Mine was during a purchase-and-return shop.

The point was to test the employee's compliance with the store's "hassle-free" return policy. The employee was not supposed to ask ANYTHING except if you'd like to exchange it.

I bought a $50 bag of dog food. Went out to my car, waited a while, lugged it back in.

The clerk asked me WHY I was returning it!

I burst into tears and stuttered out: "He said he'd kill Old Blue before he would feed him $50 dog food!"

Definitely Oscar material!

Getting my husband to try on Rolex watches and appear interested. He was so not into that. He was a good sport for ten minutes and $70.

I've had a few, doing an upscale watch shop on Rodeo Dr in Beverly Hills, I did such a good job convincing everyone including myself I was going to buy that $9,000 watch, I pulled out my credit card...ooops.
Telling a Paine Webber Investment Banker I had half a million to invest, I totally played the part and almost said my driver should be here in 5 mintues. Question is: why am I so comfortable in these places, must be my alter ego.

I once met a movie/tv extra who also mystery shopped. He said it was a perfect way to supplement his income between gigs. I assume that in Southern California there are probably many more actors that mystery shop. He suggested I get a union card and try being an extra but the drive to most film locations was too far for me.

One time I was shopping a car dealership, actually several out near New York. I was using video glasses for all of the jobs. The glasses did not charge fast enough before my final job so when I was sitting down getting ready to decline there offer. That's when a second guy at the desk said to me oh are you recording? I said no immediatly but in my head I was thinking how the f#*k. Then he told me my glasses were flashing. I never lied so smooth in my life

@Learn how to secret shop wrote:

One time I was shopping a car dealership, actually several out near New York. I was using video glasses for all of the jobs. The glasses did not charge fast enough before my final job so when I was sitting down getting ready to decline there offer. That's when a second guy at the desk said to me oh are you recording? I said no immediatly but in my head I was thinking how the f#*k. Then he told me my glasses were flashing. I never lied so smooth in my life

What did you say?

Duh!

My friends from Jupiter want to know if 7:00 is too late to meet up for dinner.

@kenasch wrote:

What did you say?

Kenasch, being an adult extra is not all it is hyped up to be. First it is very expensive to join the union. Both my kids (now grown) are union members but they worked as kids where all jobs paid union scale so they were able to make some money doing it. Non union is minimum wage often with no mileage. There are so many studios that are all over LA now instead of being concentrated in Hollywood or Burbank that you will not necessarily get mileage even as a union member if you need to drive to one of the far flung studio locations. Not to mention that if you turn down jobs too often you may not get hired again. A daytime call time might turn into a late night wrap and you may be scheduled the next day in just a few hours. If it is for a different production the union rules will not cover for turn around time. Not to mention being huddled somewhere in a driveway waiting for hours when it is either 95 degrees or 45 degrees! And wearing the clothing of a different season for the shoot!

I actually was an extra once. I was in the Navy and stationed at Pearl Harbor while they were shooting the movie Tora Tora Tora. I believe they paid us a flat fee for the day and lunch. There was a lot of standing around in our dress whites. My “scene” apparently only reached the cutting room floor. It still was an exciting to time to witness how they recreated the attack on Pearl before the use of computer graphics. There were a lot of nervous locals who lived thru the actual event.

Anyone who has spent any time in TV or Film production knows that it is often long, miserable work. Even union pay is barely worth it at times. On the other hand, it can be soooo cool to meet an A-lister, or just to watch the show and know what went into making it. I liken it to a summer camp for adults. Yeah it's hot & sweaty, but we are making memories for a lifetime.

Yeah, my young at the time son spent an entire day playing (between short scenes) with the youngest son on Malcolm in the Middle. He was also on a shoot where they told the extras in no uncertain terms that they should not even approach or try to say hello to the stars who were Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller. So he was playing with the dog that was on set and Owen Wilson came over to him and started talking. My daughter got to be a stand in for a scene in True Blood with the male star. Lots of other stories for their memory banks. But like Kenasch says, most of the scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. I once spotted the edge of her coat on a show.

Oscar worthy??? I guess I would be called a character actor when I mystery shop. I use as close to the truth or what could be the truth as I can when doing a scenario. Since I am a character it is not difficult to me to be a character actor!!!

This is truly a hilarious post Ceasesmith!

My kid got to work WITH George Clooney as an extra and it was SO exciting - but alas - also ended up on the cutting room floor.

