10 Actors Who Got Their Start As Extras

Find out where these actors got their start…

When Megan Fox was still a teenager in high school, she was an extra in Bad Boys II where she played a dancer in a club. Despite being 15 and unable to legally sit at the bar, director Michael Bay had her outfitted in a bikini and high heels while dancing under a waterfall — which earned her more money.

“We were shooting this club scene, and they brought me in, and I was wearing a stars and stripes bikini and a red cowboy hat, and six-inch heels. And they took me to Mike and he approved it. And they said, ‘You know, Michael, she’s 15, so you can’t sit her at the bar and she can’t have a drink in her hand,’” Megan shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2009.

She continued, “So his solution to that problem was to then have me dancing underneath a waterfall getting soaking wet. And that’s…at 15. I was in 10th grade. So that’s sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works.”

Renée Zellweger was a college student who had dreams of becoming an actress when she was an extra in Dazed and Confused. Looking back, Renée says she was studying at University of Texas and wanted to act so she started looking for jobs around town. She booked some small roles, which ended up paying well.

“I had lots of very small parts in Dazed and Confused,” Renée said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “I kind of just popped around. I think my official title was featured extra…They said, ‘We’re not gonna hire you but if you want to come down and be a part of the production — you know, you’re not going to have any speaking lines or anything — but we would like you to be here for continuity.’”

Brad Pitt worked as an extra for almost two years before kicking off his career. He appeared in Hunk, No Way Out and No Man’s Land — but he says he was most proud of Less Than Zero. Looking back at his time as an extra, Brad says he was constantly trying to get a line in, which meant he could get his SAG card.

“They grabbed me to be, like, the waiter. It was a big dinner scene at a restaurant, and they had me pour champagne in the glasses, and I thought, ‘I’m gonna try to get a line in,’” he told W Magazine.

He continued, “I poured one, maybe it was Charlie’s [Sheen], I don’t know, and then another actor’s, and then I got to this actress at the end and I poured her drink, and then I looked at her and I said, ‘Would you like anything else?’ She looked at me and went, ‘Ugh.’ Yeah, the first AD goes, ‘Cut, cut, cut, cut,’ and he came over to me and he said, ‘You do that again, you’re off the set.’”

After Viola Davis graduated from the Juilliard School, she landed a small part in the 1996 film The Substance of Fire. She played a nurse and shared a scene with Timothy Hutton. Looking back, she says she thought the shoot would be done in one take but was surprised to discover that wasn’t the case.

“I remember being very nervous and I remember getting on set. I had to do a scene with Timothy Hutton and we did the first shot and I was like, ‘Wow! That was so easy. Now I get to go home!’ They said, ‘No, we gotta do the closeup. You gotta turn around.’ I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I get 500 and something dollars and I gotta work all day?’” Viola jokingly told IMDb.

Ben Affleck began his acting career when he was still a teenager and had roles as an extra in films like Field of Dreams, The Good Mother and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. Unfortunately, one line ended up getting cut from the Buffy movie. Although Ben thought his delivery was “good,” he found out the production team thought otherwise when he saw the movie in theaters.

“I got one line…it was for a basketball player,” he shared on The Late Late Show. “I was feeling it…And then I went and saw the movie with friends … and I sounded very different. And I realized right then they re-recorded my line.”

He continued, “I was so bad. They needed me to be in the scene, but the director obviously [was like], ‘I can’t hear the voice again!’ They had to pay someone to come in and say, ‘Hey man, take it.’ Because apparently, I couldn’t say that convincingly enough.”

Matt Damon grew up with Ben Affleck and the pair ended up doing some work as extras together. They were both featured in Field of Dreams where they sat in the stands and watched a game being filmed.

“They were sitting in the stands, like college guys,” Kevin Costner recalled on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “And they would both lean in at the same time, lean back at the same time, look at each other at the same time. And we talked. And they had this big enthusiasm. They were on fire. I do remember them, absolutely.”

Matt added, “I remember it well. I literally had an Untouchables poster on my wall. He came out and hung around with the extras in between setups. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, ‘Shootin’ the s—t.’ And I laughed like a 12-year-old girl. It was a big deal for us because he had the exact career that we wanted. He was very nice to us.”

Early on in her career, Taraji P. Henson made a few quick appearances on some mega popular teen shows including Felicity and Saved by the Bell: The New Class. While she was an extra on the set of Saved by the Bell, Taraji says she tried to turn it into a more permanent gig.

“I tried to convince the producers that they needed me as a series regular but it didn’t work,” she joked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Bruce Willis worked as an extra before making it big, appearing in numerous movies like The First Deadly Sin and the TV flick Ein Guru kommt. Then his friend, who was working as a director of photography, helped him get a gig as an extra opposite of Paul Newman in The Verdict. He later got to work with Paul on another movie — and got to show him the clip of them together.

“I worked for a couple of weeks during the time that Paul Newman was doing his summation scene to the jury in the film. They worked it out for me to be right behind Paul Newman’s table. There are scenes of me and Paul, same shot. Me with goofy, long hair,” Bruce shared. “I showed [Paul]. Cracked him up.”

When Troian Bellisario was just a kid, she ended up getting cast as an extra in Billboard Dad, playing a friend of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. It was a funny experience for her because she had actually grown up with Mary-Kate and Ashley but they eventually lost touch. When she saw them on set, it ended up being a surprise reunion.

“It was really funny because I grew up across the street from them, so we used to play all the time. Then they moved, and we went to different schools, and I hadn’t heard from them, I think, since I was 6,” she told BuzzFeed.

She continued, “I went in for an audition for Billboard Dad, and I don’t even think I was aware that it was a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie ’cause I was so young. Then I got cast and I showed up on set, and I came out of my trailer and they came out of their trailer, and it was just like, ‘What are you doing here?!’ It was really weird.”

Early on in Regé-Jean Page’s career, he was an extra in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, portraying a guest at Fleur Delacour and Bill Weasley’s wedding. Reflecting on the experience, Regé-Jean says it was a great learning experience.

“The best thing about background acting, particularly on big movies like that — and I recommend it to every actor out there — is essentially, no one pays attention to you in the background, so you get to be the best actor spy. I was just watching, like, how these directors work with these actors, where Emma Watson hides her phones between takes. And this is the valuable stuff — it was under the tablecloths at the wedding, by the way. Sorry, Emma,” he said on The Tonight Show.