Extras! Extras! Read All About Them

You don’t have to have a clue about background actors to have heard of Central Casting. “Straight out of Central Casting” — it’s an idiom President Trump has used to refer to politicians or civil servants who look the part. The phrase has appeared in some shape or form in films and TV shows like The West Wing and Portlandia and pervaded American life since its namesake was established 100 years ago.

Central Casting has specialized in providing extras who can believably populate any scene, whether it’s for a Western or sci-fi, since it opened its doors on Dec. 4, 1925. It was initially formed to help the industry deal with an explosion of aspiring actors moving to the Southland and issues of worker exploitation that accompanied the influx.

During the 1920s, wannabe Mary Pickfords and Douglas Fairbankses were flooding L.A. and falling prey to exploitative casting agencies and questionable payment practices. William H. Hays, president of the major studios’ trade association, led the charge on forming a central employment office to resolve these issues before they could cast a reputational pall on Hollywood. The Central Casting Corporation, as it was then called, was born. “Early on, it was very chaotic in managing the background [actors],” says Mark Goldstein, head of Entertainment Partners, which owns Central Casting. “Central Casting got formed by all the studios at the time to actually create some governance.”

For decades, actors who registered with Central Casting could call its offices daily to see if roles were available starting at 6 a.m. (In 2017, the company launched a new website and text-messaging service that reconfigured this system.) Sometimes the number of would-be extras overwhelmed the system and Central Casting had to limit its number of registered actors. Over time, the agency racked up quite the list of alums — Brad Pitt, John Wayne and Jean Harlow among them.

In 1976, Central Casting went private, shedding its role as the official pipeline for extras to major studios. Today, it boasts about 200,000 registered extras and remains a leader among background actor agencies. “It has become the go-to place to get your career started,” says Goldstein. “We have so many stories where people have gotten off a plane, train or boat and they go straight to Central Casting to register because it’s their entry into Hollywood.”

This story appeared in the Dec. 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.