Landing My First Background Acting Role

As insignificant as this is, I’m screaming.

AHHHHHHHH!

I’m on a major motion picture studio lot right now, and it’s not because I was hired to cater an event, as usually is the case when I’m at these famous Hollywood locations.

Back in April, I blogged about how one of my closest girlfriends out here in L.A., Shirley, slipped me into a slot for Central Casting on-boarding. She knows I don’t make any money blogging yet, and that I have a very flexible schedule with the type of work I do do to pay the rent, so she’d been swearing that if I get into background acting work, I could do well because ethnic is in. (She’s Asian with a pinch of Black and had had consistent work since signing up herself).

Since joining the roster of Hollywood’s biggest background casting company, I’d click “available” when possible work opportunities would appear in my inbox, but I’d never actively go out and search for roles. Shirley, being a full-time background actress, is in balls deep, always scouring the web for roles she could fill. Being the way-too-nice and thoughtful friend that she is, whenever she’d see somebody looking for a Black woman, she’d immediately send it to me. And when I say immediately, I mean immediately, before her eyes could even look across the entire description. A couple of times I had to say, “Shirley, do you really think I can pass for a woman in her 60s?” Majority of the time though, she wasn’t calling me an old lady and sent me jobs I could submit for.

“MODEL TYPES FOR MAJOR SHOW
** seeking women in their 20s **”

That’s what the Instagram post read across the top.

Shirley can be generous with compliments, even when they’re not necessarily true, and I know this, but I don’t mind listening to lies when I like them, so even though I don’t see myself as a “model type”, I let her convince me to go for it.

How did I book a role as a background actor for a major television network show in Los Angeles?

I submitted the headshot you see up above as this blog’s graphic and a picture of me in a swimsuit when I was in Jamaica, as well as body measurements I pulled out of my behind, and hoped for the best. That was August 13th.

A little over a week after submitting for the job, I received an email saying that I was under consideration. They asked me to send a current picture of myself. I figured they didn’t want anything special and were only trying to see what color my hair currently is or something, so I sent a selfie I’d taken on my phone in my bathroom a few days prior.

Another week went by and I’d let the idea leave my mind, like the many other roles Shirley sent me that I submitted for and never landed.

I was out-of-town for my very first content creator contract (yes, I recently had another somewhat insignificant, yet scream-worthy-to-me, first/accomplishment.. let me find out God is tryna tell me something)… I went to check my email, probably to confirm that night’s flight time, and saw an email from the casting team that was looking for model types!

I almost wouldn’t have been able to accept the job… BUT GOD!

Initially, I was planning to ride the train back to L.A. because it gives me time to endlessly stare out of a window while I tell myself I’m writing, but my digestive system was acting a plum fool. Not wanting to chance it on a 70-plus-hour journey, at the very last minute, I booked a same-day flight into LAX. I saw the email saying I was selected for the background role after deciding to go by plane instead of train. If my stomach wouldn’t have been upset and I would’ve kept my original travel plans, I wouldn’t have made it back to L.A. in time for the mandatory COVID testing and costume fitting yesterday and today.

What is it like on a major motion pictures studio lot in Los Angeles?

As I briefly mentioned, my work that pays the bills has brought me on every major motion picture studio lot in Los Angeles, including:

• Universal Studios Lot in Universal City

• Fox Studios Lot in Century City (this is where I cater-waiter the exclusive Night Before the Oscars official Academy pre-party for all of Hollywood’s hottest celebs)

• Sony Pictures Entertainment in Culver City (last time I was here was to serve Jon & Vinny’s pizza to Jennifer Anniston and crew for whatever she had going on)

• Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank

• Paramount Pictures Studios in the Larchmont area of Los Angeles (I’ve passed hors d’oeuvres here on plenty of occasions for film premieres, as I always accept these jobs since it’s so close to my house)

Yes, studio lots are a cool place, no matter you’re reason for being on one. They’re fantastical and imaginative. It makes your eyes bulge to be in one time period one second and another the next. You’re walking out of a normal 21st century parking garage, then you hit a corner and blink and you’re in the Wild Wild West. It’s also revealing, giving you those moments of “ohhhhhh,” when you see how a certain setting you’ve always seen on a screen is achieved. Though I’ve never been interested in paying for one, I can see why tourists from all around the world pay to go on studio lot tours.

Being behind-the-scenes of a film production is cool in and of itself; having an opportunity to be a part of the magic on a studio lot is the even cooler part that has me excited. | photo: Universal Studios Hollywood

Though all the coolness isn’t lost from me having worked private events on studio lots, the environment itself isn’t the reason why I was giddy today. My excitement is caused by the reason why I’m here today.

