that took all day. The extras were miserable, cold, hungry, kept waiting endlessly until someone insisted that they provide them all sandwiches and coffee. Three guesses: it was Lisa Kudrow.

Other set with a bad rep: E.R. back in its heyday.

Set with a great rep, friendly, fun, congenial: FRAZIER. That cast genuinely liked one another, and treated everyone with class.

I worked as background for 78 days on the remake of Thr Stepford Wives. There could have been a very juicy book about went on behind the scenes. Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler bonded over their mutual disdain for the very sweet but painfully slow director Frank Oz. Faith Hill was very sweet. Christopher Walken locked himself in his dressing room when he was presented with a rewrite in which his character was actually a robot and not the mastermind. The Stepford Wives bg themselves were replaced every few days by Scott Rudin. Their replacements were taller, younger and mostly from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. We’d all get Polaroids taken for Scott to decide who to keep. Some would hide in the bathroom to keep from getting their photo taken. One of the Stepford Wives bg said loudly “This is getting to look like Holocaust times.” Just weeks before we were sweltering in the heat at a farm in New Jersey and she said “This must be what being in Vietnam is like.” We’d all just stare at her. But those of us who made it the end got enough $$$ to qualify for SAG medical insurance.

Really loving this thread. I'm curious how much by is paid.

Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic from Castle were both incredibly nice and talked to everyone on set but each other, which makes me think they fucked early on and the attraction fizzled out

Zooey Deschanel once told a dayplaying actor that he didn't need to say his lines or stand in her eyeline off camera and she acted to a piece of tape instead

Niecy Nash, on the other hand, stayed on set for hours while every other actor shot their coverage and did hilarious X-rated improv cracking everyone up when she didn't have to

R75, I used to be a Kappa Tau on “Greek.” I once accidentally saw Scott Michael Foster’s penis when he was taking it out to use the urinal. This was back in 2007. Btw… he has a fun personality. He’s basically his character Cappie.

[quote] Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic from Castle were both incredibly nice and talked to everyone on set but each other, which makes me think they fucked early on and the attraction fizzled out

I thought Nathan liked guys.

R80, these days bg is paid at the union rate of $182/8hrs. Everything after that is overtime.

A friend of mine was placed to stand next to Melanie Griffith at a bus stop and a camera in a car was going to pass by them. There was an awkward silence. He said good morning and she turned to him and yelled “WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?” She was batshit crazy.

r77 I think it's mentioned before why six friends were so unfriendly on set, they joined force and negotiated that million dollar contract, they absolutely did not want any potential threat, guests stars, extras or any one. NBC would love to have some leverage here like finding some breakthrough stars to shake things down and break them up, but they will not allow that to happen, that explains why they were so cold to the guest stars and other actors and alienated them by all means.

[quote] said that John C. Reilly had just fired one of the extras for having his cellphone out.

well I happen to agree with Reilly on this, if cellphone is not allowed on set, you brought it out then you need to go!

^OK, John C.

I had a friend who interned on 'Friends' back in the late 1990's. I asked him if he'd seen one of those outtake shows they had recently put together and this was his emailed reply: "I guess you cut down 6 years of work to 20 minutes of outtakes, you can fool everybody. I actually hated it there -- as did most of the other people I worked with who had to kiss ass all day. Lots of big egos in that place."

[Quote] Stories have been repeated that FRIENDS was a really unpleasant set for guest stars and when they used them, background extras. Super-unfriendly and diva-ish. And the director and crew just went along with it all.

I would be too if i ate the same goddamn salad every day. I'm surprised Jennifer and Reese are working together now because they both sound unpleasant to be around.

only a celeb in select cities, John Moriarty was an evil control freak of a queen and I danced a jig when I found out the old bitch finally died.

r75 if you're interested in theatre, dance and opera, well, there's a lot of everything to be seen. . . just not a lot of time to take it all in. Except occasionally at the party after opening and closing night... in almost every production, most everyone ends up getting far too wasted and avert their eyes the following morning. Of course, unless you're a theatre geek, only one in ten thousand hold a flame long enough to become a well-know celeb, and even then, it's usually only if they're lucky enough to have a production recorded (and somebody doesn't fuck up the liner notes) or they crossed over into tv/film or commercial music.

[R75] He got a nice piece?

r93 he might have but it'd useless, he had all the stereotypes of a total bottom.

R43 I read years (and years) ago that background actors in movie scenes would mouth “rhubarb rhubarb” I wonder if that was true and over time it changed to “peas and carrots?”

What do I know, I’m not in the business. I’m loving this thread though!

Rhubarb and garbage, rhubarb and garbage, rhubarb and garbage

Rhubarb and garbage, rhubarb and garbage, rhubarb and garbage

Rhubarb and garbage, rhubarb and garbage, rhubarb and garbage

Rhubarb and garbage, rhubarb and garbage, rhubarb and garbage

Heh, I've also seen, "watermelon watermelon watermelon" here in L.A.

In one thread, I was surprised to see a (background!) pic of me working as an extra in a film.

Any "Law and Order" background stories?

Super short days. They do one take and it's usually a tracking shot. Chris Meloni is even more attractive in person. Kathy Griffin was guest starring one of the episodes I worked. She seemed dedicated to her role.

R64 I thought Sasha Alexander was really good in her arc on Shameless; I wonder if Angie was as jealous that Sasha was getting other work as she was judgmental about the brief nudity.

(She also got to writhe around on top of Jeremy Allen White’s hot af body, so…bonus.)

[quote] I was also on a movie with Jennifer Aniston who was more concerned about being touched up in between takes.

It wasn't that nasty Steve Carrell character again, was it?

R99. I did several BG shots on L&O:SVU before COVID. Ice-T is very friendly with BG. On set in a subway station, he sat down in the car with BG and chatted. Mariska is very professional, but warm to BG. L&O:SVU is a well oiled machine. The shoots go very smoothly. The cardinal rule in BG is you don’t speak to principals unless you are addressed. My husband also worked BG. He was on a shoot with Nathan Lane, and had to speak to him about cueing. He said “Mr. Lane”, and Mr. Lane said “It’s Nathan”. I also did Madam Secretary, and while the days were long, it was a fun crew and cast. Tea Leoni is very sweet and fun. Another fun, fulfilling show is The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. I have to agree with the earlier comments though. BG work is NOT glamorous, the days are long, and it is a good deal of sitting around and waiting. Bring a book or iPad. And agree that many BG workers are nut cases. I did a couple of gigs early last year after getting fully vaccinated, but it’s not worth the hassle. The COVID testing requirements are strident. For one day’s work on TMMM, I was tested 4 times; one preliminary PCR after being cast, a rapid test on wardrobe day, another rapid test on the Friday prior to the Monday shoot date, and a rapid test on set the shoot day, before being allowed into holding. You get paid for the test days when you have to come in, but the time involved isn’t worth it to me.

Sorry, but does BG refer to bodyguard?

Background, r104.

I know a guy who was an extra on Always Sunny In Philadelphia a few times and he said Danny DeVito was lovely. Treated everyone equally and wasn't a diva. He wasn't into rehearsing because he felt it would kill the spontaneity of the scene.

Charlie was very laid back but was able to jump into his TV Charlie character quickly.

Glenn was very focused on the stuff going on in front of the camera and would need a bit of time to "turn into" Dennis.

Rob was focused on the stuff going on behind the camera and was constantly cracking up and was pretty much like his TV character, being all over the place.

Kaitlin would do her best to draw out stuff from the others to make the scenes funnier rather than try to be the center of attention like her character is.

[quote] Danny DeVito was lovely. Treated everyone equally and wasn't a diva.

I understand he never looks down on anybody.

^^^He would have laughed at that!

I wrote this in another thread but I was an extra on an episode of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.

David Carradine was great, friendly with everyone, ate his meals with the crew and extras and was very protective of Kim Chan who played Lo Si. When the meal break was called David Carradine clapped his hands and said, "Ok everyone, let's eat!"

Chris Potter was a diva who would spend all his free time alone in his trailer and would not interact with anyone unless it was a scene. He hated being in Toronto and thought the show as going to be filmed in LA which is the only reason he took the part. He got into an argument with the director because he felt the scene wasn't gritty enough. The director reminded him that it was a TV show, not Scarface. I know someone who is a regular extra on Heartland and she says Potter is different now and not such a pain but she thinks it's because Shaun Johnston won't put up with divas on the show.

Sydney Pollack's playing a doctor examining Meryl Streep in 'Death Becomes Her' and then having a heart attack when he realizes she was a zombie didn't make it my favorite film but it did make it as my favorite scene. (Extra funny because he had previously directed her in Out Of Africa)

Did a film with John Leguizamo, who was incredibly sweet. Not only to bg, but to supporting cast as well. I had one scene, maybe 5 or six lines, long with him. He was hysterically funny, and would improvise on every take, to the point that when we went to shoot reverses and coverage, they had to take and show him the master so he could "try" and match it. What should have been a four hour shoot in a nightclub, ended up going past midnight (cha-ching, cha-ching) so God love the man, that scene paid me enough for the down payment on my condo.

... the trip!

The multiple Covid tests are insanely ridiculous. I went through the same testing/fitting routine on TMMM and, travel wise, it takes me 90 mins to get to Steiner Studios and the testing takes 5 mins. But it pays $100 so if I have nothing else going on that day at least I make some quick cash. Last time I worked on TMMM I went through 4 Covid tests and a fitting only to sit around for five hours in costume on shoot day only to be sent home because they decided at the last minute to cut the scene. And that’s show biz folks.

Even as a mere extra on a big budget movie (that flopped), I was followed throughout the day on my set by an Oscar-winning makeup artist!

It’s funny when you do ‘featured background’ work and you get to work with the director a bit and have PA’s asking if you need anything while on set yet you get paid the same $182 because you never speak.

R106 Aw that’s good to hear. I’ve watched a few of their show commentaries and would stood out to me is that they would also remember the name of extras and shout them out. Some of their featured extras have worked with them for years

My lover of 40 years did background on Desperately Seeking Susan. He had no idea who Madonna was, but she came and sat next to him and tried to pick him up. He explained that her plumbing was wrong, but he really liked her earring.

If life transcends death, I will seek for you there. If not, then there too.

As a work environment, film and television shoots can be like waiting for emergency care in a city hospital, or the DMV. The roles and protocols are pretty rigid and participation is carefully controlled. I have friends who subsisted on background work for a long time. Weirdly, an industrial media project that I participated in became a television project and I ended up in SAG. I filmed 9 projects,stayed quiet and did everything they told me to. It was an interesting time and I made some money doing it. The media coaching helped me a lot in other work roles. On location, I remember a lot of stressed out production assistants treating me very gingerly between takes, and it felt like everyone had been yelled at on any given day. The money came is strange ways, big and small checks, spread out over quarters.

R88, I don’t recall there having been a rule about no cellphones on set. But Reilly was upset because it was a period piece and seeing the cellphone threw him out of the period scene.

What's SAG/AFTRA scale for a day's work as Background?

R92, you're so far off-topic. No wonder John Moriarty didn't like you.

R99 and R103, yes, Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T are warm and pleasant with bg but Richard Belzer was the absolute worst. He was often needlessly nasty to them and would often blame them when he’d fuck up his blocking. I saw a regular squad room bg guy talking to Mariska and Belzer walked up to her and said “Why are you even bothering?” and she turned to him and said “Why the fuck are you interrupting our conversation? Go learn your lines.” She’s cool.

Getting back to Lauren Graham-it was well known in the business that she actually said to Alexis Bledel “Don’t talk to the extras because they’re fucking morons and once you engage them they won’t shut up and you’ll want to shoot yourself in the face.”

Op-A close friend of mine had a production job on The OC. He told me that the younger crowd ( except Rachel Bilson) weren't well-liked by the crew.

R77 Every person I know who worked on Friends (guest star, extra or crew) either loved or hated the experience - nothing in between.

Famous guest stars (none of whom I know btw) say the same thing. Tom Selleck has said several times that he found the cast "exclusionary," but Aisha Tyler loved being on the show.

I can understand about both Lauren and Alexis being bitches. That’s what happens when the show centers on those awful, horrible self-centered, selfish, self-involved cows.

The more I watch it the more I hate-watch it. They were truly ugly people.

How did it run for 7 years?

I’ve said this on other threads (so at least I’m consistent) but I don’t begrudge any actresses who wants to make sure she’s properly touched up in between takes. And I’m sure anyone who doesn’t insist on that is just afraid of being labeled “difficult.” With all the picking apart of appearances on here alone, let alone from anywhere that matters? They 100% have that right.

If they’re assholes on top of that it’s another story.

I heard the opposite about Lauren Graham from someone who worked for a long time on Parenthood. Said she was incredibly lovely and thoughtful to the crew. I’m wondering if it was just immaturity on the set of GG, coupled with those 70 page scripts.

DL fave Deb Messing didn't want background looking at her on Will & Grace.

I drove behind Madeline Stowe as she was leaving the "Revenge" stages at Manhattan Beach Studios during peak rush hour traffic at 5:30pm to make the hour-plus drive back to Hollywood and thought, "Stars....They're just like us!"

[quote] DL fave Deb Messing didn't want background looking at her on Will & Grace.

Let me tell you about Deb Messing.......

All the shows (at least in NY) shut down on either March 12th or 13th 2020. Production really didn’t start cranking up again until September/October. There was a lot of speculation what would happen with bg. What happened is that several shows like New Amsterdam, Law & Order: SVU, Gossip Girl and Murders in the Building would have a core group of bg who would be “carried.” This was a non-contract situation where they would get paid Monday through Friday whether they worked or not. They’d have to get tested several times a week, of course. In the case of SVU the core was mostly bg regulars who’d been in the squadroom for many years. Now, in addition to the squadroom, they were used for utility purposes-in restaurant, shops and street scenes. This “carrying” system extends to the regular stand-ins and is still in place. For how much longer who knows.

Thanks for joining us Lauren/Lauren’s agent/R127.

Reese Witherspoon is a complete Type A (also the name of her production company) soccer mom forbidding phones on set - for real, you'll be fired - like she probably does during "suppertime"

Also likely having "Let's give 'em somethin to talk about" man/woman sex with her current bodyguard who shadows her everywhere

Things have been going full blast in LA with all the streamers occupying the studios since Fall 2020 and having to test every person on set

A lot of anti-vax BG (and crew members) are being sifted out now with so many studios and productions requiring proof before hire

I've worked on It's Always Sunny, which I've never seen, and more random people have recognized from that than anything else

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that one of my dresser friends worked on the show w Brad Garrett that...wasn't Raymond? Apparently he had another sitcom.

