Ed. note: Welcome to the latest installment of “Janet Raiffa’s Recessionals,” a column by a laid-off recruiting manager in New York. Prior columns are collected [here]. You can reach Janet Raiffa via LinkedIn, leaving a comment here, or emailing 405club@gmail.com.

Having determined that no employers are interested in my living body, I have decided to seek work as a dead body.  Well, perhaps that’s an overly dramatic rendering of the situation.  My job search has actually picked up recently.  Last week I met with a headhunter a former report referred me to, had coffee at Starbucks with a banking recruiter who tracked me down through facebook and had a phone interview with a legal headhunter who regaled me with stories of how overqualified the other applicants for the position were.  I will also be starting a temporary position with a major university shortly.  I nevertheless decided to register with Central Casting this week to see if I can secure some part-time work as an extra in television or film, envisioning myself strolling glamorously through the background of a major motion picture or perhaps playing a dead body on one of the many “Law and Order” spinoffs filmed in the city.  Years ago when many of my drama major and minor friends graduated and began to pursue acting as a profession I turned corporate with an entry-level paralegal job.  Now, without a comfortable corporate berth and a recent past in two recession decimated formerly “safe” industries, pursuing the wild longshot of success in the entertainment industry seems suddenly more reasonable.

In the early 90s, while visiting the West Coast on vacation, I did some extra work in Hollywood with a friend from college who moved out there to seek fame and fortune as a director.  To support herself while waiting for her big break — which eventually came when she had a film shown at Sundance — she sold gossip to supermarket tabloids and gossip magazines, did “background” actor work and edited pornographic movies into softer versions to be shown on the Playboy channel.   Together we did a stint playing high school students in a John Travolta film set in 1950s Texas.  Although the job lasted only two days it made a profound impression on me, largely because we were forced to line up and eat breakfast at 2:00am to abide by a union rule about the frequency of food service and we had to dance around in skimpy summer dresses outside in extremely cold weather.  Like most moviemaking, it also involved hours and hours of waiting for every few minutes of actual work.  It was the equivalent of spending eight hours in the office where the only activity you engaged in was sending out one short email, and spent the remainder of the time staring at the screen awaiting a response.

Now, well beyond my “starlet”  years, I reasoned that maturity might be an advantage.  If the majority of people signing up for extra roles proved to be college students or twenty-something recent graduates I would have less competition to be cast as a professor, mother, executive or any type of professional above thirty.  Although many newspapers carry advertisements for extra work I did research online and discovered that Central Casting (www.centralcasting.org) is probably the most reputable of the agencies booking people in Los Angeles and New York.  Founded in 1925, the agency’s website notes that is a division of Entertainment Partners, the largest provider of entertainment industry services and solutions in the United States.  The internet also reveals what no individual agency can refute – the lack of work for actors of all types.  A website offering tips on breaking into extra work warned that the Screen Actors Guild (“SAG”) has the highest rate of unemployment of any professional union in the United States, and that over 73% of SAG members had acting related earnings of less than $5000 per year.  Only 12% of SAG members, it added, have annual earnings above $20,000.

Before showing up for the information session held at Central Casting’s bright and movie and television poster filled office on 31^st and 6^th I downloaded and filled out the paperwork needed to register.  This paperwork would not make anyone feel good about their talents or their wardrobe.  Under sections entitled costumes, dance, musical, languages, sports and props I was asked to report on every talent or skill I may or may not have, and seemingly every item I own that could prove of use on a movie or television shoot.  For costumes, I selected everything that I could cobble together in my closet or easily rent at a costume shop. These categories included 40s-80s wear, Hasidic Jew, evening gown, sari, hippie, homeless and nerd.  I left out the options that I could easily procure but that no sane person would want to see me in: belly dancer, cheerleader and dominatrix. Along those lines, I also checked off that I would be unwilling to perform nude or semi-clothed. In the dance category, I chose the skills requiring the least coordination or ones that would be the most likely to be performed in the dark – modern, square, hip hop and go-go.  The sporting and musical categories proved particularly rough given my egregious lack of talent in both areas, but the language category allowed me to pull ahead.  How much language skill could be required when one isn’t required to speak?  Were directions going to be given in another language?  Here I could check Spanish, which I can speak as long as I stick to the present tense, and Yiddish, which I can easily curse in.  The section for measurements also proved to be challenging, with exact digits required for sections of my body I don’t normally share with potential employers.  Could I write “enviable” next to bust size and “regrettable” next to waist size and be awarded points for humor?  In the end I chose to be honest about inches and sizes, worrying that I could end up squeezed into a too small costume if one were provided, and realizing that they would likely have a surplus of “4s” and “6s” amongst the more traditional starlet set and a dearth of laid off executive-type size 12s.

About nineteen women attended the 12:00pm session for union and non-union females.  I was right in my prediction of the age range, most were college age or in their twenties.  Only two women appeared to be older than me, one of whom was noisily ejected after she failed to produce the necessary identification to register despite her protestations that she had come all the way from Philadelphia, and one senior who questioned whether the fact that she didn’t have a computer would be an impediment in being reached about jobs.  While the over-30 aspirants did not distinguish themselves positively, some of the younger would-be extras also started off on a bad note.  Several broke the cardinal rule of casting by arriving late, and one young lady brought her father with her.  I wasn’t sure whether she was simply a misguided millennial unaware of the inappropriateness of bring a parent to an interview setting, or just leery of a potential “casting couch” situation.  Whatever the reason, the father made no attempt to minimize his presence, and let it be known to all that he was in from Florida and would have to leave if the session ran for longer than half an hour.  Some of the women brought headshots with them, but we were all required to have photos taken for a cash fee of $25 dollars.  We were told that this would be the only fee we would ever pay even if we came in for photo re-shoots, and that in many cases professional headshots were discarded in favor of using the computerized and less glamorized and non-airbrushed images the agency stored.

During the introductory session we learned that the summer was slow since many shows were on hiatus, but that a number of projects were underway. “Date Night” with Tina Fey and Steve Carrell was filming and using extras supplied by the agency, “Eat, Pray, Love” with Julia Roberts was coming up, and local shows like “Gossip Girl” and “Law and Order” were always looking for new talent.  There were many things that would help in the competition to book jobs.  People in their twenties who could pass for teenagers were frequently in demand, those who owned military uniforms were widely sought after and people with body art or unusual tattoos had an edge.  It was the first time I’d ever heard of a tattoo being an advantage in a job search.  Since I was going more for the thoughtful jury member or tragic cadaver than the biker chick type I wasn’t overly concerned about my lack of ink.  Above and beyond unusual features or wardrobe pieces, our instructor emphasized the importance of promptness and a “great and positive” attitude.  She also excited the group by letting us know that many well-known stars started out as extras.  Those with a strong work ethic could endear themselves to casting directors who could request them for future shoots or cast them as reoccurring background players, and solid performers could be “thrown a line” or receive SAG or AFTRA waivers which would propel them to union status and higher pay rates.  The current pay rate, we were told, is $80-$85 for up to ten hours of non-union work, and around $130 for a standard day at union rates.

Now that I’m registered I can start calling the hotline to hear about opportunities, and in a week or two I’ll get my computer password so I can go online to submit my photo and interest in upcoming shoots.  I’ll let you know when and if you can see me, albeit fleetingly in the background or perhaps with a sheet over my head, on a screen near you.