My First Job as a SA

I started my SA (Supporting Artist, otherwise known as Extra) journey way back in 2019, and honestly I was put off by it and did not want to do it again. That lack of wanting was reinforced when I actually saw the finished product (eventually) on screen.

Obviously things have changed since and I actually enjoy this kind of work now. But that first job still haunts me and I feel it should be talked about for aspiring SA’s and Extra’s.

Back in 2019 I saw a post on Facebook there was a movie to be filmed in my home town of Northampton and they were looking for extras to be a part of it. Now, I’ve wanted to work in TV since I was a child, ideally as a writer or as an actor, maybe even both, but “real life” always got in the way. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to do just that. I could also go home and see friends and family at the same time. Seemed ideal to me. So I signed up to this agency (more of which to follow) and waited to see how things panned out.

After a few weeks I got an email, an Availability Request (I would later find out this is abbreviated to AV). It wasn’t for the movie but for a TV show that was being filmed in London at the time. Let’s just say it was a TV adaptation of a beloved British film that the creator didn’t understand fully and it showed in the production and when it came out.

The role was of “Office Worker” and I needed to be free for a day and have a suit. This was again ideal because I was already and office worker, working in marketing in Canary Wharf with my own suit. So I said I was available I would just book some annual leave from my proper job to be able to do it.

They accepted me! I just had to go to a fitting with a couple of options of suits.

I booked the time off for the fitting and for the days filming. Super excited. Telling friends, co-workers, anyone who would listen.

The would only take a couple of hours but was on the other side of London, so I only booked a half day off work for that.

Off I go first thing in the morning with a couple of suits shoved in a bag to where I was told in the “Check-In” email I had received the day before. It was, essentially, an abandoned industrial estate near the SKY headquarters near Isleworth. Big and vast warehouses that used to be home to airplane building and maintenance, no doubt for the nearby Heathrow airport. But did still have that eery abandoned feel.

Old warehouse being turned into soundstages and studios has become a common thing in and around London in recent years as popularity of filming big shows for streamers grows.

But being met by two guys who were the “Crowd Costume Designers” in a gutted out office building in West London, and asked to change into my suit in side room was not what I was expecting. Indeed TV is not as glamourous as people often think.

Nonetheless, I went through with the fitting, the CCD’s pick what suit suited me and the scene best and I left to go to Canary Wharf for my proper job.

A week later it was the shoot day and that’s where I got a real eye opener.

Roughly 15 SA’s, men and women, in suits walking through massive warehouse turned soundstage, with multiple sets built inside it and told to sit a side room that looked like the staff room for whatever company used to be there. There was still the old style clock-in machine attached to the wall by the door. And there we sit until we are needed with an AD (Assistant Director) stationed at the door waiting for orders via walkie talkie, looking at her phone almost constantly. Every now and again she would look up as if trying to listen to what’s being said on the walkie talkie, swear in frustration, and go back to her phone.

The SA’s just sat there, also playing on our phones, a couple had books to read, one had a script for a play he was appearing in. I didn’t have a book or a script, I was expecting a fast paced day because that’s the kind of thing you see on TV about TV and I knew nothing. So, I just constantly looked at Instagram, the BBC News website and Facebook on my phone listening the frustrated sighs and swearing of the AD, in a freezing cold side room of a warehouse on a mid-February morning.

Eventually, the AD stood up and looked over all of us and picks out a handful by just pointing at us and giving us a number, myself included, and takes those with a number to set.

We walk past the other sets that are built. The inside of a log cabin with a jacuzzi and back drop of snowy mountains, one half of the house of commons, the inside of a dark and dingy looking flat, and finally the set we were on that day, the office.

We were lined up just off set where the CCD’s came along and made sure we were camera ready by adjusting our costumes and making sure our ties were straight. We were given our “actions” (what we need to do for the camera) it was essentially walk down the corridor and walk back. We rehearsed a few times and that was it. We didn’t why, we didn’t know what the rest of the scene entailed, nothing other than “walk” was explained to us.

Then the main cast came on set. Flanked by their own AD, who pushed us to one side like they were escorting the royal family to a function, calling out “cast travelling through, cast travelling through!” Three members of the cast.
Two of which just kept their eyes forward at all times, almost like they were too good to make eye contact with us lowly SA’s, with stern, pissed off faces. I said hello to them as they walked past to be friendly and just got completely ignored. There’s apparently a class system in place working in TV.
The third guy, Nikesh who I have never heard of before doing this, walked by with that awkward smile you give strangers and nodded his head to great them. He seemed a bit more accepting of the fact he is not the only one working on this show.

The SA’s stand on the edge of set for a while longer while the main cast are told about the scene. Something I thought was odd given they had the script and we didn’t get told anything other than “walk monkey boy, walk”.

After a while we start shooting the scene, and we keep bumping into each other. Our actions didn’t take into account the main cast’s actions. It was a fiasco.

The main director came barging in. Literally, he was a big guy who was incredibly rude barging into people on his way through the set and started putting people into new positions. Clearly showing his frustrations as he did.

