My Day as an Extra

So about a week ago I was contacted by a friend to participate in a pilot as an extra. 8 hour day, free lunch and snacks, and $50 cash at wrap. I said yes without hesitation.

3 days ago was the shoot. It took place at The Avalon in Hollywood, and I was part of about 50 other screaming fans for this Swedish Justin Beiber kid. His name is Alex Karlsson (look him up .. although not everything that comes up is him). Apparently he's this huge pop star in Sweden (but he grew up in Costa Mesa) and has about 40 songs out. So him and Sony teamed up to do this show about his life in LA / the life of this new phone that's coming out, in LA too.

So I took my other unemployed friends, Brooke and Koby, and we just had a fun time with it. There was a lot of down time, but when we were on camera it was a lot of screaming, and "OMG!" and "Alex, Alex!" -- I literally lost my voice by the end of the shoot.

At first we started inside, pretending we were screaming fans at one of his concerts. Eventually we moved outside to Hollywood Blvd. Imagine a swarm of 50 random looking people all clumped together, and then all of a sudden running and screaming after this kid. We were head turners and car stoppers for sure. Even a few people walking down the street went up to Alex asking what was going on / what was the commotion.

Another scene outside the Pantages Theater an old lady walked through our shot. We all stopped and stared at her. Then she stopped walking and looked around. The director hadda escort her away. Then she came back and chatted with Alex. He said she whispered naughty things in his ear.

Anyway, that was pretty much the extent of the shoot...

Thanks for reading ... and you're welcome for a short post.
-Harley's Hype