30 Worst Movie Extras
Bad & inadvertently brilliant background stars
Mr Nanny
Extra Fail: As Hulk Hogan coasts down the road on his motorbike, a guy can be seen in the background throwing a dog into the sea. For some reason.
Why They'll Never Make A Leading Man: To be fair, it's more likely that he isn't an extra and is just a cruel passer-by. He still wouldn't get far in this business without PETA breathing down his neck though.
Animal House
Extra Fail: As Dean Wormer receives his gold whistle, one twitching extra in the background just can’t keep still.
Why They'll Never Make A Leading Man: Ok, so this guy might have an actual medical condition and we obviously wouldn't chastise him for that. We're just saying that maybe a career that requires him to remain inconspicuous in the background isn't for him.
The Dark Knight Rises
Extra Fail: A thug goes in to attack Batman, pauses for a bit and then falls over without getting touched.
Why They'll Never Make A Leading Man: You don't see The Rock going down like that.
Almost Famous
Extra Fail: When William’s mother attends his graduation even though he is absent, the extra over her shoulder tries to portray surprise at his no-show. Instead she portrays “I hope I get caught on camera – this might be my big break”.
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Why They'll Never Make A Leading Man: Cameron Crowe ranted about this extra in his director's commentary for the film so he has probably had her blacklisted.
Forrest Gump
Extra Fail: When Forrest proves himself on the football field, everyone celebrates, including the assistant coach whose happiness translates as a weird wide-eyed, open-mouthed look (at 1.16 in this clip) before yelling “YEEEAAAH”.
Why They'll Never Make A Leading Man: Can't differentiate between happiness and frothing sexual excitement.
The Return of the Musketeers
Extra Fail: As the queen is presented with a gift, one black-hatted, white-feathered extra can barely contain his ‘interested’ face.
Why They'll Never Make A Leading Man: Unable to keep his expressions in check. If he ever had to convey genuine shock, his face would probably break.
Batman Forever
Extra Fail: “BATMAN! NEEEHHHHH!”
Why They'll Never Make A Leading Man: Turns line readings into incomprehensible noise.
Logan's Run
Extra Fail: At the end of the film, one extra makes a Vulcan hand salute and unwittingly creates an unlikely movie crossover.
Why They'll Never Make A Leading Man: Unless he actually got cast in a Star Trek film, his fandom will always stand in the way of his career. If he did this on the set of the new Star Wars film and got away with it, the Internet would haemorrhage and die.
You Only Live Twice
Extra Fail: Blofeld’s cat desperately wants to escape his master’s evil clutches and gives himself a hernia in the process.
Why They'll Never Make A Leading Cat: Doesn't get on well with its co-stars. Easily distracted by string, etc.
Million Dollar Baby
Extra Fail: An audience member is just so jump-up-and-down happy about this fight.
Why They'll Never Make A Leading Man: The only reasonable explanation for this is if the extra had really, actually placed a bet on the fight. So we're going to have to go with gambling addiction.