One of my ongoing hobbies is working as a film extra. (I even have an IMDb page.) I have zero aspirations to act professionally, it’s more of an excuse to get out of the house. In addition, my reputation for being cordial and reliable has awarded me some featured extra work, notably minor roles on Better Call Saul and Preacher. It’s been a weird and wild ride, so I thought it’d be fun to chronicle the shenanigans.

The Night Shift

My first foray into the extras world was on The Night Shift, a medical drama on NBC. I’ve been on the show numerous times at this point, mainly as “that idiot in the corner” or something similar. My favorite was as a building collapse victim, which necessitated a trip to the makeup trailer to get all bruised and bloodied.

Better Call Saul

My first “featured extra” part. I got cast as Kevin, a bullpen lawyer in season two of Better Call Saul. My wife and I are huge Breaking Bad fans. I never thought that I would be lucky enough to see that world, let alone act in it. I even got lines and credits! BCS spoiled me with a tightly run ship, which I guess one would expect from an Emmy-winning show. I got to meet several of the crew and cast, including Vince Gilligan, Bob Odenkirk, and Jonathan Banks.

Preacher

Yet another oopsy-doodle into a featured extra part. No lines this time, but I did get to interact with the main actor (Dominic Cooper), which was really cool. I was part of the restaurant scene where Jesse breaks away from Emily to chat with some groupies. I was supposed to be in the restaurant as general background, but the director decided that I looked weird enough to be obsessed with a preacher. Not sure how I should feel about that.

Soldado

This is the sequel to Sicario, starring Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, which ended up being another instance of my dumb extras luck. I had just come off three days promoting my latest novel at a local convention. I was exhausted, cranky, and just wanted to do the deed and go home. I had brought the final proof of my next novel, Max and the Multiverse, to give me something to do. There were tons of extras for the scene, so it was easy to sit by myself and read … or so I thought. The director walked by, saw me reading at a quiet table in the corner, and thought that worked well for the upcoming scene. He nabbed me and placed me across from Benicio and Josh. He even told me to hold up the book so it was obvious. So yeah, that’s me over the shoulder reading my own damn book. How funny is that?

The Space Between Us

This is a sci-fi movie starring Gary Oldman, which is particularly amusing because he’s the actor I get compared to most (just in appearance, by no means for acting). I played a NASA scientist and a security guard. The scientist was tucked way into the background, but I did have a close-up as the guard. I was in a scene with Gary where we ran down a hallway towards the camera. But alas, it was cut from the final movie.

The Mars Project

A sci-fi show that may or may not see the light of day. Hopefully it does because I clocked a lot of screen time. I got to wear a snazzy suit and scream at young adults. Hell, they didn’t even need to pay me to do that.

Mission Control

Wow, I couldn’t have built a better extras gig in a lab. Mission Control is an unaired sci-fi drama about, you guessed it, NASA Mission Control. The show was written by Andy Weir, author of The Martian and one of my literary heroes. I was one of 27 featured extras selected out of a pool of 600 applicants. Our job was to occupy the various control stations. As a sci-fi author and certified space junkie, I was positively giddy about this shoot. I got to spend five days on a NASA-themed set with one of my writing idols pretending to be an Operations Support Officer. Andy even signed my copy of The Martian, and after a few nerd-out chats about writing, he requested signed copies of my books. Whaaat?! Yup, that happened. Andy Weir owns signed copies of Transient and Max and the Multiverse. Oh yeah, and George RR Martin dropped by the set one day to hang out. Easily one of the coolest weeks of my life.