With all of this Reckless extra casting news, we thought we would get to the bottom of the experience and see what a night of silver screen oblivion was really like. We spoke with Bruce Dunbar who was lucky enough to participate in the frat party scene. Yup, that one where they wanted people to show off their six packs and wow viewers with their keg stand skills.
The ongoing joke of the evening was that the extras were getting paid to (fake) party, but was that compensation worth it? Dunbar spent eight hours fulfilling his extra role, and the hours weren’t ideal (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.). A lot of the time the extras were standing around, getting into wardrobe (or out of wardrobe since some of the men were asked to lose their shirts), and being placed and re-placed around set. Dunbar related it to being herded like cattle, and explains how the extras crew had to spend almost an hour in the backyard of the party house being as quiet as possible while the actors shot a scene inside the house. Not at all like the lively Friday night Greek-life party they were shooting.
In terms of the party scene itself, it was kept pretty PG. Holy City Brewery kegs were filled with ginger ale, shotgunning with V8 juice, more ginger ale for the beer bongs, and a “fake weed” bong to imitate the party scene. The thought of doing a keg stand with ginger ale makes us feel a little queasy, so we’re not sure how the extras could do it take after take.
Dunbar was lucky enough to be on set with one of the main actors of Reckless, Shawn Hatosy who most recently placed Officer Sammy Bryant on Southland. Hatosy plays another cop on the new CBS drama and enters the scene to ask who is responsible for the underage drinking fest. There may have been some comments about the actors questionable Southern accent, but hopefully he was just having an off night, and it won’t turn into an epically horrible portrayal. Dunbar shared some screen time with Hatosy and had a few near collisions while trying to fake party.
The biggest perk of the night for Dunbar? The free lunch (although they really should have called it a midnight snack). The catered meal included beef tips, chicken, a salad bar, and desserts. But was the meal and the measly pay (Dunbar will receive $58 for his time) worth it? If you’re in it for the experience and the chance for a blink-and-you-miss it TV spot, then sure, why not? But Dunbar feels that it wasn’t worth the money or his time. “I may have gotten three seconds of back of the head face time on CBS and that certainly wasn’t worth my entire Friday night and part of Saturday as I caught up on sleep,” he says.
Keep up-to-date with casting news on the CBS Reckless Extras Facebook page, and you too may get three seconds worth of screen time.
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