I'm not too far from Savannah, Ga where loads of TV and films are being shot now. It's totally different here, you don't have to be in the union and most extras are hired from Facebook postings. I've done a few films just for fun but the most fun I ever had on set was being an extra on Magic Mike XXL. THAT was a fun three days!!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2019 01:25PM by callinectes.

No you don't have to be in the union here either. Non union extras get paid minimum wage and no frills though. Union extras get at least twice as much in pay and mileage and decent meals. Sometimes they get the same wonderful meals, other shows they have a separate dining area and snack area with free but low end items. It seems to depend on how many extras there are. Many extras I have met who are adults hope every day to go into overtime, which is quite common, when they will get paid 1.5x the hourly rate. A lot of them seem to have other jobs they do while sitting around. It would definitely be possible to do reports and search for new mystery shop jobs. You just need to be ready to close up shop and go to set quickly whenever called but there is often several hours in a row of sitting around. One lady was knitting caps and she told me that she sells a lot of them to the staff and other extras who see her making them. It might be fun but it does not easily pay the bills.
Like mystery shopping sometimes things turn out to be not worth it when you figure it out. One time they paid an extra $35 to bring my old jeep to the location. Well, at 11 mpg to get there and then idle for hours moving an inch at a time while they set up and took and retook the shot I think we used more than $35 worth of gas.

If I was more attractive (a lot more) I'd be an actress. Never been outed. If I sense it, I quickly correct, and people are always thrown off.

I was an "extra" in 2 movies shot in Ferndale, CA, back in the 80's.

We were paid $386 a day, and had wonderful catered food...constantly replenished.

I do not know if that was "scale", but it was good money at the time.

(But the closest I ever came to a big-name actor was I delivered a pizza to Harrison Ford when he was in Deming, NM, shooting one of those Indiana Jones movies, LOL!!!)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/2019 02:27AM by ceasesmith.

$386 a day in the 80's was acting scale, not extra scale. I think extras were earning less than $150 a day a few years ago. Scale a few years ago was around $500 for not extras but actual actors. There are times when you are hired to be an extra but get bumped up to the regular acting scale for one reason or another. My son was hired as a union extra at $135 or so but got bumped. He ended up earning close to $10,000 for that one day of work over time with residuals. I had no idea he got bumped until we started getting those residual checks rolling in.
Ceasesmith If they asked you to say anything not what they call meme ?? they would need to pay you regular actor scale.

I have no idea. There was a "casting call", and all of us who "made it" got the $386 a day.
And we got paid every day, at the end of the day. They were VERY LONG days, let me tell you! Hours in makeup and costume, then literally standing around for hours...and hours....and hours.

Ack! Standing around is not good for me. I need to alternately sit, stand, stretch, walk around, walk around some more, do a little workout, elevate my legs, and generally make my back happy.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I have no idea. There was a "casting call", and all of us who "made it" got the $386 a day.
And we got paid every day, at the end of the day. They were VERY LONG days, let me tell you! Hours in makeup and costume, then literally standing around for hours...and hours....and hours.

It was before I became 100% disabled. Still, they were hard days.

Oh, now I remember -- they wanted REDHEADS.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Oh, now I remember -- they wanted REDHEADS.

That explains a lot, ????

I'm a red head but these casting companies are very specific sometimes and had to pay scale . I have never done this work myself but when my kids were minors I had to accompany them. My daughter is a red head too but she is 5'11" so hard to cast. I understand they do not want the female extras or anyone close to be much taller than the female star. That was why though they cast her as a stand in opposite the male star from True Blood. They needed a stand in for a sex scene (she did not have to do that !) The scene had the star have an intimate encounter with what he thought was a female but turned out to be a cross dresser (not sure I have the terminology right there are so many terms these days). In any case she was there for scene set up shots with him completely dressed. The star actor had no idea they were using an actual male cross dresser/transvestite or whatever he/she is called to do the actual scene and when he found out on the day of the shoot he told them he wanted my daughter to do the real scene with him. At 5'11 she could stand in for a male/female that height and actually look like a female the script called for. I am positive she would have run the other way if they had indeed wanted her to do that sex scene. In any case there was a half hour stop in production while they had closed door conversations with the male star who finally relented.
You do not have to sit...you can jog around, stretch whatever as long as you stay close enough to hear the call to action.
Sorry for highjacking this thread but for those out there wanting to expand their careers to being an extra or actor...maybe some of this will be enlightening.

Fascinating insight!