These Long Islanders go the 'extra' mile after retirement

Leon Goodman’s "retirement" lasted about a week. After working 30 years as a human resources executive (including for “Sesame Street,” Madison Square Garden and the MTA), Goodman retired on July 13, 2017.  Six days later he booked his first gig as a background actor, or extra, on “The Post,” the movie about The Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. He hasn’t looked back.

“I was a photographer taking pictures of people coming through the door, all the stars of that day,” Goodman, 68, a Bay Shore resident, said of the two-day shoot at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. “I was dressed immaculately.”

Goodman had a wonderful introduction to the world of extras. When the movie came out, he got the kind of surprise that goes with the turf. “They cut the entire scene,” he said.

Since then, Goodman has appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies. If you watch TV, there’s a good chance you’ve seen him and many others from the region, including numerous retirees.

Goodman has appeared several times on “God Friended Me,” as a juror and a diner on “Bull,” a Costa Rican underworld gangster on “The Blacklist,” and more.

“James Spader shoots the guy sitting next to me. I react to the shooting,” he said of “Blacklist.” “They complimented me on that.”

Robert Gold, 59, who retired in 2016 after working in Queens as a New York City high school English teacher, began doing background in October 2018, in addition to Long Island theater.

“I always said when I retire I might do background work. It might be fun,” said Gold, of Whitestone, Queens, who has been a tennis spectator, wedding guest, pedestrian and restaurant patron. “There’s a lot of background going on.”

Donna Morales, a 58-year-old Great River resident who retired as a New York City schoolteacher and administrator in 2016, began seriously doing background work in 2018. “I got the film bug when I got a lead role in a feature film in early 2018,” she said, referring to “Marley,” an independent film from Raven Reels Productions. “I wanted to jump into this. The roles doing theater get smaller as you age.”

The background boom

Demand for extras is soaring as such streaming services as Netflix, Amazon and AppleTV join networks, movies and commercials. Industry sources say filming in New York City and on Long Island is also helped by state tax credits.

“There’s definitely more than there’s ever been before,” said Melissa Braun, casting director at Grant Wilfley Casting, which is based in Manhattan and places thousands of extras a year in the area. Along with working with such directors as Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone, the company is casting “The Gilded Age” on Long Island. “TV now encompasses streaming as well as premium cable and network," she said. "There are still a lot of films. Because of so many streaming platforms, the increase in content is crazy.”

The number of films shot annually in New York City had risen to about 300 by 2018, up from about 200 in 2002, while episodic TV went from roughly 10 shows in 2002 to about 70 in 2018. “The surge in production in the past five years has been driven by streaming,” according to the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

On Long Island, Suffolk County issued 20 professional (non-student) film permits in 2019, up from 16 in 2017; Nassau had 1,060 production days for film and TV in 2018 (the most recent full-year data available), roughly flat with the prior year.

Braun said big movies typically use 2,000 to 5,000 extras, while “Spider-Man 2” crammed about 10,000 extras into the frame. Hundreds of extras might appear in a single scene. “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” for example, shot a USO concert from March 25 to 29 of last year with as many as 800 extras a day at the American Airpower Museum in East Farmingdale.

“So many of these people had never done it before,” said Braun, who helped coordinate casting. “They were applauding, cheering, playing people enjoying a performance.”

“The Good Fight,” produced for CBS All Access, recently transformed Nassau County government’s ceremonial chamber at 1550 Franklin Ave. into a courtroom.

“I’ve been in the Oval Office. It’s in Long Island City at Silvercup Studios,” Constance Moore, 63, of Levittown, said of working on the set of “Madam Secretary.” “I did a scene that was supposed to be a Washington [D.C.] bus station. They took over the Hicksville station and made it Washington for the day.”

Productions typically look for people of all ages, but demand remains robust for older extras. “We’re always looking for people who are 50 and up,” Braun said. “A lot of our older actors are members of the union SAG/AFTRA. We’re always looking for nonunion people in that age group.”

Diversity drives demand, although some shows tap more African American and Asian American extras than others. “The Last O.G.,” the show on TBS with Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish, uses many African American extras, while “Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens,” debuting on Comedy Central, uses many Asian Americans for background.