Anyway, Brad apparently likes to present cock. He's a flasher. Or at the very least lets it all hang out when possible. I mean, he's not j/o in front of ppl like Louis CK or walking around on set nude. He just apparently always conveniently has a robe open when someone came to his dressing room, or would always be giving someone an eyeful in the men's room.

The people on his set knew or had been warned.

Apparently his dick is quite substantial. Unfortunately, it's attached to Brad Garrett.

I was never in a scene with him R73 but did work a lot with Nia Peeples, who was so nice, and all I could think about was her being with Howard Hewett in the 80s and her "Trouble" video

Do CBS tv show actors drive themselves to set (commute to work in their own car)? I know that in big blockbusters like the Marvel movies, the stars get chauffeured daily.

I know that the actors on the shows filmed in NYC are chauffeured to and from the set. In LA I think many of them choose to drive themselves, but being chauffeured is an option.

Jennifer Aniston is beloved by everyone who has ever met her.

R139 is correct. It's a must in NY, with traffic and a lack of parking, there's just no way.

Also, a lot of the series stars are over the border in NJ/CT so a driver is a perk and lets them relax, review their lines, etc.

I read somewhere a story about Tom Welling almost falling asleep driving back from filming Smallville and he almost got into an accident.

They gave him a driver so he wouldn’t have to worry about him driving after long days of work.

[quote]but did work a lot with Nia Peeples

I had SUCH a crush on her when I was a 12-year-old "Fame" fan in the 1980s. Happy to hear she's a nice person!

Any top big budget movie and commercial have drivers for the lead actors, but most TV actors drive themselves (drugs, for one thing) and a lot of New York actors doing guest spots in LA have drivers

Shemar Moore has his initials as his license plate

American Horror Story is psycho about phones out on set and will fire you on the spot

Ryan Murphy shows in general are a PILL and take forever to do everything because the crew makes so much money in overtime - triple time daily - that they move like molasses on purpose

[quote]American Horror Story is psycho about phones out on set and will fire you on the spot

[quote]Reese Witherspoon is a complete Type A (also the name of her production company) soccer mom forbidding phones on set - for real, you'll be fired

Which is the way it should be. You're working, you self-important twats.

A friend of my father's was a camera man on The Wild Wild West. Said that Bob Conrad was one of the most difficult men he'd ever worked with. One day he'd be really nice, the next day he'd challenge half the crew to a fist fight. He was an alcoholic, but that seemed more like a symptom of his mood swings than a cause. And there was often a pretty blond guy around the set, Bob's hook-up for the night. If anyone suggested anything about that, they were fired.

Any stories R135?

I totally agree with no cell phones on set. It's a terrible distraction.

You’ll NEVER meet a nicer or more beloved celebrity than Jen Aniston.

[quote] He deleted the tweet and hasn't said a thing about her since.

That's what your friend deserves for liking one of the worst shows ever made.

I heard that Lea Michelle was not so nice. Haha, you guys probably never heard that one...

R147 LOL when's the last time you were in a workplace and 90% of the employees "working" weren't zombified by their phones

The director of a a short-lived tv show I was in told me that my cue was to come in when a certain character made his entrance. Having never seen the show, I had to ask the director to describe him. That didn’t go over well.

[quote]The director of a a short-lived tv show I was in told me that my cue was to come in when a certain character made his entrance. Having never seen the show, I had to ask the director to describe him. That didn’t go over well.

People who make their life’s work out of being cast as “extra” should really limit their criticism of others.

R153, I did background when Glee was shooting in NY. In the scene we were shooting Lea’s character was exiting the smaller doors at Grand Central Station. I stood about ten feet from her. The camera was outside on a dolly track. They had a PA cue her from inside to walk out the door. The PA introduced herself to Lea who was fully absorbed by her phone. The PA cued her but she was late because she was still looking at her phone. We could hear an AD yelling at the PA on her earbuds. The PA very politely asked Michele to go when she was cued and Michele yelled “I WAS ON MY PHONE, OK? IMPORTANT BUSINESS ON MY PHONE!” So no apology, then. Massive cunt.

The cast of Seinfeld, well the main four. I remember a story about an extra who casually talked to Julia Louis Dryfess on the set and she ignored them and called over a stage manager and said "they are not supposed to talk to us." as if the extra was not there.

The set of Succession is a pleasant place to work as bg. I’ve worked in the Waystar office stuff. All the actors are fine but the standouts for me in terms of who deigns to smile at bg are Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin and the guy who plays Frank. The guy who plays Karl seems very snobbish. Jeremy Strong is just weird.

I did a lot of BG working in Chicago from 2007-3013. Featured extra, photo double, stand in as well. Most everyone I dealt with was pleasant and professional. A few power trip PAs here and there, but in the whole everyone seemed to work together well. Shia LaBouef was the only unpleasant talent, but he was shit face wasted on set filming Eagle Eye. Patrick Swayze and Jerry O’Connell stand out as friendliest talent.

R79, were you posting on Datalounge at the time you were working on Stepford Wives? I remember we had some fantastic gossipy threads with an insider giving behind the scenes updates about the chaotic production. If that was you, bless you!

Here’s my ugliest encounter with a wardrobe assistant. I had a featured moment in a scene and was on set for four hours with just three of the leads and me. I know my place so I only spoke when spoken to and moved out of the way between shots. When we wrapped and everyone moved on to the next set up I went back to holding and made the mistake of asking this wardrobe assistant very nicely if I could go into the dressing room and change. She glared at me and said ‘what is your position here.’ I said ‘I’m an extra.’ ‘Well, extras aren’t officially excused so sit down and we’ll tell you when you can change.’ Cunt.

[quote]She glared at me and said ‘what is your position here.’ I said ‘I’m an extra.’

You answered your own question. Please sit down and shut up.

R156, and yet you are posting in a thread to hear stories from extras....

I can believe Charlie Sheen, as the son of Martin Sheen, is decent on set. Martin, for a big star, seems like a mensch. I imagine him to be (IRL) like his character on "The Departed." Martin Sheen was also really handsome when young (and still looks good, IMO).

Vanessa Williams, glad to hear she's nice on set as well. She played a diva so well in Diva's Christmas that I thought it was the real her (diva).

Mischa Barton & Jenna Elfman pulling rank and acting like snobs? Figures. Both pretty, but dime a dozen in their field.

Chiming in to agree that Tea Leoni really was a delight on set of Madam Secretary. Very open, warm and funny. A really fun person to be around.

Rachel Brosnihan of Mrs. Maisel is also a sweetie. She’s gone out of her way to praise the bg on her show. She mentions them in awards speeches and the like. A cynic might think she mainly does that to get votes once the SAG-AFTRA Awards gets going but I don’t think so. Bg is a more than usually important aspect of Maisel and she’s wise to appreciate that.

[quote]Vanessa Williams, glad to hear she's nice on set as well. She played a diva so well in Diva's Christmas that I thought it was the real her (diva).

We've had several threads on Vanessa and I don't think there's been a critical word against her.

By all accounts, she's always professional, prepared and very nice to all.

On the set of “All About Eve”, Celeste Holm said “Good morning Miss Davis.” Bette replied “Oh shit! Good manners.” Celeste took offense, but she should’ve laughed it off. Even though they disliked each other, they had amazing chemistry on screen.

I wasn't a background player, but a friend of someone working on a movie. I can confirm that Danny DeVito is very nice.

He didn't know who the fuck I was, but when my friend walked me into his trailer, he stood up immediately, asked who I was, shook my hand, and said how pleased he was to meet me.

Very unlike some of the stars of that movie.

Danny DeVito's former nanny had only good things to say about him and Rhea.

R156, people who post here should really try to get more exercise than leaping to unfounded conclusions.

Jussie Smollett makes his bg beat him up and tie nooses around his neck.

R169 ok I’ll bite what movie?

R170 isn’t Rhea supposed to be kind of nasty?

[Quote] I read somewhere a story about Tom Welling almost falling asleep driving back from filming Smallville and he almost got into an accident.

It was a similar deal with KJ Apa. Ruby Rose recently called out the CW for it's treatment of cast and crew but it didn't really amount to much. Other than cast suddenly tweeting about how great their set is 🙄 Like is it really worth getting uti just to work on The Flash??

[Quote] Also likely having "Let's give 'em somethin to talk about" man/woman sex with her current bodyguard who shadows her everywhere

Is her bodyguard hot?

[Quote] Op-A close friend of mine had a production job on The OC. He told me that the younger crowd ( except Rachel Bilson) weren't well-liked by the crew.

Some of the cast didn't have great things to say about the leads either.

R117, tell us more about your 'lover of 40 years'.

As if that has ANYTHING to do with the topic.

Ruby Rose didn't realize what she was getting into with the cw show. She was going to be working nights and 12 hour shifts. It's grueling! She would show up and they would rush to put her through hair, make up , and wardrobe and then she would sit around for six to seven hours, in latex, waiting for the lighting crew to get ready, then the camera rehearsals, then the background rehearsals, then the stunts crew, then the special fx crew!!!!!!!!!!! It is so complicated to shoot those super hero shows and movies. She couldn't handle it. She blew up, then she got yelled at by the powers at be, then she reported it to the network, they did nothing, and she quit. Prior to the cw show, her experience was Orange is the New Black. A very simple easy show to shoot. She learned the hard way. Now she's probably branded as "difficult" and won't work again.

[quote] According to an old reddit thread John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer were standoffish on the set of the office.

I remember reading that one. I always thought there was something phony about both Krasinksi and Fischer. I also thought they were both bland actors on The Office. I also remember in the last season or two of The Office on celeb gossip sites, there rumors that Krasinksi turned into asshole after marrying Emily Blunt and other gossip was that some Office cast members didn't like Blunt and dreaded being around her at events.

I worked BG on Cybill many times.

And??

R178, spill about Cybill!

The nanny didn't mention any nastiness in their home, R173. She loved working for them. How Rhea acted on set may have been a different matter.

Didn't Rhea become a paranoid agoraphobe in the years before the divorce?

[quote] [R77] I think it's mentioned before why six friends were so unfriendly on set, they joined force and negotiated that million dollar contract, they absolutely did not want any potential threat, guests stars, extras or any one. NBC would love to have some leverage here like finding some breakthrough stars to shake things down and break them up, but they will not allow that to happen, that explains why they were so cold to the guest stars and other actors and alienated them by all means.

So you're saying it was due to [italic]greed.[/italic]

Well, that makes it okay then.

R176 Ruby's always been an asshole. And she was difficult on the set of Batwoman. Which is probably why her tangent didn't really go anywhere.

Possibly, R282. The nanny was only with them for a few years, so maybe she didn't witness that, or chose not to disclose it.

I wish I could remember which of the numerous nanny books released at that time contained the Disney/DeVito info.

[quote] I worked BG on Cybill many times.

Oh, Christine, you think more highly of yourself than you ought.

R64 Slightly ot but I always thought Angie resembled a brunette Nicole brown

and forgot to mention MadTV has the best lines in the video R112

--- "What (extra) agency are you with?

--- "Could Be Anyone Entertainment!"

and that background guru actor was from "Out of Sight Out of Mind" Agency, lol

A friend does BG work and he loves loves loves Kathleen Turner.

He says she seemed a little muddled about why she was cast (it was that Dolly Parton movie) but she was bawdy and fun and professional.

He was BG in a Lifetime movie and says Stepfanie Kramer is a doll.

R187 she's her sister Denise Browns's doppelganger

An ex of mine used to work front desk at a hotel in Vancouver where a lot of actors would stay when they were filming. He said that Tim Robbins would always come in smelling of weed and make it clear he didn't want to engage in small talk...a lower case dick.

[quote] . I remember a story about an extra who casually talked to Julia Louis Dryfess on the set and she ignored them and called over a stage manager and said "they are not supposed to talk to us." as if the extra was not there.

Then the extra got what he had coming.

R192 = LIE....That was a FAKE STORY and Julia Louis Dreyfuss parodied it in an episode of VEEP where VP Meyer had a secret service agent fired for smiling at her. The Episode was called "Full Disclosure" --ep7 s1....

I don't necessarily see an actor not wanting to talk to background actors as awful or mean in and of itself. Some people really need to immerse themselves in a specific reality and stay in character.

It's just all how they handle it. Everyone's there to do a job.

If you’re interested in filmmaking or acting in film it’s worth doing at least a few times to see how sets work.

I had sex with a daytime actor who came to Ohio for an event. Ironically he has never publicly come out. We did it at his hotel room downtown. Just oral naked stuff. We were both in our 20s. It was years ago. I would say it was sweet. We just started kissing and one thing led to another. It didn't seem like something he regularly did. We had small talk afterwards and he gave me his number but I never called him.. He had a noticeable accent which he didn't have on the show. He still acts.

Julia Roberts is the nastiest cunt around. Friend was wadrobe on that shit film Little Women. The extras were teens dressed in old ass clothing (period pieces ) which were flimsy because of the material (lace etc) it was pouring rain but they were blocked and lined up for Cunt Roberts to walk by, she refused to leave her trailer until the rain ended BUT she insisted the extras stand IN THE COLD RAIN SANS UMBRELLAS until she was ready to shoot the scene. They were kids shaking cold. More stories I can’t recall details but overall my friend said she loathes being on a set with Julia and now her equally cunty and equally barely talented niece, Emma. Friends worked on hundreds of shoots (movies and TV and commercials) She said Howard Stern and co. We’re the most down to earth, respectful and normal people on the set of the movie Private Parts. Shot in Brooklyn Silver Cup Studios in Mid 90s. She also hates Reece Witherspoon and JLo.

You will not make eye contact with Miss Lopez or speak to her unless she addresses you directly first.

Julia was treated like a literal queen during her La Vie Est Belle commercials and rolled her eyes and pouted and whined and bitched the whole time, as if she wasn't making millions for one day of work

The "no eye contact" thing is in place for a reason. Eye contact is an invitation to conversation which is exhausting for an actor. They want to act. and not be drained by small talk. I get it. They aren't assholes, they want to give their energy to the performance, not the behind the scenes shit.