Today is my first time being on a major Hollywood studio lot as talent.

What?! I’m coming to a filming production location and I’m not here to serve food and drinks?!

It feels good, as I expected it would when I talked about Getting Into A Different Type of Gig.

Will I be on television after getting a background acting role?

I’m not sure.

Y’all, it’s only a very minor background role. If I make it on-screen, you’ll likely have to squint your eyes and look past the focus of the camera’s subject into the background to see me. And notice I said, if.

Today was only a wardrobe fitting. The scene I’m selected for could be cut before it’s even shot. (The one time I got booked a job thru Central Casting, that’s what happened to me; I didn’t even get to go in for a fitting). I could make it to shoot day and a camera never even turns my way. Or, I could make it to shoot day, get on camera, then be left on the editing room floor during post-production.

It’s really too soon to speak on.

I typically don’t like discussing opportunities until they’ve happened, which is what I did with my first content creator contract this past weekend, and my best-guy-friend got pissed that he didn’t know about it until I was in the mist of shooting the content.

Even though I don’t like talking about things until I’m sure, and me appearing on a major television network show isn’t a sure thing just yet, I am sure about one thing.

I’m sure this is a part of the process.

I am sharing this with you, my aroundLAwithTK riders (my blog readers), because

1. I am excited about a step, as small as it may be, in the right direction.

2. I need to post on my personal blog daily if I ever want it to pay me.

3. It’s an insightful, honest, often untold part of the process that may help the next girl that’s wondering.

We don’t see the almost’s, the whoopsy daisy’s, the darn’s, the trial and error’s. We see the made it’s, the there’s, the arrived’s.

I’m willing to share my climb, not from a pinnacle of success speaking from a selective memory of how I got to it. I’m willing to share my climb as I climb. It’s vulnerable and it opens myself up to criticism, but that’s what I need. I need to be more vulnerable. I need to allow the process to construct me into something better.

Tear me apart. I can handle that. What I can’t handle is looking up years later and not having gone for it, not throwing myself in, not giving myself to something to see what happens.

Writing helps me sort my thoughts. I believe it was a TED Radio Hour episode I was listening to recently where I heard a writer say, “I don’t know what I [feel] until I write it,” and I felt that! So, I’m here.. writing, sorting, and feeling.

And you’re here… reading.. maybe striking up thoughts within your own mind.. maybe even feeling. Whatever you’re doing, I’m glad you’re here. Thank you.

Please, don’t hesitate to share. If this spoke to you in any way, it may speak to someone else.

Getting Into A Different Type of Gig

Nearing the end of a side hustle event gig yesterday evening, as I slowed down enough to feel my body beginning to ache, I hopped on my InstaStory ranting about how I’m pretty much over it.

I’ve enjoyed working high end events aroundLA, but enough is enough.

People from back home, down South, and elsewhere, even some here in L.A., find what I call my “side hustle” to pay the rent, very interesting. They want to know who was there and what were they like. They want to know what it's like to be in those exclusive spaces. And, they want to know how they can get there.

Tend to the buffet at Piccadilly, or tend to the buffet at Will Smith’s Calabasas compound?

I can understand how the latter inspires a little more inquiry.

Never wanting to seem ungrateful, I added the disclaimer on my InstaStory that I am thankful for being able to have and do these more rare ways of making money for as long as I have.

Now, it’s been long enough. I’m ready to use the other 90% of my being with which God blessed me.

Being a woman of my word, I’ll give y’all a blog post, and/or maybe even a YouTube video, on side hustles in Los Angeles… eventually. (Get on my tail and eventually will come sooner than later.)

At this very moment though, I don’t want to think about those social event side hustle gigs. I want to think about something new, what’s next.

(If it isn’t obvious, I’ll still be working them for the time being, because baby, one thing about these bills, they gon’ come, and I’m gon’ make SHO they paid, one way or zhee otha!)

Background acting is what’s next.

I started typing this sitting in the onboarding office of Central Casting’s Los Angeles location.

Do I plan to, or have a desire to, make a career out of background acting?

Not at chance.

First of all, it’s not enough money in exchange for my time.

Let me give you an example.

