You run across a lot of conflicting advice when you’re getting into acting, even from drama teachers. But one tidbit I hear now and then from other aspiring actors is that working as an Extra, or Background Performer, is a great way to break into films and to learn how films are shot – the routine, the technology. Extras, they say, are sometimes cast in bit parts that on a major film pay a huge amount of money (at least by the standards of the proletariat!)

Okay, if you really have no clue about what shooting on a set or on location looks like then stepping in as an Extra a time or two probably won’t hurt. Just remember that your role is to be wallpaper behind the star, to provide the viewer with a vague sense of place, of activity, to work as part of a large element in a shot – i.e. an army unit, a horde of attacking Mongols (although really large crowds are now created digitally). An Extra is specifically not to be noticed, and when they are the casting director has screwed up.

I always notice the guy behind Meg Ryan in the diner scene in When Harry Met Sally, where she says “I have had plenty of good sex!” The guy raises his eyebrows then resumes talking to the woman sitting across from him. He looks like Mark Harmon, and the fact that I notice him every time is a mistake. No star wants movie viewers watching their big scene thinking, who is that great-looking guy sitting at the table back there? Some will even have actors edited out of a film if they feel they’re grabbing the spotlight. (Shirley MacLaine, do you recognize yourself?) So, problem one, you’re expected to be wallpaper and if you’re not you won’t get in the shot.

Problem two, if you make a habit of working as an Extra - and this is the part that kills me - directors and crew members come to know your face and to regard you as “just an Extra,” which risks closing the door on all but bit parts.

Michael Caine makes this point in his book Acting in Film, only in mapping out his own career he set the bar even higher. He says that Laurence Olivier advised him early on to never accept a supporting role, always to be the star. Olivier’s reasoning was that if you accept supporting roles you come to be seen as just a “supporting actor” and it’s harder to then get leading roles.

For much of his career, especially while he was trying to get established and make a name for himself, Michael Caine heeded that advice, rejecting purely supporting roles in big films in favor of starring roles in small ones. Now as he gets older and starring roles for older actors in big budget films become fewer and farther between, he’s returning to more small films – like Is Anybody There? – and keeping his star billing.

I think that’s incredibly smart. Downsize the vehicle, not the role. Star in a student film, star in an industrial, star in a training video – Hell, star in something clever you put on YouTube!

Sure there's a good living to be made in supporting roles and character parts. Actors like Claude Akins and Strother Martin and a whole host of others even develop quite a following. But you learn a lot more about working in front of the camera when you have blocking and close ups and more lines. Oh, and one more benefit: no one will ever mistake you for....wallpaper.