J-Lo phones it in during her scenes and barely communicates with her co-stars until cameras roll, which is why she doesn't have chemistry with anyone in her movies

[quote] The more I watch it the more I hate-watch it. They were truly ugly people. How did it run for 7 years?

I was really into Gilmore Girls, to the point of being a regular on the TWOP forums, but I came into it late, watching the re-runs all at once and starting on the current episodes towards the end of Season 4. Watching it in order over a short period of time (almost binging it) made it really obvious that they had changed from being quirky and sometimes difficult to being outright awful. Others on TWOP didn't agree and I got time-outs all the time for mentioning Lorelai or Rory being selfish.

Then they all acted completely blindsided when Rory slept with Dean and the show did the whole "he's misunderstood and henpecked so it's totally understandable" thing. I honestly thought the show might end with Season 5 or 6 because of it but I think the audience by that point were hate-watchers and people into messy soap operas.

[quote]He was BG in a Lifetime movie and says Stepfanie Kramer is a doll.

Does anyone else remember the insider from the Usenet groups (agc or asg, I don't remember which) who worked on one of those shows in the 1980s about pranking Hollywood celebrities, and how they felt badly for Kramer when she was on it because she was so nice but the prank was awful? I think it was the Dick Clark prank show but I am blanking on the name of it, and it's not on her IMDb.

Anyway, I remember the story because I'd actually seen that segment on TV: someone shows up to her house and says that there's a problem with a gas line, I believe, and they have to move the whole house over by a few inches, and she's trying to be polite at first and eventually loses her temper. I'd assumed it was staged but the insider said it wasn't, that the crew felt worse and worse as she got more and more upset, and they had to edit out the real ending where she was crying and film a new one after they informed her that it was a prank. Apparently she lost her temper for real, and it sounds like it was deserved.

I've liked her ever since. And she really does seem nice in interviews.

I knew someone who worked at a low level on the set of Oscar and Lucinda (1997).

Director Gillian Armstrong treated anyone 'minor' working on the film like shit.

Ralph Fiennes was apparently delightful and friendly with everyone on the set.

Is "background talent" is what they're now calling "extras", or have they always used that phrase? It doesn't take talent to be an extra.

Scratch that second "is"...

I worked at Warner Bros back in the day as a computer programmer.

Great place to work.

Great thread. It's describing exactly the way I saw it.

R205 when I was with an agency we were known as SAs - supporting artists. Grandiose. I preferred ‘extra’ or ‘background’. Booked for a day to play a body on a cop show (as usual, there’d been a murder) I made my way to hair and makeup, passing a trailer with the same name as mine taped on the door. Intrigued, I looked around wondering who my namesake actor was. Finished in wardrobe (where they removed clothing rather than dressing me as I had to have top half bare) I was then shown to ‘my’ trailer where I sat waiting to be called. A glum, soulless experience. Would have rather been on the crew bus. I knew my place.

[Quote] J-Lo phones it in during her scenes and barely communicates with her co-stars until cameras roll, which is why she doesn't have chemistry with anyone in her movies

I thought she did ok in Hustlers. Which makes it funnier because Constance is supposed to be a major bitch and got into a fight with Gemma Chan while filming Crazy Rich Asians.

[Quote] She also hates Reece Witherspoon and JLo.

I would love to see those two work together.

R197, Julia Roberts wasn’t in Little Women (the 1994 or 2019 version).

^Maybe that Mona Lisa Smile dreck.

R143, aww, I think it's great that our lesbian sisters are able to realize the girls they crushed on were total sweethearts on set. I know, MARY!

Yes, R141, I cannot believe that KJ Apa wasn't willing to bunk with us. He'd be too trained to perform.

Take a look at the clip at r112 again and focus on Will Sasso. Dude is very funny throughout, having committed to the role of talent free extra student.

R203 I hope she ripped everyone a new one after that. I vaguely remember the house moving incident. Fred Dryer was there. I get the feeling he wouldn’t have been too happy either.

Also remembered another thing my friend said about Kathleen Turner - you can never be prepared for her voice.

[quote]The more I watch GG the more I hate-watch it. They were truly ugly people. How did it run for 7 years?

Because every frau who had a daughter in broadly Rory's age-group said, "That's us!!"

I never understood either why fraus wanted to identify with smug twats with a misplaced view of their own cleverness, but a lot of those Millennial daughters grew up to be just like that, so...

Re: Julia Roberts (and as stated above, she was never in any version of 'Little Women'), I actually checked her husband out of the hotel I worked at close to x20 years ago. We all knew he was staying with us, but no one had seen him. He was so down-to-earth and kind at check-out; he was staying with us whilst filming a documentary. So opposites attract.

Side note: My co-workers and I were supposed to go to a taping of Mo'Nique's talk show right after she won her Oscar. We had the tickets, the parking pass, etc. Then my closest coworker who'd wanted to go had a death in the family, so none of us went. Looking back, I should've gone by myself...even back then I wanted to see how the Oscar had changed her. (The talk show was cancelled not long after.) Ironically, Mo'Nique stayed at another hotel I was working at a few years ago, and was a complete diva. To the point of screaming and pounding her fists on the front desk. Thankfully, I never had to deal with her firsthand. (We all called her "Precious;" a very cliche nickname, I know.)

R205, “background” replaced the term for “extras” at least twenty years. It’s never been “background talent.” “Supporting artistes/SAs” is a term which is used in the UK, not the US.

ADs and PAs on sets have taken to using the term “background friends” when addressing us. It bugs some people but I’m fine with it.

Ruby Rose was a cunt on the set of Orange is the New Black. Her character was written out as quickly as possible.

Speaking of OITNB in Season 1 they used a lot of actual ex offenders as bg but it was too “problematic.” It’s well known now that those about to be released from incarceration are actually told that doing bg is a decent way to earn money since casting/production don’t do background checks.

R217, and what about "atmosphere"?

When I worked in downtown Chicago there was a rumor that Terrence Howard, one of the sons on Empire whose name escapes me but wasn't Jussie, and a few BG were filming an Empire scene on the street somewhere and Terrence had to piss, and he apparently went into some dry cleaners, who declined to let him use the restroom, whereupon he pissed on their floor.

I assume money was paid and police, if they were called, were hushed about the whole thing, it was never in the papers. But everyone in our area, where they'd been filming for a specific church building, heard all about it.

Not surprising at all but my friend works in the entertainment industry and said that Julia cheats on her husband all the time. Also, another friend worked as a driver and said that Bono and Mariah were both very rude (again, not surprising). But P Diddy was really cool.

r196 who was it? Is he still on daytime now? Which soap. Give us some hints if you won't name names.

In the UK I think they refer to them as "Background Artists".

I met a woman at a party who did BG work at OINTB for years. She didn’t tell me anything interesting to report here except that she was cast as the cell mate of a primary actress who was known to be extremely difficult to work with and had had issues with past BG cellmates. This was in the second to last or last season.

I never saw the woman I’d meet on the show to know which actress she was talking about.

R219, “atmosphere” is a term used in LA but not by everybody,

I had a friend who was flown, along with nine other bg, to LA to do interior soundstage work on the Oliver Stone film World Trade Center. These ten bg were needed for continuity purposes and this sort of situation was extremely rare. Anyway my friend reported to work and said hello to a crew guy. The blank faced crew guy said “Sorry, I don’t talk to atmosphere” and walked right on by.

R223, yes, but the term SAs/supporting artistes is much more commonly used.

R217, Oh, you mean [italic]supernumeraries[/italic].

I did hear that Kelly Bishop and Edward Herrmann were nothing but quintessential professionals. I don't know about talking to "the commons" on set, but I have always heard they had good manners.

r225 your friend should have said "oh sorry, I thought I was talking to someone important"

When I first started working on camera, I learned to observe all the boundaries. We changed locations, and I innocently reached for a small toolbox (it looked like a fishing tackle box, but aluminum). Someone grabbed my arm and said (nicely, but sternly) “you can’t do that”. I didn’t feel reproached, but began to understand that dynamic in media production. On other projects, they let me wear my own clothing, but it was pressed and steamed by a special wardrobe person (I liked that). The sound person would unbutton my clothing and run cables up my sleeves and down my trousers. That tickled. I got $3200 per diem for performance fees, then fees to hold the footage, and then still other fees when the material was broadcast. It was all very interesting and it happened fast. But my main work also took off at the same time (probably because of that media presence), so I focused on that instead of testing for tv projects. My friends who really wanted to perform and tried for a long time to get projects were a little standoffish with me for a while (“ew! HIM?!l”) was a comment that always got back to me. I’m glad that the experience was sort of separate from my central focus in life. People in casting said that helped them choose me, which sounds odd but must have been true.

As a graveside funeral guest in one movie, I was presented a handkerchief ... along with the cautionary language about not talking to the talent. When the lead actor arrived, sneezing, right in front of me, I silently offered my handkerchief. I thought security might tackle me.

[quote]Tim Robbins would always come in smelling of weed and make it clear he didn't want to engage in small talk...a lower case dick.

Cut him some slack. He was exhausted from caring for his elderly wife.

R230 very interesting. What was your main line of work? I can't imagine how being a faceless lab/office worker on a tv show (for example) could help one's non-media work. Was the aluminum toolbox a prop? Even lead actors aren't allowed to touch props, for continuity purposes.

Yes, I think the best route is to be financially solvent independent of one's media/ background work. Perhaps when I'm a retiree, but might be too ugly/ odd looking for tv then. Wow, $3300 per day is more than half what the average American earns monthly (ie: average Joe earns less than $6400 monthly)

R228 Kelly remembered when SHE was background, as well as when she had under 5 and recurring roles in daytime. She had a long, long journey to a gig like GG and she never forgot it, bless her heart.

R234 No. She had a very stable theatrical career in the New York City.

She was in some good films too- An Unmarried Woman, Dirty Dancing, Six Degrees of Separation, Cafe Society, and Private Parts.

Someone told me when she was doing bg in NY back in the 1970s and 1980s most of them were actually actors taking class and doing theater work. She said that totally changed by the 90s and it was all about your look and if you had a good enough collection of clothing items to satisfy the wardrobe departments. After the 2008 meltdown a lot of people migrated from their previous jobs on Wall Street to bg work. My friend referred to them as “financial crisis refugees.” And of course all of them had great business wardrobe. Add the merging of SAG and AFTRA to that and an awful lot of old timers (like my friend) got squeezed out. And it’s certainly true men of a certain age get more bg work than their female counterparts.

I was a film extra/background artist in the U.K. in the early 90,s. I worked on a god awful Micheal Winner film called Bullseye, featuring Michael Caine, Roger Moore and Sally Kirkland. Early one morning I was sat next to Sally in hair and make up having my powdered wig fitted, it was a period scene filmed in a massive ballroom in a stately home, I was one of the waiters in a scene with tons of people. Sally was a complete butch to the hairstylist, telling her that she wanted her hair up as that’s how Michael liked it. The hairstylist pointed out the continuity Polaroids on the mirror showing her with her hair down. Sally wouldn’t back down even when she realised she was in the wrong, and worse still she knew that I had witnessed her stupidity. I just looked straight ahead into the mirror pretending that I wasn’t listening. Of course during the filming of the scene scene she complained that I was hogging the camera, a stupid lie, and cunt face Winner started screaming at me.

I also worked on A Kiss Before Dying with Matt Dillon and Sean Young. Sean was great, I was in hair and makeup sat next to her and she was asking the make up lady about English guys cocks and she kept looking at me whilst she was talking and smiling.

R235 you don't start out with a stable career and starring in films

[quote] Sally [Kirkland] was a complete butch to the hairstylist, telling her that she wanted her hair up as that’s how Michael liked it.

I'm sure you meant bitch, not butch. Anyway, Sally Kirkland is lucky to have had a career. She always looks like one thing, IMO: a bimbo.

Brad Pitt, Eva Longoria, Kristen Wiig, Sasha Alexander, Casey Affleck, Kesha, Rami Malek, Kelly Clarkson, Dennis Haysbert, Gina Rodriguez, Jim Belushi, This is Us' Chrissy Metz and Jon Huertes were all booked by Central Casting in Burbank

R235 as if you know her or have any information other than IMDb

Bruce Willis doing background in "The Verdict"

Brad Pitt doing background in "Less Than Zero" and "No Way Out"

[quote]Bruce Willis doing background in "The Verdict"

That makes it even funnier that, within a handful of years, he was holding up production on "Moonlighting" because he was demanding an even bigger jet be sent to bring him back from his ski trip.

Background hostility originates with bigotry, racism and homophobia because for more than a century up until today, the only time you see someone who is Black, Latino, Asian, Indian, Gay or any race other than the lead actors in most shows and movies are background actors

One time I was trapped inside my trailer (on location) as it caught on fire. I screamed and screamed for help. I busted out the top glass portion of the trailer door. Finally getting the attention of the production crew. They got my door open and me out! I suffered minor smoke inhalation as a result.

R246, the perils of being a flaming queen.

Before Screen Extras Guild merged with Screen Actors Guild, meals were not required for everyone on set. Once meals were required for background, the rest of the crew demanded they were fed as well. Now they act as if it's some privilege for background to eat with them, when actually they are only eating BECAUSE of background

I can understand why a certain demographic would watch gilmore girls as lighthearted fun but it was a comically unrealistic fantasy of how someone who had a child at 16 ( and their daughter) would turn out. It might have been slightly more realistic if they had Lorelei simply play a younger mother, ie someone who had a sprog in college or something.

r230's paid quote must be a typo. Also s/he wasn't a background player, because they were wired for sound, which means that they had lines.

When they had scenes with others, R228. They were mostly in scenes with the self-involved ones.

Plus the odd maid character.

Bishops character was also self-involved and selfish. That’s where the other two got it from.

r246, Was that when you were Charlies Angels?

No, r246. I was on the set of one of my films that was being remade. My old friend, Charlie Townsend, sent 3 of his beautiful associates to help me get to the bottom of a diabolical plot to force me into bankruptcy. You see, they nearly succeeded. If it weren’t for Charlie and his associates, I wouldn’t be sitting here today. I must express my deep gratitude to Sabrina Duncan who was undercover as my secretary.

R235 She had those too. But she started out at the bottom, as most do.

What's SAG/AFTRA scale for BG and for how many hours? How much extra do you get for "Special Business?"