A month or so ago, I worked a 2-day event for the luxury designer brand Prada. Prada transformed the long-standing Ghengis Khan restaurant on Fairfax into an immersive art experience, featuring a panel one second and a nightclub vibe the next. I was responsible for tending to a lounge of VIP guests, and I worked my a** off because they didn’t hire enough servers. (Yet, Prada hired a slew of white girls to stand around wearing a Prada uniform shirt-dress, doing nothing.. no exaggeration.. nothing. I asked them, the “brand ambassadors,” what they had to do and they specifically said, “just stand here…” for $30/hour!! I immediately applied for that event staffing agency, am now on their roster, and am scheduled to work a $40/hr gig I booked thru them to kickoff Coachella this Friday. Moving along..)

Prada Mode Los Angeles got that work out of me, you hear?! But, I made a thousand bucks in two days.

Would I be foolish enough to think I’ll make $1,000 for 2 days on set as a background actor? I’d be setting myself up for disappointment if I did.

Background acting is only a lucrative industry for the entity employing the background actors, in this case, Central Casting. From every case I’ve heard, and from the numbers I saw on the paperwork I signed at onboarding today, background acting gigs aren’t paying anywhere near the amount of money good event gigs pay.

How much do background actors in Los Angeles get paid?

When you begin working as a background actor in Los Angeles, the pay rate is minimum wage. Who can survive off of minimum wage in Los Angeles? Sure in tf not Te’Keya Krystal!

Note: I didn’t look this information up on Google about the pay rate for background actors in Los Angeles; I’m telling you what I know from personal experience, as this is a personal lifestyle blog. There may be other entities out there that pay more, I’m not sure; I’m sharing what I know thus far from friends in the industry, and from myself joining the first and most popular major casting network in Los Angeles, or whatever that video playing at onboarding said today.

If these new gigs won’t pay more than your previous gigs, why do background acting?

Networking!

Experience.

Though I won’t make enough money to feed myself with background acting work (or I’ll make enough money to feed myself, but won’t have time to eat), it will put me closer to the entertainment industry.

In college, I studied broadcast journalism and minored in performing arts. I’ve always wanted to be in the field of entertainment. Then I moved to Los Angeles without much planning or preparation, got distracted with making money to make ends meet, and never pursued my passions. That changes now.

Pride is The Devil

all my pride gone
had to lose it all, then I got rich

- Lil’ Baby on J.Cole’s Pride Is The Devil

Okay, I have to take a pay cut, but is a temporary modification not worth long term gratification?

I’ve decided to take the chance of making sacrifices now, to worry a little bit less about the now, to benefit myself on a deeper level in the future.

Once you’re exposed to certain levels, it’s difficult to accept less. No one ever wants to feel as though they’re going backwards. We all want to be on an upward trend in life. However, I’d be remiss if I counted my growth in only dollars. I wouldn’t want to let “oh, uhnt uhn, I’d make triple this doing thus and such” hinder potential growth in other areas. (Shoot, if that’s the methodology, instead of serving drinks, I could make a thousand times more serving blow jobs. I giggle, but it’s true; I told y’all over on the LA opinion column how gold diggers, damn near prostitutes, really exist aroundLA.. and live well!)

“Money is the motive” is a popular adage, but I don’t want money to be the motive for me. Money being thee only, or the deciding, factor in matters, ignoring morals or passions, is where all sorts of other problems begin.

I want to let my heart drive me, not my bank account. And I don’t want to let my pride interfere.

At Central Casting onboarding, potential background actors are required to take a headshot and full body for their CentralCasting.com account.

So, here I am.

In addition to not making any money, I’ll also have to get over not liking the way I look on-camera, if I plan to make money doing on-camera work. I’m posting this very imperfect, completely raw (unedited), image of myself, even though I strongly dislike it, to force myself to get over it. It’s the mandatory photo taken at Central Casting onboarding, and it’ll remain on my Central Casting profile that (hopefully) hundreds of casting directors will click on.

To be continued

This isn’t the end all, be all. As previously stated, I do not plan to make a career out of background acting in Los Angeles. I also don’t expect the exposure and experience, gained background acting, to be a sure way into something I would like to do long term.

I’m simply opening myself up to possibilities by trying something new.

---

Special thanks to one of my former luxury retail co-workers, now close girlfriend, Shirley Chung, for not only suggesting I sign up for Central Casting Los Angeles, but also scoring me one of their extremely-swiftly-filling time slots for onboarding.

If you all would like to know about the onboarding process for Central Casting, comment on this blog post or on the @aroundLAwithTK Instagram account. If I start getting booked on gigs, and you want me to do a follow-up post, along the lines of “how is it to do background acting in Los Angeles,” let me know that as well!