My new position was inside the office, next to a desk where Nikesh was sitting, and I would walk out on action.

Stood there next to this guy I didn’t know or hadn’t heard, just politely smiling at one another.
One of the website’s I looked at prior to doing this stated that SA’s shouldn’t talk to the main cast, so I didn’t, I just stood there politely while the director was moving everyone else around. Super awkward!

Then suddenly “How are you finding the day?” Nikesh asked. I was shocked, I was told we couldn’t speak to the cast. But I was honest. “Weird” I replied, “This is my first time doing something like this, so I have no idea what to expect”. He was shocked “Well, you’re doing fine so far” and then we got into talking about the rest of the production, what I did as anormal job, general polite chit chat.

Then came final checks for shoot where CCD’s and make up came to make us camera ready one last time and we shot the scene.

When the show aired, in that particular scene you could the back of me for a whole tenth of a second.

The rest of the day was just as infuriating and I kept getting the distinct impression nobody wanted to be there. But I finished the day and that was that. Or, so I thought.

I was asked to come back a few times for this production. Once more in the studio in West London, and a couple of times for filming in Hatfield House.

The second time in the studio was equally as frustrating to me. Nobody talking to one another, especially to the cast or crew. The crew getting more and more annoyed that “no one knew what they were doing” and that “this is what happens when the showrunner doesn’t give a shit”.

The first trip to Hatfield House was tough. SA’s have to find their own way to locations, so it was a train up to Hatfield and fortunately Hatfield House is opposite the train station. Though you do have to walk the long way round to get the main entrance.

This is where the carnage began. A lot more SA’s this time, around 200 I’d say. Mostly in their 20’s, mostly treating it like a fun day out. All of us done up in our “finest regalia”. I was in a horrible and itchy, grey check suit for the next days of filming these scenes. All those people being corralled by the AD’s told to be quiet so they could be heard. It was bedlam.

Add that to the fact we were filming into the night. 1am on a late February night outside Hatfield House in the middle of Hertfordshire with the temperature flirting with 0. Women in elegant ball gowns or trashy dresses depending on the character, men in suits, all of us being given thin cheap blankets try and keep us warm while we spent hours outside trying to get the perfect shot of one of the main cast entering the party. From every angle possible.

When we eventually got inside for the party scenes themselves, nobody paid any attention to the AD’s who was still trying get everyone inline and be quiet while cameras were being set up. It worked for all of 30 seconds before the noise picked up again.

At the end of the night, they were good enough to put on minibus service to take those of us who didn’t drive back to London. The only problem is the driver got lost somewhere in North London and ended up dropping us off at King Cross Station a mere three minutes after the last tube train had left and they were closing the station. I had to then get two buses, night buses, to get home that night.

I eventually got home at 5am, only to have to get up at 8am to get ready and go back to Hatfield House to do it all over again.

I fucking hated it!

At least the following night it was all indoors. Although that came with more noise from the rabble that was the crowd.

But I was given a scene with another of the main cast, someone who I recognised from another show I watched when I was younger. We were stood next to the bar at the party. We were there for quite sometime while the rest of the scene was set up. Awkward again. So I thought I would be the one to start the conversation, much like Nikesh did me a couple of weeks before.

“Hiya” I opened with. This actress looked me up and down, muttered the word “alright” and then turned her back to me. That was the only side of her I could see for the next hour or so we were there when we weren’t actually filming. I was flabbergasted at the rudeness of this particular actress, the snobby look I got like I was some lepper who dared be in the vicinity of her.

I’m still annoyed at that.

It just made me appreciate Nikesh that little bit more. The down to earth opening of conversation, the engaging it after I told him I had not done this before. His kindness in just chatting when it awkward and I was nervous.

It’s something I have never forgotten. Probably never will. Mostly because of how at ease I felt, particularly compared to the next interaction with a cast member.

To the point where I have even written a character for him specifically to play in One Epic Year. I genuinely hope I get to work with him again. He’s gone on to lots of other really amazing work, so my part for him isn’t a charity thing. Just they way he acted on set when the camera weren’t rolling set him apart at that stage. You can read more about my TV show One Epic Year here.

But those few days on that production, really did put me off doing anymore SA work again. The movie that was supposed to be filming in my home town was moved to somewhere else that I couldn’t realistically get when they wanted me to (I’ll get more into that another time). So, I thought that was it, that was my time on TV, and I could tick that off the bucket list. It wasn’t until towards the end of the pandemic when I got a random email from an agency that was an AV for a completely different show that I decided “fuck it, why not” and decided to give it one last go.

I did and I really enjoyed it and have been doing it ever since. And I’ll be talking about it more and more in the coming weeks and months. But, what about you? Have you been on a set that put you off working in this industry? Been on a set that made you think “this is what I want to do for the rest of my life”? Let me know in the comments below. I’ll turn this story into a video at some point when I get the time where I can get a bit more detail involved, I feel like I’ve rambled enough for here for now.