R250 That’s true. At the time they titled me Principal Player and the agency handled my SAG application on my behalf, using the pay stub as part of that process. The fees included print media, two sessions of photographs in a studio in Chelsea and two outdoor sessions in parks. Good catch. These checks averaged this amount during the weeks that I performed, and then changed once the material aired. They sent a list of EU countries where it was shown, and I saw the images often when I traveled, in airports and places like that. It was an adventure. I’m not sure I’d be so lucky now, but between 2007 & 2011, it was a cool project and a small windfall. “I was young(er) and needed the money…” a childhood friend had a similar experience, but made less and had to be in an embarrassing advertisement. He is still pissed.

R24 I still have not forgiven her for what she did to Margo Channing!

R256, that must have been a commercial, no?

[quote]“This is getting to look like Holocaust times.” Just weeks before we were sweltering in the heat at a farm in New Jersey and she said “This must be what being in Vietnam is like.” We’d all just stare at her.

She sounds amazing. I would have tried my damndest to befriend her and follow her to other sets.

Funny, I just rewatched The Verdict yesterday. Willis can be seen clearly behind Roxanne Hart and James Handy, who play the sister and brother-in-law of the girl in the coma. His body language is extremely odd for someone sitting in a particularly tense trial, both his arms are lying on either side of him on the bench. I think he can only be seen in that one scene but he’s either blocked for the final summation/verdict or he’s not there at all.

Sorry, meant to specify both his arms are up on the back of the bench, dangling. Very weird. Way too relaxed looking.

My aunt met Julia Robert’s when she visited the school my aunt worked at. Julia was doing some documentary that had filming at the school. My aunt said that Julia was very nice to all the school staff and seemed to take a genuine interest in what they did.

She also said she was so skinny and wondered if she was anorexic.

A friend had a part in a Patti Lupone show. Said Patti was an absolute diva—almost cartoon like—but no one took her shouting or demands seriously and were bemused by her.

this is how this entire thread has become!

[quote]She also said she was so skinny and wondered if she was anorexic.

It can be startling how skinny many actors and actresses are IRL because the camera adds weight. They have to keep themselves at the very end of a normal weight category or a bit below it.

Your point being, R263?

In the late 1970s director Fred Zinnemann was unhappy with the UK “extras” who’d been cast to play the restaurant patrons for an extended sequence at Sardi’s for his film Julia starring Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. He didn’t think they looked American enough. So a NY casting director named Sylvia Fay was hired to bring over a number of actors to be in the sequence. They were flown over and spent five days in London, all expenses paid. And then Zinnemann ended up cutting most of the sequence anyway. I guess they must also have been in a later scene when Jane Fonda slugs the guy who says he had sex with his sister (Meryl Streep in her first major film).

OP asked for BG actors and extras on DL to tell their stories, but read it yourself R265, except a few who were actually working on a set, most replies in thread are hearsay from other sources including the one you just wrote.

[quote] Sorry, meant to specify both his arms are up on the back of the bench, dangling. Very weird. Way too relaxed looking.

He (B. Willis) was trying to stand out from the crowd (in The Verdict).

OMG! That's just outrageous! Right, Miss R266?!

R268 don't be mad, you are not alone, most people are not actor material either.

My friend was an extra on the movie Anger Management and said Adam Sandler was super nice and interacted with everyone. This was during a long late night shoot too. Jack Nicholson didn’t interact with them at all.

[quote] I did a lot of BG working in Chicago from 2007-3013.

You sure fucking did!

I used to do PR for a west coast soap. One day the producer came up to me and said 'I need a huge favor. Our u5 didn't show. I need someone to walk into the bar scene and bump into XXXX and then say "You got a problem" like you are going to kick the shit out of him. I should mention I am 6'2 and pretty muscular but no actor (typical muscle mary in my day). I called my boss because the last thing he wanted was wanna be actors working for him. He laughed and said sure do it. The scene is a western bar. I am supposed to have my back to the camera then say good night to the main actress who is bartending, walk out and bump into said actor. Now...this guy is a real dick. He once yelled at me because I was in his line of sight. I mean it is a fucking soap set everyone is in his line of sight but he decided to pick on me because I am not a union guy. So back to the story. First, take I do what i was told to do and bump him. He nearly falls over. He looks at me and I said "You got a problem?" He just shook his head and walks past and I walk out of the scene. The producer over the pa goes "That was great! Great ad-lib!." Mr big actor though is not happy because he looks like a pussy. He wants a retake. He goes off somewhere and the next thing I know the producer comes out and says "This time don't bump him so hard." She smiles at me and winks. I know she wants to say fucking deck him So he comes back, the actress in the scene asks a question and the actor chimes in about motivation. So as a joke I call out the director and say "what is my motivation in this scene." Jesus everyone started laughing. Now he is pissed. We shoot again, I lightly bump into him say my line, and leave. That was it. scene done. The actress, who I am friendly with later tells me I really pissed the actor off. I said good he is a douchebag. He was gone in about 6 months and I got to tell my mom I was on TV. Oh and I got paid 562 dollars for the day.

One of the worst things about doing background is the recordings the casting companies leave regarding your wardrobe. They want you to get super excited about it. Bitch, I'm not spending three hours raiding my closet just so some cunt wardrobe PA can roll her eyes at my choices and say "You don't have any (insert clothing item)? and get a $63 check in the mail.

I worked in a scene that Ashley Judd directed and I had watched "The Judds" docuseries and read "Love Can Build a Bridge" and was ready for full-blown diva

But she was really nice and would come running into set with "Thanks y'all" and "That was great, y'all, but could you do it like this..." and really knew how to talk to people effectively

[quote] those about to be released from incarceration are actually told that doing bg is a decent way to earn money since casting/production don’t do background checks.

I see what you did there.

[quote]those about to be released from incarceration are actually told that doing bg is a decent way to earn money since casting/production don’t do background checks.

Oooh, let Momma know the NAMES of those SHOWS!

If you pull the sides of your face at your cheekbones, you get an accurate image of what Melanie Griffith looks like in real life

You can actually see the horizontal pulling

[quote] Sorry, meant to specify both his arms are up on the back of the bench, dangling. Very weird. Way too relaxed looking.

Not only weird, but actually not allowed in real courtrooms. Don’t ask me why, but a bailiff once came over to me in a courtroom when I was seated like that and told me to put my arms down.

You can tell which shows are filmed in Atlanta. The background look very deplorable-ish.

r277 - LOL!!!

Wow, r216. Your lengthy post had little to do with Julia Roberts, and absolutely nothing to do with extra work.

I think I’ll take three paragraphs right now to talk about my cat.

I had a dream job in the industry (not in front of the camera); paid me more than anything I ever made in my life. Money, access, parties. It. Was. Great.

Of course, we get shut down just as the holidays were about to begin. I was devastated. I drove out to Central Casting to re-register. As I was driving away, I called the men's extra line and I got a gig that required the tuxedo I bought for all those red carpets. A day later, I was working on a set, wearing my tux.

The money wasn't nearly enough to start to make up for what I'd lost but it gave me hope that there's always something else to do in this business and there's always Central Casting. I have friends still doing it who didn't work for a long time. Now, they are again.

Someday, I'd like to do it again. Extras are totally anonymous yet in the middle of the action. It's fun.

I worked on a Ben Affleck movie. The set was great and that starts from the top (Ben).

Casting always reminds us to wear underwear for fittings. I hate wearing my own clothes on set. When I was filling out my voucher for The Blacklist I asked a PA where I should indicate that I wore my own suit. She snapped ‘you dont’ And that was that. If I made a fuss or reported her to SAG I was afraid I’d be blacklisted. I believe production is supposed to pay a $12 cleaning fee if you wear your own stuff. And this was at the height of Covid.

A friend worked BG on LOOKING in 2016 in an episode with Scott Bakula. He said he was great and friendly with everyone, spoke to BG and was a very hot daddy in person.

Notice the crossover of Eva Longoria, Dennis Haysbert and Gina Rodriguez on the list of nice actors at R21 and actors who worked as background at R240

Whenever martini was called or the last scene with BG on "Jane the Virgin," Gina Rodriguez would always thank the background in front of the cast and crew and remind everyone that she has done background herself. It says a lot about her that she made a point to do this before everyone dispersed at wrap and not hear what she had to say

[quote] Not only weird, but actually not allowed in real courtrooms. Don’t ask me why, but a bailiff once came over to me in a courtroom when I was seated like that and told me to put my arms down.

Yeah, you're not supposed to sit like that (arms hanging over the back of the "pew") in court. I guess it's supposed to be disrespectful to the judge.

David Kelley's shows are known for doing an insane amount of takes and taking forever. If you were a juror on one episode of "Harry's Law" you would work fourteen-hour days Monday through Friday

R196 = I WILL say he say he wasn't a wHORe. But he was TONs of super nice. It was fun. When we were done and he offered me his number it just seemed like he was doing it as an afterthought which is probably why I didn't call him. I worked at the hotel he was staying in and we were just kind of cruising each other. I knew he was leaving back to California the day after next and I also knew he had events to go to that weekend, so calling him seemed like it was going to just be a brush off, which I understood. A friend of mine worked chauffeur for the event--and he has seen all kinds of celeb behavior. But he said Actor was nice and solo the whole trip he had with him.

A friend of my former roommates once told a story about Julia Roberts pulling a "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" at the university theater he was in charge of, whereupon he had the great pleasure of having security escort her out. Dude was an arrogant douchebag himself, but I don't doubt that she earned the heave-ho.

[quote] Whenever martini was called

Is that a film industry expression? What exactly does it mean?

R289 why are you so intent on preserving said Actor’s anonymity? Spill!

R292 = LoL....Re-Read it.

[quote] Is that a film industry expression? What exactly does it mean?

Final shot of the day. So called because after it, everyone can break for the night and get drunk.

was an extra for swan lake when nuryev danced it, dint get to blow him but saw a young hung muscle stud in his dressing room....wayne sleep was in the production, nice cuddles.

Yeah r293, got it, but the name Horton can be associated with several soaps, actors, and fictional names. Try again.

[quote]One time, I was working on Walk Hard, and I was in the holding room, when a PA came in and said that John C. Reilly had just fired one of the extras for having his cellphone out.

This makes me sad - I love John C Reilly!

R175, Can you comprehend tone? The writer clearly was paying homage, and that detail was important to himself and the departed.

I have a friend who did extra work on NYC soaps back in the late 80s-early 90s. He said that all the extras around town always wanted to work on All My Children, as it was the most professional and easy going set, with the nicest actors and crew, overall. He worked there several times. I think it was maybe Guiding Light that had the worst reputation among background workers.

Could someone please konk R292/R296 on the head so he could reboot and thereby understand who R289/R293 is talking about?

Are there any stars who fall in love with background actors, or is it only background actors in love with stars?

Do stars sometimes have sex with background talent in the trailors?

OMG, WILL Horton = Chandler with the pec implants on Days. There.

R237, you have the honor of being in one of the worst movies I've ever watched! "Bullseye!" is the second worst film I've ever seen, behind "Game of Death" with pieced-together footage of Bruce Lee.

R42 That must be Lesley Boone. Who does that sow think she is?

I remember reading that Chandler went to Columbus, Ohio, to be in their Pride parade one year. It was at the height of WilSonmania. What r289 is saying sounds true to me.

I fell back in love with Martin Sheen when I saw this video years ago. He breaks up uncontrollably (FF to :40) at Dame Edna Everedge's admonishment to the audience. Watching stars laugh uncontrollably is always fun.

Once back in the 80s I was at a screening of some movie Kelly McGinnis was in. In the lobby of the theater there was a life size cardboard standee of Ted Danson in a corner. As McGinnis walked by it she said very loudly to some guy she was walking with "GOD ALMIGHT HE IS SO FUCKING UGLY!".

And we all know where her career ended up. And why does her IMDb page only show one job, a video game from 1997?

R308 IMDB shows a bunch of credits here.

Check out this link. I can't imagine they'd have a complete separate listing for someone's work on a video game?

I must admit I take a lot of these stories with a pinch of salt, unless the actors are explicitly extremely rude or deliberately cruel to extras. If you put yourself in their shoes, they are there to do a job, they are keyed up for their performance, and they likely have neither the time nor interest for chit-chat with random people they will never see again. That's not an excuse to be rude, but I don't think they are under any obligation to be friendly either.

It's the equivalent of some other type of workplace, where you might say hi or nod to the cleaner but if they were to strike up a conversation with you, that would be a bit weird.

I am the the guy who posted about Sally Kirkland, of course I meant to say bitch not butch. She was absolutely horrible, obviously at the very tale end of her good looking days. Bullseye really was a shockingly bad film, usually when working on a film for only maybe a few days as an extra you can’t really tell what the film will be like. However in this instance you instantly knew it would be a pile of shit.

Can I just mention even though it’s not what OP asked for, the nicest celeb/actor by a clear mile was Angela Lansbury. She was shooting a film called Mrs Harris Goes To Paris in London in about 1991, this was in a break from Murder She Wrote. She was absolutely lovely, introduced herself to even the minor actors who maybe only had a one word scene. One of the days we were filming in an olde worlde part of residential London that is still intact, it was a period film. There was loads of really young ragamuffin kids living in the locality who obviously were curious and watching the filming and being kids were full of energy etc. In breaks between filming Angela sat on a chair with them all out on the street and was reading stories to them from a book. Very classy lady.

Sorry to derail the thread OP…

I love how background talent thinks it's the *stars* who are being rude when they tell the background talent to stop talking or put away their phone while they are working.

The actors have a lot of pressure on them to deliver a performance. They are not there to entertain you or be distracted by you.

You are being unprofessional when you distract an actor who is working with your small talk.

R313 I love how you think you're informing anyone with your obvious and irrelevant post

In the late 90s, I worked the overnight shift at an office in downtown Chicago. One night, scenes from the. TV series “Early Edition” were being filmed on my block, and I stopped to watch for a few minutes as Kyle Chandler and Fisher Stevens were preparing to film a scene. It was a weeknight, not a busy street, and hardly anyone else was watching.

After a few minutes, two really pretty young girls in their twenties came up and stood next to me to watch. We started chatting, they were visiting Chicago from New Jersey so we were talking about things to do in the city. They were very friendly and nice, and our conversation had less to do with the filming of the show than getting to know each other.

