A background actor, is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet
production, who appears in a nonspeaking or nonsinging (silent) capacity, usually in the background (for example, in an audience or busy street scene). Most of the time most of these background actors struggle to find permanent work in the industry and find it hard to pay the bills. Being a background actor is a way to get your feet in the acting door without having to go through arduous auditions and get paid to
keep your head above water.
On a film or TV set, background actors are usually referred to as "background talent", "background performers", "background artists", "background cast members" or simply "background", while the term "extra" is rarely used these days. In a stage
production, background actors are commonly referred to as "supernumeraries". In opera and ballet, they are called "supers".
Background Actors need to be fully committed to the
production they have been chosen to work on and because the hours can be long
War films and epic films often employ
background actors in large numbers: some films have
featured hundreds or even thousands of paid background actors as cast members (hence
the term "cast of thousands").