How they began

While background work includes people of all ages, many discover it later in life. Goodman heard about background work in 2016 from a fellow churchgoer at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Amityville.

“He found out I was about to retire. He said, ‘What are you going to do?’ I said, ‘I have no idea,’” Goodman said. “He said, ‘I do background work.’”

Goodman signed up on such websites as Central Casting and Casting Networks. Moore discovered background after she began doing Long Island theater following years as a stay-at-home mom.

“One of the guys with whom I did a show told me how he registered and started doing background work on TV and in films,” Moore said. “I went into New York City and registered with Central Casting. Ten days later, I was on the set of ‘Blue Bloods’ [the police drama].”

In a world where many strive to be noticed, background performers say their job is to blend in.

“The key to being a background person is to be there, but invisible,” Goodman said. “One day my son called me and said, ‘Dad, I just saw you in “Power” [a crime series on Starz].’ Other people wouldn’t even realize I’m there.”

Morales said background is the art of fitting into the big picture. “It’s not that difficult,” said Morales, who recently applied for a background role in “Saturday Night Live.” “When you’re background, you’re part of the overall scene.”

Some background performers end up with regular gigs, like Moore did in the second season of “Orange Is the New Black.” “I was an inmate,” she said. “I made a lot of good friends doing ‘Orange.’”

Goodman was cast in “The Politician,” a new HBO series being filmed in the Bronx that stars Bette Midler and Judith Light, as part of Judith Light’s staff.

“When they shoot those scenes involving the office, they call me in,” he said. “They consider me core on that show.”

Hollywood hours

Despite its proximity to the stars, background work is time consuming and far from glamorous. There are long hours and minimum wage (for nonunion extras) with time and a half after eight hours, typically $165 a day. Still, Gold took a Lyft home after a shoot for “The Hunt” that ended at 1 a.m. in Brooklyn, eating into compensation.

“You have to be able to physically stand on lines,” Gold said. “You stand on line for makeup, hair, to get your costume and to give your paperwork in at the end of the day.”

Braun said making TV and movies entails a lot of waiting as lighting is set up and camera angles are changed. “Some people work on their laptops. Some people knit. Some people eat. Some people read,” Gold said. “I bring books, but I don’t end up reading. I chat with people, hang out.”

Still, extras get to see show business from the other side of the screen. “Being a background actor is extremely rewarding for me,” Morales said. “It taught me a lot about being a film actress and being on a film set.”

Of course, brushes with fame go with the territory. In a shoot of “Mrs. Maisel” at the Barrymore Theatre in Manhattan, Gold was in the audience near Rachel Brosnahan (who plays Midge Maisel), watching Jane Lynch (Midge’s archenemy Sophie Lennon) on stage.

“Tom Hanks was great,” Goodman said of working on “The Post.” “He came by and said ‘Hello’ and thanked us for being there.”

Gold has been feet away from Joaquin Phoenix, Donald Sutherland, Nicole Kidman and recently Al Pacino, during a wedding scene in “The Hunt,” a show about hunting Nazis in America. 

“Pacino was cool. He was hanging out with the ‘bridesmaids,’” Gold said. “I wasn’t going to bother him. Sometimes they interact. Sometimes they don’t.”

Moore stood next to J. Lo, although they didn’t talk, while shooting the movie "Second Act" in a bar in Queens. “I realize that this is not a fan moment, but a job,” she said. “Unless it’s downtime and they feel like talking, I leave them to their concentration."

She did, however, talk briefly with JT — aka Justin Timberlake — in a beach scene for “Wonder Wheel,” shot at Coney Island. “I heard this whistle and I kept looking around. He had the lifeguard whistle in his mouth. I said, ‘It sounds like a bird.’ He said, ‘It does sound like a bird,’” Moore said.

When she recounted the exchange to people at her Zumba class, their response added the glow of celebrity to Moore. Some people in the Zumba class put their hands over their head and bowed as if to indicate admiration. Her response, “At my age, he’s just a nice, young man.”