Fisher Stevens came up, introduced himself to the girls, and chatted with them. And when I say “with them”, I mean he didn’t glance in my direction nor respond when one of the girls introduced me in an attempt to include me in the conversation. It didn’t offend or surprise me at all, and the girls were so sweet as they were wholly unfamiliar with Fisher Stevens, Kyle Chandler AND “Early Edition”. After a few minutes, a PA called him over and he returned to the street for filming. He and the PA chatted for a moment, then the same PA came over to me and said, “Are you with them?” I said no, and then he turned his back to me and said to the girls, “Fisher would like to know if you wanted to join him for a drink later!”

God Bless ‘Em, the girls said, “No, we’re gonna hang out with Mike (me) tonight!”

It was very kind of them.

Kyle Chandler was cute, though!

R313, funny how some stars manage to give good performances without being a dick or yelling at people. And you think the stars themselves never use their phones?

If you actually read through the thread, most "stars" mentioned are not described as acting like assholes

"at the very tale end"

Oh, dear!

[quote]There was loads of really young ragamuffin kids living in the locality who obviously were curious and watching the filming and being kids were full of energy etc. In breaks between filming Angela sat on a chair with them all out on the street and was reading stories to them from a book. Very classy lady.

I think this is the nicest celebrity story I've read on DL or anywhere else. So many others would have been impatient or asked to have the kids removed or even yelled at them. And how many adults in their lives took the time to read to them.

Studio lots have potential settings for sex everywhere with double-wide trailers, dressing rooms like hotel suites with beds and showers, massive soundstages with the actual bones of a house built and 24-hour activity and staff members

R302, I know that in the first few seasons of Law & Order Chris Noth was getting blow jobs in his trailer by one of the female “core” bg.

A male friend who worked bg claimed that Michael J Fox asked him out on the set of The Hard Way. My friend declined the offer, glad he was “featured” in his scene so would only be working that day.

And a story made the rounds that one of the main principals on the Fame series (Billy Hufsey) was getting blown in his trailer on a regular basis by some male bg.

R319 Yes it just showed what a kind and loving person Angela is, she could easily have just retired to her trailer for a rest in the coffee and lunch breaks. In one scene we were filming on an old London routemaster bus, the seats were much smaller than on newer buses as people were much slimmer back in the day. Angela had to sit in a row of seats facing another row, eight people in total in the scene, one person had like two words to say the other six people were extras, yet she asked everyone their name and introduced herself to them, even for just a one off very short scene. Reading to the young children was an absolutely lovely thing to do, and of course costs nothing....

One woman went to the tabloids and said she had sex with David Boreanaz in his trailer on the Fox lot at Bones, which created legal issues for him regarding BG and why he waited until it was off the air to make his moves on them

On the film 54 we were shooting outside Studio 54 in November wearing summer costumes. They gave us Kevlar foil to block the wind but it wouldn’t help. Mike Myers saw what was going on and yelled at the ADs to let us stay inside between takes. So we all hung out in Studio 54. Quite a few hid out up in the balcony and wouldn’t go outside when we called. I heard an AD say to the PAs “Round up the Anne Franks.” I guess he thought he was amusing. The PAs scattered up to the dark balcony with flashlights and threatened to send bg home without paying them. A lot were non union so wouldn’t be able to fight back.

[R293], thanks Edvard.

Everybody knows Angela has always been one of the very nicest people in the business. She's always been famous for it.

Me thinks your R320 double-wide trailer is where all the sleazy sex happens...

[quote]And you think the stars themselves never use their phones?

They're the stars. They can do that. Background people doing that is unprofessional and distracting.

R326 Yes I am aware of that, but I just wanted to give my own personal experience of working on an Angela Lansbury film 30 years ago. It will at least add to her reputation as a really nice and decent person to work with.

Angela Lansbury?

She never sucked MY cock!

A family member was a police officer in one of the towns where Mystic Pizza was filmed (we grew up in one of the other towns it was filmed in). At the time he was a rookie, so he was doing traffic control for the shooting locations. He saw Julia Roberts a few times going to and from set and in between takes. He never interacted with her but saw very clearly she was standoffish and pulling diva shit nonstop with pretty much everyone. I think he said Annabeth Gish was kind of quiet and unassuming. When we saw the movie he remarked how much they seemed like their characters. No one else stood out to him.

Lansbury asked me how my weekend in Tijuana went and I said: Angie, I've got fire cunt. Well, for a minute I thought I killed her.

Ashton Kutcher once got a Warner Bros slap on the wrist by security when he was partying with Rihanna in his gigantic three-story trailer on the lot while he wasn't working on the weekend

Phones on set aren't as forbidden as they used to be as the crew is as glued to them just like every American teenager

R327 which trust me darling is spectacular

[quote] Mike Myers saw what was going on and yelled at the ADs to let us stay inside between takes.

Mike Myers stayed at the hotel where I used to work (when he was hotter as an actor). He seemed like a decent guy, staff did not complain about him. I saw him in the lobby and I think he said hi to me.

[quote] Phones on set aren't as forbidden as they used to be as the crew is as glued to them just like every American teenager

Pretty sad how everybody, young and old, is now glued to their phones. Pathetic.

[quote]A friend had a part in a Patti Lupone show. Said Patti was an absolute diva—almost cartoon like—but no one took her shouting or demands seriously and were bemused by her.

That's exactly the reaction I have to her (not having met her or anything)--that she'd be a raging bitch but so over the top you couldn't even be mad. I guess it's because she has that DRAMA ALL THE TIME quality that makes her such a great performer.

Kate Hudson had a bg guy escorted off her set because she thought he was taking photos of her. He wasn’t.

I've written about this before - but when I was a kid, I was on-set for the filming of The Pick-Up Artist, which had a scene where Robert Downey Jr's character takes a class of schoolkids to the Museum of Natural History in New York. I wasn't an extra but my younger brother was. I begged my mom to take me too because I was obsessed with Molly Ringwald.

It turned out to be a memorable experience. They filmed at night, so seeing the difference between real light and the created daylight was amazing. The extras were waiting in a huge hall of Aquatic Birds that is no longer extant (which is a shame, it was one of the most magnificent rooms in the museum), so it was like hanging out in an 18th century hall.

Robert Downey Jr. could not have been sweeter - he played with all the kids and suggested a flashlight tour for us (which turned into an impromptu game of hide-and-seek until the museum guards got fed up with him). My mom talked about how attentive he was - he even asked some of the kids for their autographs. I had no idea who he was, of course, but thought he was a lot of fun.

Molly only manifested herself once, peering into the Aquatic Birds hall from the door with an expression on her face that was clearly: "oh my God, more people here too?" I was star-struck at the time and put her behavior down to shyness. Later I passed her on the sidewalk and she was wearing a raincoat with MOLLY written all over it in pattern, so perhaps I was wrong.

The extras were fascinating. As noted above, these were seasoned theater and TV people, character actors and others who were padding their bank balances, knew how the set worked and knew each other. We sat next to a couple of older guys who were playing museum security and they talked about the different films they'd been in (one had been a stunt man when younger, and was a driver in Bullet). Then a woman came up and started talking to them, complaining about the behavior of someone named James and my mother excused us and led us to a different part of the room. Evidently the woman's stories took a turn for the sexually graphic.

It was not until many years later I realized the woman was talking about the director, James Toback.

It was a glimpse of the world behind the movies and it's stayed with me ever since.

James Toback is a major creep....no surprise there

r289 yeah but was it Massey good or Wilson good?

[quite] Could someone please konk [R292]/[R296] on the head so he could reboot and thereby understand who [R289]/[R293] is talking about?

Excuse me but not all of us spend our daytime life glued to soap operas. Your comment says more about you than it does about my ignorance of soaps: 🖕🏽

R350 I was in the Pick-up Artist as well, as an extra in a dance club scene. We were put in the peanut gallery of some NYC club (I don’t remember which) until we were needed or used. I remember director Warren Beatty coming over to choose extras from that pool and all these wannabe fuck-for-roles girls proofing their hair and boobs in the hop s to be chosen. I just kicked back and thought about my check, hoping NOT to be chosen. But, damn my dark Latin looks, I was put on the dance floor and actually made to work.

Hated the whole boring thing and never did it again.

R324, who cares about your freezing ass. What was Ryan Phillippe like? Was it the scene where he takes his shirt off to get into the club?

R345 Ryan Phillipe took his shirt off a lot and changed out in the open in million degree weather on the set of "Shooter" in Santa Clarita

[quote] Your comment says more about you

as does yours, cuntress.

I'm not background - I was crew and I can verify that Martin Freeman is an absolute cunt to pretty much everyone.

Benedict Cumberbatch allegedly can't stand Freeman, and that's a big reason why there hasn't been any more Sherlock.

Is everyone on datalounge a background extra?

No, honey, I'm the greatest star but no one knows it.

I was an extra on a number of episodes of Hawaii 50 & remember seeing make up literally PAINTING foundation on to Jack Lords face with a paint brush then bringing a fan over to dry it.......

R349 and now they are both part of the Marvel-verse.

I've posted this before but I guy I know went on a rant about the GG set when the Gilmore revival was announced. Many commenters joined in.

He deleted the post, but screenshots live forever. Enjoy, DL.

I just see the comments, not the original post, R354.

R355 revised! ENJOY! (especially the VERY FIRST reply)

I have a friend that was on Gilmore. He loves Sean Gunn and Alexis...never heard a peep about Graham.

[quote]I'm not background - I was crew and I can verify that Martin Freeman is an absolute cunt to pretty much everyone.

Between the two, I would not have expected that Cumberbatch was the nicer (or at least more civil) guy

[quote]Excuse me but not all of us spend our daytime life glued to soap operas. Your comment says more about you than it does about my ignorance of soaps: 🖕🏽

R343 - I don't watch soaps, but I do know how to read.

In other words, a person wouldn't have to watch soaps in order to come up with the answer to R289's hint.

Let me explain:

This is what he wrote:

[quote]R196 = I WILL say he say he wasn't a wHORe. But he was TONs of super nice.

What words from there are unnecessarily capitalized? Well, I'll tell you: WILL, HOR, and TON.

You put them all together and you get Will Horton.

Now go konk yourself on the head.

Love, R300

[quote]Now go konk yourself on the head.

Pics please.

Once someone said that Benedict Cumberbeeyotch looked like C-3PO, that's all I see

I'm Betty Bacall and I own this thread.

Now, someone fetch me a cup of coffee.

I’d heard stories about Martin Freeman being a cunt from when he was on The Office.

Cumberbatch did some pretty embarrassing interviews when he first became famous, but he has settled down a lot since marrying and having kids. Also, he just doesn't seem as bitter and angry as Freeman. Though why the hell Freeman is so angry is unclear: He's had a fantastic career for a short dude with a face like a dried apple doll. Maybe he's still pissed off over his break-up with Amanda Abbingdon, though that seemed like his fault for never being home. His latest sitcom was all about how much he hates being a parent, so maybe he's just a crank.

r354 That was great. Illuminating,

Didn't Freeman do the rapey rape?

I remember reading a blind about an actress somewhere (not Enty) getting her episode count cut because of her on set behavior. The kicker was she was written out in a very vivid way. Lots of guesses at the time but it became evident a few months later when the episode played that it was Alexis on Mad Men. Her character's fling with Pete (played by Alexis' husband in real life, no less) was meant to play over a larger number of episodes, but apparently some of her behavior rubbed a lot of people the wrong way on the MM set, and her episode count was cut in half - her character underwent electroshock therapy (!!)

I can only imagine what Alexis + Lizzie Moss on the Handmaid's Tale must be like.

The greatest background talent story of them all!

[quote]I'm Betty Bacall and I own this thread. Now, someone fetch me a cup of coffee.

And make it High Point.

it's got FLAVAH!

FREEMAN looks like he would be indeed cunty.

I still haven’t seen the episode where the self-centered one doesn’t get into Harvard. Or does she? I only know she went to Yale. That’s the episode I want to see, then I’ll stop watching. I think I’ve seen all of the rest of them anyway.

I guess she might have tempered her attitude subsequently since she was fired from MM.

I was in a holding room with about 100 guys and after four hours of waiting the a.d. comes in and says 'guys, let's go.'

I stand up. I didn't jump up. I just stood up.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5....NO ONE else gets up.

"C'mon guys, let's go!"

Everyone else gets up. On the way to set, the a.d. says 'Because you stood up first I'm putting you where you can be seen.' He did and I was. I had people telling me 'hey, I saw you!' That was pretty cool all around.

I worked on the last two weeks of Ishtar on a soundstage out in Queens. Cost over runs were written up daily in the trades... Elaine looked stressed!

Just because Martin Freeman is a total arsehole, doesn't mean Cumberbatch isn't as well.

Ed Norton got the heave-ho from the Marvel franchise for being a cunt. Cumberbatch is still in hook, line and sinker. So I assume he doesn't make himself obnoxious on set. Or at least not as obnoxious as Ed Norton.

Nora Ephron was a cunt. I was in the holding area and she walked in with the background casting guy. She looked at us, turned to the poor guy and said “I asked for roses and you sent me WEEDS.”

I worked one of the Tony Awards days on Smash. Background casting was inept and brought in mostly 20 year olds. Rosie O’Donnell was in a scene as a presenter. She could immediately sense that this was not only not a theater savvy crowd but our applause and audible buzz when she handed out the award left something to be desired. As she walked off the stage she could clearly be heard saying “They all need to work on their EXTRA-ness.” And she was right. I did my best to seem enthusiastic (well, I WAS enthusiastic because it was a fun scene to work in) but the rest of the bg (many of whom were regular bg on Gossip Girl) totally sucked.

I worked in a scene with Rosie O'Donnell on The Fosters at LA Center Studios shot in the lobby seating area. At first no one sat in the seats near her between takes, but as the day went on, I ended up sitting next to her and other people occupying the seats all around her, and she was fine with it. She had a Zen-vibe, totally non-reactionary and nothing was affected her. I found out later that she practices transcendental meditation

By the way, one mental technique Rosie mentioned about not thinking so much about something that is bothering you is imagining it flowing upstream and watching it get further and further away

R354 do you know what character he played?

I saw a comment from the actor who played Finn on that thread.

[quote] Ed Norton got the heave-ho from the Marvel franchise for being a cunt.

I always thought Ed Norton was attractive until he dated Courtney Love.

