Every year, the Academy Awards celebrate the best and brightest in the wild world of filmmaking. This year was no exception. From incredible performances by the likes of J.K. Simmons in Whiplash and Julianne Moore in Still Alice, to fantastical feats of filmmaking from the likes of Birdman cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, it was an amazing night full of well-deserved awards. However, I take issue with one group that was snubbed once again. No, I’m not talking about directors like P.T. Anderson or Richard Linklater. I’m talking about the hardest working people in Hollywood–background extras.
Without extras, our beautiful actors and actresses would exist in a vacuum, saying lines to one another all willy-nilly. Without extras, the vibrant cinematic worlds we love would be empty, hollow husks of themselves. Without extras, we would have no grayish, bluish blurs in the background while we focus on the adorable meet-cute playing out in the foreground. Well, I say no more! Today on The Dan Cave, we are paying tribute to the greatest background extras in movie history and paying these amazing artists their due once and for all.
Did I leave out any of your favorites? Let me know in the comments below or tell me on Twitter (@Osteoferocious)!
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In Animal House, when the mayor is presenting the Key to the City to Dean Warner before the parade, you can see an elderly man making all kind of faces at the mayor while he speaks.
Dan, you should try and track down the kid that played Verne in Back to the Future 3. I’d love to hear him explain it from his point of view haha.
I don’t believe you think dogs are superior while wearing that T-shirt.
What, I can’t like Sailor Moon and dogs at the same time?
I don’t know if it counts because it’s a show but my favorite was the zombie extra drinking from a water bottle in the pilot episode of the Walking Dead
hollywood is not a stable for movie achievements anymore so the academy awards dont matter anymore.
I used to be an extra it’s kind of a soul sucking job but Im kinda sad I didn’t royally screw something up to make it on this list
I did some extra work in college. Nearly got hit by a stunt car, but I lived to tell the tale.
I always liked the kid in the background who plugs his ears before the gun is fired in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest http://youtu.be/sAhKLfzDHcI
I always like the kid who plugged his ears in the background before the gun was fired in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest http://youtu.be/sAhKLfzDHcI
Definitely a classic. I almost included him in this round-up.