🎬 First Experience in a Hollywood Movie 🎞

I may once have wanted to see myself acting in a movie on the big screen, but I had never dreamt of working as an actual actor. I intended to be famous, and once even tried to pursue a career in the music industry, but I never acted on a stage or played in a theater. One day, my friend from Myanmar, Aye, who also lives in Budapest, got an offer to act as an extra in a film cast in Croatia. I thought the idea of acting in a film, even as an extra with a small part, sounded cool, and I started to fantasize about how I would act in front of a film director.  

My fantasy took a further step towards reality when, with Aye’s recommendation, I visited the same film agency and signed an agreement of availability in October 2022. After just a month, I began to get some offers. As I’m a full-time student, my school schedules didn’t always fit into the timetable offered by the agency. But finally, it worked out, and I agreed to work one day of their schedule on 30 November 2022. 

I was assigned to act in the same scene that included a small group of other extras who were cast as two Thai officers and six paramedics. Like me, all the other extras were Asians, and the scene was set to replicate a street in Thailand. I was cast as one of the Thai officers. It was fun, but the work was more challenging than I had expected. 

The shooting location was in Budapest, with its gloomy November sky and daytime temperatures as low as 2°C. In contrast, the setting of the film was Thailand, a warm tropical country in Southeast Asia. This required that every cast member put on summer clothes even though the actual temperature was near freezing. Luckily for me, my Thai-officer costume allowed me to conceal some heavy long underwear that kept me a bit warmer. For the other actors, the film director demanded simple costumes of shorts and light t-shirts. 

Making a film is not simple. It’s normal to retake the same scene again and again. And no matter how severely the cold embraces deep into your bones, you must express the feelings and make the same reactions as if you are enjoying a warm tropical day in front of the camera. 

The crews treated us very well, providing the extras with a warm waiting room with meals and coffee/tea. They take good care of us, putting on our make-up, combing our hair, helping us to put on our costumes, and even fastening our shoelaces. When we were working outside in the November weather, they immediately covered us with warm blankets during the short breaks between scenes or retakes. 

In fact, I didn’t do this for money; it was merely to gain some experience. After all, the payment is not so bad. I earned 18.000 ft per day (= 45 euros) or the equivalent value of 700.000 Rupiah.