[quote] By the way, one mental technique Rosie mentioned about not thinking so much about something that is bothering you is imagining it flowing upstream and watching it get further and further away

Upstream or downstream? This actually sounds like a good technique.

R379, at first glance I read that as "at first no one sat in the seats between Rosie and the tables" and thought to myself that was just good common sense if food was involved.

bet ole rosie was difficut on her chat show, she seemd aggressive....

r379, she's also a major pothead. That could account for her being calm.

This prank call made me like Rosie. They started out being total dicks to her and she managed to stay cool, calm and collected and ultimately turned them around by the end of the call.

I didn't make it through the call. Those dudes, whoever they are, aren't funny at all.

[quote]Nora Ephron was a cunt. I was in the holding area and she walked in with the background casting guy. She looked at us, turned to the poor guy and said “I asked for roses and you sent me WEEDS.”

That's funnier than anything Nora ever put in her movies.

.....

this is a fun thread .

Did anyone ever hook up with other bg and play around or stroke out a load while waiting?

I don’t think that happens much, R391. It’s more of the furtive glances variety. I’ve exchanged a few with good looking principal actors over the years.

I walked in on a client and cute little bg guy making out in the men’s room of a bowling alley where we were shooting a promo for a sports network. Sorry but I had to pee.

Strike!

how much do they make?

R391 I've hooked up with other bg and played around and stroked out a load but not while waiting. There's too many eyes and cameras and microphones everywhere

As with all the other insufferable "Actors/Actresses who put out for roles" threads, Weinstein, and "Everyone's having sex in their trailers blah, blah, blah" threads, it's not anything like that. There are isolated incidents, and Weinstein is a thing unto himself, but it's called Show-BUSINESS. No serious producer is going to arbitrarily risk millions of dollars to cast some bimbo in a major project over a blow job. Most film crews are hardworking, work long hours, and are on tight timelines. Every minute on set costs thousands of dollars. Get real.

R397 trust me I know!

I heard on Versace that Judith Light and Mike Farrell were making jokes and having the whole crew in stitches.

Trust me, I don't know!

R397, I’m thinking the truth is somewhere in the middle. Don’t forget about Matt Lauer, Bryan Singer, and Michael Bay, to name a few that come to mind. People can be business-minded and sexual predators too.

I geeve $20 blown job. Poosie is extra.

I did some professional acting as a kid and worked on a movie where the principal actor I shared my scene with was F. Murray Abraham. I’ve since found out what a long and interesting career he had. He was totally awesome and friendly in a way he definitely didn’t need to be with a bunch of young actors and told us really fascinating stories that we probably didn’t appreciate at the time.

I always think of him fondly when I see him in something new and the fact that he was so nice is probably a testament to his long career.

[quote]It’s more of the furtive glances variety. I’ve exchanged a few with good looking principal actors over the years.

Go on...

Straight from the fingers of someone not getting any R397 The crew never spend time with their cheating wives because they're never home, or home at midnight and back out again at six

Los Angeles magazine published an article about which studio lots were having the most and least sex among employees, with Warner Bros the most and Disney the least

In other words, you know nothing.

R397 Long hours? Tight timelines? Every minute on set costs thousands of dollars?

Give us more insider scoop!

R406 LMAO

CORRECTION: The CAST and crew and their cheating wives

In recent years there has been a substantial amount of Russians and Eastern European men doing bg, at least here in the NY area. And quite a few of them are attractive. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them have at least sucked off/been sucked off in the belief that they could get a line (of dialogue) on something.

Yes, that happens all day every day. NOW have you cum yet R410?

Ellen Pompeo HISSED at a bg player

The set of Blue Bloods is like a big pissing contest. The worst of the overprivileged cunt/actors is bitch Bridget Moynahan, who doesn't have a nice thing to say about anyone, and consequently, no one wants to be near her. She's had extras fired for looking at her. Walhberg frequently behaves like he's Mr. Hot Shit, snapping his fingers at the crew and production assistants. Steve Schirripa is just a giant blowhard for someone who frequently know what the fuck he's doing. I worked bg on Sopranos with him, and he's no better an actor now than he was then. The only really decent person on that set is Bob Clohessy, who's gay as a grape and friendly with everyone. Selleck is rarely seen on set because he has very few scenes with bg, but everyone says he's a massive pain in the ass and over the whole tv thing. He wants to retire.

R413, were you ever on set with High Pitch Erik?

Ed Norton got the heave-go because he wanted to do rewrites on scripts and offer constant advice. Not just do his job as an actor, and consequently got the “difficult” label. He could’ve had his pick of films and been THE actor of his generation, but he blew it.

But Robert Downey Jr. does nothing but ad-lib stuff to the extent that half of Iron Man was basically improv comedy, R415.

There are plenty of actors who work with shaping material.

Norton is cunty about it.

I do agree that he is very talented and he blew it.

"The After Party" is mostly improv loaded with improv actors and totally unfunny. A perfect example of why "improv" needs to be somewhat scripted to work

Cloris Leachman would be so cancelled today for asking the boom guy on "Franklin and Bash" if he has a big penis seconds before rolling

R418 is one of those "so-and-so would be canceled today!" trolls who think anyone who receives any criticism whatsoever is "canceled"

Joseph Gordon-Leavitt and Scarlett Johansson were fucking in real life - and on set at lunch - during "Don Jon" just like their characters

R419 is one of those bitter troll experts recognizing her kind

r418- she's legend for harassing sound guys- claims she has Tourette's.

[Quote with Warner Bros the most and Disney the least

That makes so much sense.

[Quote] Joseph Gordon-Leavitt and Scarlett Johansson were fucking in real life - and on set at lunch - during "Don Jon" just like their characters

She's always had tacky tastes.

I had a furtive glance with Andrew McCarthy on the set of "Fresh Horses" (1996). In that split second, we totally mind-fucked. My image is forever in his memory, as is his in mine.

R421 is the reactionary GOP troll who whines about cancel culture but wanted to cancel Colin Kaepernick and the Dixie Chicks

R425 Um....sure

A guy I know told me to say to hi to an A.D. when I was on set of a movie once; it was really hard to get that moment but I did. "Um him, so and so told me to say hi to you." and the A.D. lit up like a Christmas tree, gave me his card and said, don't be afraid to use that.

I was SUCH a dummy. I didn't understand what he meant -- it was for future extra work. Like everything, background is a system and you have to get into it to find work.

two words: Sylvia Faye

Cloris would be cancelled for her nasty remarks about fat people--whom she hated. She herself admitted that she became one of them later in life. Great actress, but, I suspect, unhinged and a nasty piece of work.

R413, I giggled when I read the bit about Clohessy. I was on a set once where he was a guest star and definitely had a sense that he was “taking an interest” in me. It obviously wasn’t overt but it was there.

Is it common knowledge that Selleck still won’t get vaxxed because he’s a right wing shithead?

In her 70s my Mom was a extra on "Silk Stalkings," "Renegade" and "Pensacola," the latter two of which starred Lorenzo Lamas. She told me he was sweet and kind to her.

r413, did you interact at all with Will Estes?

r414, who is High Pitch Erik?

^Kelly Clarkson

Worked on Silk Stalkings with Rob Estes. He's unbelievably handsome, perfect skin/hair/teeth. Tall, amazing body, very nice and professional.

Agreed, R417. Improv is an extremely overrated activity.

Kristen Bell doing background in "Polish Wedding" with Clare Danes

I thought Robert Clohessy was hot when he was on Oz

Renee Zellweger doing background in "Dazed and Confused"

[quote] Steve Schirripa is just a giant blowhard for someone who frequently know what the fuck he's doing. I worked bg on Sopranos with him, and he's no better an actor now than he was then.

I'm surprised about Steve Schirripa. I watched all of the "Talking Sopranos" episodes with him & Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti). SS was loud (on Talking Sopranos), but made it a point (several times) to say that MI "high-hatted" him when they first met on set at the Sopranos. SS really talked about how DeNiro and some others were assholes. He seemed to pride himself on being a regular guy.

SS is not the greatest actor. I don't think Bobby Bacala was much of a stretch for him. The episode where he was crying b/c his wife died was kind of unnatural. Maybe he knows he's not the best actor.

Another Stepford story-some of the gals they brought in to be the Wives were booked through a modeling agency. They were getting something like $300 as their base rate per day while all the other bg Wives were getting the standard SAG rate at the time which I think was around $119. One of the bg walked up to the director Frank Oz (who’d made himself seem way too approachable) and said “Frank, I’m a model, too. Could I please get the higher rate?” And she handed him her comp card (I think that’s what it was called). Oz said “Gee, this isn’t really something I’m able to get done.” An AD was standing near him, turned to the bg gal and said “You’re released from this film, go to wardrobe and then go home.” So the bg gal turned around, ripped off her wig and just before she reached the door she tossed the wig behind her and it landed on a lighting lamp and caught fire.

You can’t make this shit up.

I had a surreal experience in 1991. A friend of mine was interning on General Hospital. She invited me to the set. It was surreal. There, all in the same giant room, was the Quatermain mansion, Kelly's, and the hospital.

Tony Geary was there but he was playing Bill Eckhart at the time. Stuart Damon was there. My friend had a hat on that said Women in Film, he pointed at it and said "good thing too!" He seemed cool. David Lewis had left the show, and come back, but he'd lost some of his marbles. He was kinda wondering around. AJ and Jason were fucking HOT and playing video games in a dressing room. And Lila was there too.

The thing that stayed with me,and I'm as gay as they come, Emma Samms had returned as Holly. She looked up at me and smiled. She was so stunning in person, I really felt weak at the knees. Made me feel special, somehow.

30 Rock and Parks & Recreation.

Not fun.

R440, she should have been fired. A background artist doesn't walk up to the director during work and ask for a bump.

You ask an a.d.

I worked on a big super-hero film and there were these asshole a.d.'s handing out vouchers (to go from non-union to union) like they were on an episode of Elimi-date.

I do know that towards the end of its run one of the regular bg who played a stagehand on 30 Rock asked Tina Fey to give him a line to say as a goodbye present and that idiot didn’t work those final weeks.

Wasn't Tina a producer on that show? Again, you go to the a.d. and ask. They're the gateway...Actually, I think the '2nd 2nd a.d.' works with extras.

Tina could have said, 'hey, Charlie, the scripts are already written but we'll keep you in mind!'

But I guess his goodbye line present was...'goodbye!'

Bobby Clohessy is gay? Do his wife and kids know?

R445 Tina Fey is a terrible person. But Amy Pohler is 100 times worse. I knew their person assistants. Just a massive, massive cunt.

I can tell that about Amy; she always seems so angry and pissed off.

She never won for Lead Actress at the Emmys for Parks and Rec.

I don't think she's funny.

It appeared that Hillary was going to beat Barack back in the day and Tina and/or Amy said 'Bitch is the new Black' -- thinking that Hil was going to win. After Obama won, Tracy went on the news and said 'Bitch may be the new Black but Black is the new President, bitch'

It got a huge laugh and I could see Amy WINCING through her smile; she was PISSED. I'm not Tracy fan but that was funny.

I am sorry for the massive number of typos above. I was multitasking. Ugh.

R448 here; I guess Tina had come on as a guest to Weekend Update and Seth and Amy were doing the news when Tracy came on.

This is the clip; it cuts out before it cuts to pissed off Amy.

I worked in a scene with Amy Poehler and Rob Lowe on "Parks and Recreation" and while the two of them were casually talking before a scene started, some male diva behavior from a very impatient Louis CK, yelling so loudly everyone onstage could hear "LET'S GO!"

I’ve done bg work and am just happy if the cast and crew are respectful and polite. That’s all I ask. I have no interest in conversing with them I know they are busy and it’s a professional set up but please and thank you go a long way.

CK

If Selleck wasn't vaxxed, trust me, doddering Len Cariou would never be doing dinner scenes with him. In fact, nobody gets on that set without jumping through a series of Covid hoops.

Sorry R447 but it's hard to be a worse person than Tina Fey -- my friend who works at SNL says that every member of the crew braces themselves for diva talent but no one makes them more jumpy and nervous that the Queen Diva of them all who makes Leona Helmsley look like Mother Theresa.

R454, Selleck won’t get vaxxed. I was told this by someone who’s there on set every day.

Selleck is definitely gay. My old boss lived in Hawaii in the Magnum PI days. Old boss said that it was obvious & known that Selleck was gay (had BF(s) visiting set or something, I forget now).

Selleck is also 77 and in the high risk category.

At least she’s self aware, r455. Didn’t she do a bit on 30 Rock where she misremembered she was a high school bully?

Danny DeVito is a very sweet and friendly man. My boyfriend's house was used in a scene of Tin Men, and I met him. He walked in the door, held out his hand and said "Hi, I'm Danny DeVito, so nice to meet you." I was completely starstruck (and a little bit coked up) and said "hi" and then pretty much ran away.

I think I'd be further ahead in Hollywood if I was the prick people seem to think I am.

Has anyone worked on a show with Bob Odenkirk? I like him....I hope he's nice to the little people.

I did PR for daytime soaps. I was set up with this really hot guy from the same hometown as me, we went out to dinner, he says he is an actor, I tell him what I do and he says "I have been trying to get an under 5 on that show for months." I smile. Date was nice we hooked up but nothing beyond oral. So cut to him calling me, "Guess what I got an under 5. Did you do that?" he asks. "Well I asked the Casting Director if she knew you and she said yes. I told her you were a friend so I guess it worked." He plays a waiter and I happen to be on set that day. He got his own dressing room so after his scene I knock to say high. He is in a towel. He can't thank me enough, one thing leads to another and I am fucking the hell out of him and his tight ass..except I forgot to lock the dressing room door. In walked the wardrobe assistant (who was also gay and a friend of mine). I hear OOOPS and the door close....I didn't panic because I knew he would not tell, finished up and told him to call me later. I go find my friend. He laughing hysterically. From then on I earned the nickname trailer trash.

R462 The past tense is your friend - try and stick to it.

R462, I worked as bg in the newspaper scenes in The Post. Odenkirk was very quiet, I never saw hin chatting to anybody much less us bg. I think he was probably very nervous working with Spielberg.

R460, who are you?

R460 is Jay Mohr.

Jay Mohr is gay?!

R455, Tina has always had a "and we had to walk 10 MILES in the SNOW!" attitude regarding her time on SNL.

GREAT fucking thread. Keep it coming.

Yes, r470. This thread has been much more satisfying than the usual celebrity gossip threads.

R462 are you David?

R467, ha no, not Jay Mohr.

I do work as a reporter and social media has been the death of what I do. Stars can just tweet out their own news nowadays.

I did toil away back in the pre-Internet days where you had to develop contacts and stand on red carpets for hours to get one usable scoop.

Now, it's just rehashing what stars blab on social.

The only things I've ever seen Lauren Graham in was a guest spot on Seinfeld and a couple of Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes a few years back and still, the only thing I've ever remembered about her is that I've never ever seen anyone have something nice to say about that woman. WTF is wrong with her that she appears to be such an asshole?

I mean I usually don't buy into shitting on celebrities in the sense that everyone is entitled to a bad day here and there, but I've never seen a single positive thing said about this woman.

She only got Parenthood because that other actress got cancer and had to drop out.

[quote] Tina has always had a "and we had to walk 10 MILES in the SNOW!" attitude regarding her time on SNL.

Uh, She's a cunt.

R475 and she was fine on Parenthood. I wonder if she's still dating Peter??

30 Rock was never a ratings hit was it? ?

[quote]Once back in the 80s I was at a screening of some movie Kelly McGinnis was in. In the lobby of the theater there was a life size cardboard standee of Ted Danson in a corner. As McGinnis walked by it she said very loudly to some guy she was walking with "GOD ALMIGHT HE IS SO FUCKING UGLY!". And we all know where her career ended up. And why does her IMDb page only show one job, a video game from 1997?

Perhaps because the actress' name is actually Kelly McGILLIS, not Kelly McGINNIS.

DL fave Riz Ahmed is a real pain in the ass on sets, a total diva. A friend worked on a few of his films, my friend isn't background, I cannot reveal what my friend does. Riz comes on to a set, then almost immediately demands script changes, he tries to charm the director into changing the lines and other such whiny diva bullshit.

Riz is shorter than the 5'8" he claims. He definitely has short man syndrome, he's always over compensating. Riz is extremely manipulative. If you cannot help him and don't have any important connections, he treats you like trash. The affable nice guy persona he projects on talk shows is all an act. His diva antics got worse once he won his Emmy for The Night Of HBO series.

Riz is hyperactive, he basically cannot sit still. He got married awhile back and is already cheating on his American wife.

I did some PA work some years back. The only event that sticks out in my memory is the time Matt Smith helped himself to using my cell phone as a flashlight at crafty during a night shoot and didn't think or bother to consider the fact that it was my phone even though I was literally the only person browsing through snacks when the transportation guy dropped him off there.

I had to stand there awkwardly and wait for him to finish, then when I retrieved it he jovially asked me why I didn't say anything because he was sort of wondering why someone would just leave their phone there with the flashlight on. I just played it off as if I didn't care when in reality, I was thinking, "Because the AD and locations managers are neurotic assholes known for removing redshit peons from projects if "the talent" expresses any "discomfort with their behavior," I need this job right now, and I couldn't think of a non-firable way to ask you to give me my shit back. Although, seems like common sense should've told you it was mine since I'm literally the only person over here, but anyway..."

My time spent doing PA work really helped to drive home a belief I always had about people in that industry; they live in their own little world and either intentionally or subconsciously block everyone else out, especially on set.

[quote]30 Rock was never a ratings hit was it?

No, it wasn't. But it was so smart and so funny with insider humor and such a big hit with critics that NBC kept it on as a "prestige" production.

^ I didn't mean to imply it was a flop in the ratings, it wasn't, it did decently or NBC would have cancelled it. But it never drew top numbers.

Anyone work on the original Law & Order?

I've always been a fan of Jesse L. Martin, I'd hate to hear he's awful to others on the set.

[quote]Sorry [R447] but it's hard to be a worse person than Tina Fey -- my friend who works at SNL says that every member of the crew braces themselves for diva talent but no one makes them more jumpy and nervous that the Queen Diva of them all who makes Leona Helmsley look like Mother Theresa.

I always got a bad vibe about Tina Fay, she's always come across as smug, The thing is, she's not all that talented or original.

Her face scar must have actually been caused by someone who really hated her. Not the tall tale she tells, that, as a child, someone drove up to her home, she walked over to the person's car and they slashed her face. I've never believed that story at all.

[quote] Her face scar must have actually been caused by someone who really hated her. Not the tall tale she tells, that, as a child, someone drove up to her home, she walked over to the person's car and they slashed her face. I've never believed that story at all.

A DLer would totally slash a brat's face for getting his or her dirty paws on the car. We aren't what you would call kid friendly, unless you're Bryan Singer.

I haven't been around Jesse L. Martin since prior to Rent, but I did go to college with him, and I worked with him on a Broadway show he did a couple years before Rent and he was a total sweetheart. I would be surprised if much had changed in all these years.

[quote] Anyone work on the original Law & Order?

We've had lots of L&O threads here over the years with people who worked on the show joining in. Search here or google "Law & Order datalounge" to bring them up.

I remember comments about Merkelson being well liked but having quite the bawdy mouth.

[quote] Bobby Clohessy is gay? Do his wife and kids know?

Son Myles may know, as it would be almost humanly impossible for Daddy not to steal a glance or two from such a gorgeous specimen.

R413, r430, r437

R480 The Riz troll is BACK!

The Riz troll sucks. And that Tina Fey slashing story is so fucking macabre.

I really want there to be a bit more detail about what makes Tina Fey such a cunt behind the scenes. I don't want to believe it, but if there were actual examples I could - just saying "she's a cunt" isn't compelling enough.

Any more stories about the set of the original Magnum, P. I. series? Was Tom S a diva?

When Tina Fey came to Charlottesville to speak at UVA, she wouldn’t talk to any local reporters, nor were any allowed inside for her “performance”.

When the NBC station decided not to cover her event due to this - there was a call from the guy in charge of the event, which started as incredulous and ended with a sigh, acknowledging she and her people were stressing everyone out.

Judge Judith Sheindlin is a very nice and classy woman to work with. However, she isolated herself from the producers during filming. The producers would pick the cases for her to chose and she did not want to be biased to one producer over the other. Very fair.

[quote]Sorry [[R447]] but it's hard to be a worse person than Tina Fey -- my friend who works at SNL says that every member of the crew braces themselves for diva talent but no one makes them more jumpy and nervous that the Queen Diva of them all who makes Leona Helmsley look like Mother Theresa.

Well, UVA is not a charm school.

I don't want to believe it either, r143. Disappointing if true.

While I did believe her, the slashing story is so odd. A passing car stops, someone gets out and slashes a kid in the face on her front lawn, gets back in the car and drives off never to be seen again. Possible in our diseased world, but it sounds like violence associated with sexual jealousy (like acid attacks against young women). I saw an interview with her in which she said she lost her virginity to her husband at 24 or 25. Maybe she had a traumatic relationship in college and just tried to erase a painful past, rewound, and took a Mulligan. And became embittered...

^that was meant for r492, UKGuy.

The Tina Fey story seems like right out of a gangster movie where a mob boss is sending a warning to the parents (behind with their shark loan payments, or prevent them from talking to the cops) by slashing their kid's face.

I think with Fey, there's a lot of pressure on her because she is still a rarity in Hollywood, being a female writer/producer as well as talent.

You don't succeed at SNL by being nice.

A woman has to be three times more of a ruthless asshole than her male peers in order to have the respect of the men in her type of profession. And they still dismiss her as being on the rag sometimes.

R501-Just ask Joe Piscopo, Amy Poehler, Chris Kattan, Chevy Chase, and Charles Rocket.

Pretty funny that When Steve Schirippa first came on the scene he admitted he was a bouncer in Vegas, but now he claims he was a Vice President of a casino.

R497 I understand where you are coming from and am quite certain you mean no harm. I mean no harm either when I state my opinion on that. My opinion being that maybe something else equally violent and traumatic occurred in addition to the stabbing and Tina Fey leaves that part out. Either way it's the act of a perverted freak no matter how you look at it because an innocent child playing in their front yard in the suburbs is wholesome and no big deal to anyone most anywhere.

Ah well. Jennifer Coolidge is funnier than Tina Fey to me if it's just all the same.

Here's my bit. I'm related by marriage to someone who works for Ryan Murphy to a fair degree. Their name pops up on the credits in whatever sorta way. I'm not to get overly specific and dox this decent in law of mine. He told me some time back that Frances Conroy is an actual shy lady for real in that is not an act with her. She has a good sense of humor when she works through her shyness situation with others over time though. She always greets the background folks, extras of any sort (line or no line), the crew, and so on before anyone else but Emma Roberts ignores them all and will literally almost come close to pushing one out of her way and all sorts of ill mannered things.

I obviously know next to nothing of the entertainment industry and don't even live near California. But, that Frances Conroy seems to have nice manners and Emma Roberts doesn't. My thing is music so there's only so much of a crap I give but isn't at least politely greeting the background folks and such akin to being well mannered?

I'm in Toronto and one of my best friends who was a background performer for a few years while trying to get work as an actress (before giving up). She doesn't have a lot of tea because most of the day you just sit around while shots are being set up and its stand-ins helping to get the shots ready for filming. But she did work on Suits and said that Meghan Markle was a total cunt to the crew and almost every week she had a new assistant. On Star Trek Discovery she said Jason Isaacs stunk of cigarettes and the gay guy who was raped by Kevin Kline was a complete asshole and if you were cute gay guy under the age of 30, Wilson Cruz would hit on you.

Good dish, R506, thanks!

[quote] she did work on Suits and said that Meghan Markle was a total cunt to the crew and almost every week she had a new assistant

You can tell your friend she'll be hearing from my lawyers. I'll am suing for several million and when the judge finds out your racist friend was asking people what color my baby would be, he'll award me every dollar I'm seeking right down to the penny.

R%05 I was at a party Emma Roberts was at. She RADIATED "stay away from me peasants" vibes.

Translation: I don't know anyone who worked with Markle but I made up a story to bash her.

Same thing with the Riz Ahmed troll

I work as an entertainment reporter in LA and mostly, stars are super nice to me probably because they know if they're not I can write about it.

I never got why many publicists are unhappy but that's because the talent must treat them like peons.

R505 Funny that you brought up Emma Roberts; I worked with her back in 2013 on a pilot that didn't end up working out. When I saw the callsheet and noticed she was #1, I dreaded how the two weeks would go. However I have to say to this day that this was one of the best productions I ever worked on. I know some say it trickles down from #1 on how well a set is run, but perhaps producers, etc. had much more pull than she did on this particular set, and we ran very smoothly with no issues whatsoever. She wasn't overly friendly of course, but she was on time and ready to go when needed. When she would acknowledge those below her, it was a head nod. Obviously I've heard of what a nightmare she can be, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Bella Thorne on the other hand was a terror, but I have to admit it's when she was on that Disney/Nick (kids) show 'Shake It Up', so I'm sure she's changed (not necessarily matured) since then.

R505) Doesn’t surprise me about Frances Conroy about shyness and how she treats people. Excellent actress also. Love her.

R511 I worked on something with Denise Richards once. She was LOVELY, but her publicist was a CUNT.

I'd kill to hear from Markle's many former assistants.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel started shooting Season 4 this week. I hope we hear some good bg stories from that set soon.

Since The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has the same creator/showrunner as Gilmore Girls, you would think it would be toxic.

[quote] On Star Trek Discovery she said Jason Isaacs stunk of cigarettes and the gay guy who was raped by Kevin Kline was a complete asshole

Wait - what??!?

He meant Kevin Spacey.

It was probably made up by one of the Spacey cadets to bash Anthony Rapp. Very cute pretending not to know who he is

“gay guy who was raped by Kevin was a complete asshole”

You are what you eat!

R515, I reckon it's not an impossibility because they didn't sign NDAs. Can you imagine a fourth rate ensemble player in a cable TV show telling you that if you didn't sign an NDA you wouldn't be considered for the job?

ooooo

R522 - they might have just as a condition of getting on set. Whether the production company (if it still even exists!) wants to pursue the little people is another matter. Aside from her PA, background signed a contract with the production company, not the fabulous Miss Markle personally. Whether and if the company still exists, it would be their problem, not the lying "Duchess."

R506 I'm assuming you mean Kevin Spacey? That would be Anthony Rapp and he in interviews he does come across as a jerk. The Wilson Cruz wouldn't surprise me either, dude is verrry active on the apps when he's in Toronto.

Rapp only comes across as a "jerk" Spacey cadets who can't face the truth

r506 Kline?

R527 Spacey.

R505, it just goes to show you the ones with the worst reputation can be nice.

And sweethearts can have a bad day.

Dear lord, though, people SHOULD be professional and polite.

What is wrong with assholes in this business?

oops I meant R512

R514, I know Denise to be lovely too.

Most publicists are just awful.

There's a big star on Fox; she's done a few series for them. Her publicist 'allowed' an interview AT A PRESS PARTY; specifically an evening that the talent is required to come to talk to the press to preview the new fall TV season.

Anywho, I say to another reporter so the talent can hear 'have you ever been treated more rudely in your entire career than you are by that pub? I know I haven't.' and then I turned to the talent to do the interview. I couldn't tell the star the pub was a bitch but I made sure what I said was heard.

R506 Did your friend have any gossip on Discovery's Shazad Latif?

I worked on "KC Undercover" when Zendaya was not a girl, not yet a woman and her career was just taking off.

She was surrounded by assistants, family members, guardian, studio reps, show runner, director, make-up, wardrobe, publicist, writers all asking her and telling her and she was so exhausted by it all that she laid down on the ground in the middle of the set and wrapped herself in her cartoon-character comforter from home.

The most interesting thing about working on "Sam and Cat" was that it filmed inside the historic Earl Carroll Theatre, which is no longer

Ariana Grande with her Teddy Bear phone case and Jeannette McCurdy also acted like not yet a woman babygirls, and spent a lot of time between scenes on their set bedroom which was conveniently located behind Dan Schneider's chair behind the camera. Dan only wore sweatsuits and laughed uproariously at every stupid line he wrote for hours

R479, she’ll always be Toppy McGunnis to me.

R484, at one point there was a 1st AD on L&O who was a massive cunt. We were doing a scene in a hospital. After the first take this AD yelled out “Hey, gramps, you with the walker, you might need to make your cross just a teensy bit faster. Can you do that? Are you physically capable? OK, we’ll all find out if you are. No pressure, gramps!” And Jesse could be clearly heard saying “Oh that *********. What a CHARMER.” She was fired a week later for “not being a good fit” with the cast. And yeah, Jesse was indeed a total sweetheart and a big favorite of the cast and crew. A lovely guy.

Paramount is the most haunted studio and the security guys will spill their creepy stories when asked. Redd Foxx died onstage there and the lot shares a wall with Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which is where a lot of full-bodied apparitions are seen walking through at night and laughter heard in the Mae West building at 2am

Interesting r536. Do you have any more stories?

I worked on CSI-Cyber and just as Patricia Arquette was walking to set, some young guy BG ran up to her and told her how much he liked her in "Nightmare on Elm Street." While so many other actors would have had him kicked out immediately, she said "Thank you! That is so nice of you to say" and kept going

This will be of interest to only a few, but when I worked on a scene shooting "Ten Days in the Valley" on location in Hollywood, the background holding was at the house of Beth S. from the second season of The Real World in LA

"Ten Days in the Valley" was cancelled before they finished shooting their only season, and the crew milked overtime as much as possible to the point that the show became a money laundering venture

Kyra Sedgewick was such an unfriendly shrew during the filming of "Ten Days in the Valley" that she didn't look up or acknowledge the hair and makeup people when they greeted her. And she wouldn't move her purse and bags out of the way to make it easier for them to walk around her

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga were making out behind the curtains between takes during the scene at The Short Stop bar in "A Star is Born"

[quote]Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga were making out

So it's true Gaga is really a guy?

A female director new to Secrets and Lies said to Juliette Lewis after a shot "All I'm hearing is words" causing her to cry and delayed shooting for a couple hours

Katherine Heigl was shooting a scene for her one and done series "State of Affairs" at the Westlake Country Club in Thousand Oaks, which costs over thirty thousand to shoot for the day, and instead of eating the catered lunch on set, she left to meet her Mom and friend at a sushi restaurant and was gone for almost three hours while the entire crew waited for her to come back

There needs to be a thread 2.

More tea from my PA days, now that I'm starting to recall...

Hugh Jackman is extremely down to earth and kind to everyone on set. On the film I was working on, he'd frequently have lunch with the crew instead of being holed up in his trailer. He also didn't try to hide from fans "stalking" the shoot and would actively go up to them (much to the chagrin of security) for photos, meets, etc.

One such example I recall is while mostly everyone was still at base camp waiting to start the day, a small group of fans had gathered outside the gate taking pictures (it was a huge parking lot usually used for sporting event parking that production rented out). One of the other PAs started eyeing them, and then eyed me as if to say "should we get security or...?" Because they honestly weren't doing anything, but locations and the AD for that project were super nitpicky over shit like that, so I hesitantly started towards the gate to at least make it look like I was "making an effort to protect Mr. Jackman" only to have him gently stop me, and trot by saying "No, it's alright," to go meet with his fans behind the gate. I found that pretty cool. I got zero bad vibes from Hugh Jackman.

From reading these threads, and speaking to people I know who work in the industry, it appears the less talented some of these so-called celebrities are (IE: Emma Roberts etc), the more over-the-top and obnoxious their diva attitudes are.

Amazing!

Jeff Goldblum really gets into his character and talks about the backstory his character has with yours. Um, I'm a diner patron. Get the fuck out of here.

R544 I hope she's not like that on the set of Yellowjackets.

R547, I concur about Hugh Jackman. I worked numerous days as bg on The Greatest Showman and he always absolutely lovely. Warm, friendly, charming-extremely impressive. Michelle Williams, on the other hand, is a cold fish.

R545, Katherine Heigl showed up on a ZzzQuil (OTC cold medicine) commercial. I was watching Wendy Williams a while back and, of course, WW had to mention that KH was on a ZzzQuil commercial, why, what is up with that, etc. I think WW speculated that KH was difficult, low on work, now doing a ZzzQuil commercial.

I don't get why people would be pissy about an actor wanting to stay in character. I don't think it's unreasonable for them to want to minimize interruptions.

R547 & R551 I was working at the Windsor Arms in Toronto (a posh hotel) in the early 2010s and Hugh Jackman stayed with us when he was touring his one man show. I didn't have any direct interaction with him sadly, but the people who did said he was incredibly nice and when he checked out, he left the housing keeping team a $2000 tip to divide among everyone who had cleaned his suite.

Thanks, guys.

No, THANK YOU!

[R554] I usually leave money everyday I know I’m getting housekeeping because staff does change, so how does one ensure that all involved parties get the money to split amongst themselves? My personal preference is to do one lump sum.

Typically, you should tip as you go because otherwise the last person on duty will take it all. But if you’re Hugh and giving a big amount, management should be willing to dole it out for you.

I remember an interview with Eva Marie Saint where she said that when she was first making films she would spend a lot of time chatting to the crew… but eventually found she had no energy for the scenes doing this. She eventually decided it was best to conserve energy for the scenes otherwise she’d be exhausted. I can see this being an issue if actors are expected to chat to people even extras… I think just being polite is enough, they shouldn’t be expected to be more than that.

R559 Yeah, it's the same reason actors aren't "on" during rehearsals. You can run a line or two, or work on blocking if it's a complex scene, but most actors don't want to rehearse every beat, sign and footstep. They save the energy for the moment the cameras are rolling.

[quote] Typically, you should tip as you go because otherwise the last person on duty will take it all.

Also, if you're staying multiple days, you want the benefits of being a good tipper. So, tip as you go, i.e., tip early and enjoy the better treatment you'll probably get.

It’s also well known about Jackman buying lottery tickets for the crew every Friday on his projects. And he often rents specialty food/coffee trucks for them, too. They usually park outside the set for around four hours.

It's ironic with all the slim and trim cast of "Grey's Anatomy" they have this lavish Marie Antoinette-style dessert spread everyday after lunch with gourmet cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, cookies, chocolate-covered / white-chocolate-covered strawberries, make-your-own-sundae bar - AND NOBODY EATS IT!

I've had a couple breathless moments of walking into the room alone, and still daydream about the best cake I've ever eaten from there

I want to see a movie/TV show made starring Faye Dunaway, Katherine Heigl and Lauren Graham. And just cut out the actual scenes and film everything from the moment you hear "cut!"

r590 That makes perfect sense. Honestly, though, if you're at least somewhat efficient at reading people, you can tell the difference between someone being "in the zone" of their craft, and just being an asshole.

Another "when I was a PA memory..."

Henry Cavill was like this. He was extremely quiet and aloof 100% of the times that I encountered him on set but also, because of the sheer magnitude of the production, literally never alone outside of his trailer. So, even if he wanted to chat up the crew, there wasn't really time for that during shooting hours. Either way, it didn't come off as "rude" so much as "mentally checked out and busy."

I also didn't really spend that much time around him for the film I worked on, and actually actively tried to avoid being near him as much as possible due to the fact that he was a paparazzi magnet, and I didn't want to "get caught" in a photo that would inevitably end up online for my nosy-ass peers to find and start asking questions. I purposely told no one outside my family that I was working on films, at the time. I didn't feel like having the "but, we thought you hated Hollywood" conversation. -_-

^ That's supposed to say r560.

Keep em coming!

I don’t expect actors on sets to be chatty but I do expect them to even tacitly acknowledge that other people happen to be occupying the space they’re in for that particular time. Stars like Meryl Streep, Hugh Jackman, Julianne Moore and George Clooney all seem to be aware of this. Stars like Sean Penn, Michelle Williams and Clive Owen don’t seem to be.

Faye Dunaway and Bette Davis did a tv movie together in the 70s. Faye was her usual self, not showing up on the set for hours and pissing everybody off while they waited. There was a big scene in a church with hundreds of extras and Faye was late, as usual. It was the middle of summer and there was no a/c in the church. Bette Davis got up on the pulpit and entertained the whole crowd until Faye arrived. Davis was royally pissed at her for being so unprofessional.

There were many delays on set of In & Out for the big wedding scene where Joan Cusack got an Oscar nomination for lines like “Is there anybody here who hasn’t seen Funny Lady?” During the long breaks between camera set-ups Debbie Reynolds would perform her Vegas act for the adults (specifically for the gays) and the director Frank Oz would keep the bored children entertained with his voices for Miss Piggy and Yoda.

R562 It's always nice when the actors/producers, etc. bring in a food truck of some sort for the crew. Usually it happens on the actors last day, or the final day of shooting, but we've been surprised when it was simply a 'Tuesday.'

For some reason, the one that stood out for me was Julian McMahon; he did this for us twice during the two years I worked with him

Okay I wasn't going to bring up food trucks, but Sasha Alexander ordering a Kogi Truck for everybody on Rizzoli & Isles deserves first runner up, but Taye Diggs on the set of Murder in the First ordering UMAMI BURGER truck deserves first prize and hard to beat

spacey tipped good to a porngod i know.... so does d.g.

i was once taken to the home of don bachardy and christopher isherwood. they were both pretty nice. chris jus wanted to talk about buddhism, was hoping to steal him away from don, but alas....

Kevin Spacey, I’m sure, has hit on and maybe even stalked male bg on his projects.

^ Guys who worked on House of Cards confirmed that

BREAKING: After R563's post, it's been announced that CHRISSY METZ has joined Grey's Anatomy!

^^She's playing the hospital.

R578 you bitch 🤣

Everything being said about Hugh Jackman was very much his reputation in Australia, both before and after he became a hit in the US. He is said to be niceness personified.

I'd like to return the favor to Hugh (wink, wink)

bump

As mentioned before, that Twiki robot looked like a big silver penis.

I was working on, "Wedding Crashers" and was hanging out in the BG holding (I'm a crew member). Christopher Walken asked a PA where the crafty truck was, and PA told him that he could get whatever Christopher wanted. CW declined the PA's offer, walked to the truck, walked back, and ate his sandwich right in the middle of BG holding, with all the astonished BG keeping a respectful distance from him. You don't see that often.

r572, if you work on the WB lot, they forbid food trucks, but some productions can be persuasive at times. We got the Grilled Cheese Truck and the Koolhaus truck- my favorites. Also, Taye Diggs is a class act and lovely to work with.

r472 No not David. Don't know a David.

Forgot to add in my Stepford Wives post that Walken had to have a “handler” assigned to him because he’d wander off into the neighborhood where the soundstages were (Astoria) and get plastered in the local drinking establishments.

R495 When Judge Judy moved to her new streaming network - she failed to tell Bert, her bailiff of 20 years. When he reached out to her to find out if he was going with her,, she told him the "network" decided to use a different bailiff. He later found out it was Judy who screwed him over.

^That’s cold.

[quote]Forgot to add in my Stepford Wives post that Walken had to have a “handler” assigned to him because he’d wander off into the neighborhood where the soundstages were (Astoria) and get plastered in the local drinking establishments.

Well, that is Chris' old neighborhood. His parents owned the Walken bakery on Broadway in Astoria, but that part of Queens was known as Long Island City back then.

When Chris won the Oscar, his family's bakery gave out free cookies the next day.

I'm always fascinated by these stories about stars like J-Lo insisting no one is allowed to look at them on set.

On one hand I understand how it can ruin your concentration, and so if you hire people for short-term work as background, it does not seem unreasonable to stipulate this.

On the other hand, it's always striking to me that the people who ask for this are not the older established stars like Meryl Streep or Robert De Niro or Maggie Smith, but the people who have huge reputations for being petty and insecure.

It is ridiculous and inexcusable that people like David Letterman and Ellen De Generes insist even longtime staffers on their shows can not look at them or speak to them.

Was Bird (Judge Judy) hugely popular? He was slow-moving and didn't seem to have much of a personality. Still, JJ should have told him straight that there was no role for him in the new court show.

I worked with JLo on a photoshoot. I was nothing to her and she was super nice. She was very sure about what angles she was shot at and how her makeup was done but never bitchy. I remember the photographer wanted her to sit in this chair and she was lit from above and she stopped and said "I know my face, that won't look good" and she got up and checked the shots and pointed out to the photographer that yeah it did not look the most flattering. But she was never a bitch about it. In fact, she was just direct but nice about it. I think people interpret that as being bitchy but to me, she was just being assertive. IF a guy did it no one would say anything. Same with Arianna Grande. I remember there was a story about she had to be carried everywhere. I worked on a set with her and she was the nicest person. I even joked about it with her. Her people introduced me to her and I said I was hired to carry her around. She looked at me for a second and then bust out laughing.

Want to work with a true professional? Alan Cumming is the sweetest man on a set. He's approachable, funny, seriously professional, and I've only seen him snarl at inept directors, never bg people. In between shots, he's usually in his chair, checking tweets.

[quote]The Riz troll sucks. And that Tina Fey slashing story is so fucking macabre.

Can someone please explain why any mention of Riz Ahmed causes others here to call a poster "The Riz Ahmed Troll"? What the fuck??

DL is mainly a gossip forum, why such venom for anyone who mentions this actor?

Because it's exactly one person who is obsessed with him

Judge Reinhold (yes, Judge Reinhold) was a colossal asshat on one project I worked on. Throwing tantrums and carrying on like a raging asshole. Bizarre behavior.

I've heard from colleagues that Tim Allen is no picnic either. Apparently Disney had to step in and insist he stop dropping F bombs around the kids on the Santa Clause movies.

I wonder why they didn’t give him the Buzz Lightyear movie. He probably lost out on millions.

The movie looks amazing.

[quote] she was just being assertive. IF a guy did it no one would say anything.

You know, since seriously crazy women like Sharon Stone and Roseanne have repeatedly used this argument to justify their awful behavior, I can never buy this argument anymore. Especially since I know that men who do behave like total divas (like Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke and Alex Pettyfer) also get in trouble for it, both with directors and the public, even though we are told repeatedly, "If a man did it, no one would say anything."

Except Bruce Willis is still around and still has a career. Alex Pettyfer is an abysmal actor.

Alex Pettyfer (horrible name) can't act, has zero presence and is forgettably blandsome at best.

[quote]I've heard from colleagues that Tim Allen is no picnic either. Apparently Disney had to step in and insist he stop dropping F bombs around the kids on the Santa Clause movies.

His Last Man Standing crapfest was basically a half-hour of anti-Democrat and lame Obama jokes. Who gave that shitfest a green light? The jokes weren't even funny.

I had no idea Tim Allen was such a hard-core ReThug.