That's Lunch

That’s Lunch

     Whenever production called “lunch,” you would see a flood of people, exiting the set, and making a beeline, for the caterer. This mad rush should not have been necessary, because the clock did not start, until the last person, was served, his, or her food. If you were number 10, to get served, and there were 400 people, on set, then you are already enjoying, your lunch, and production still has 390 people, to go, before the clock starts. Sometimes a half hour lunch could last for 2 hours, actual time. No matter how long it takes, production can only take what they call for. If they say “lunch½”, they can only take 30 minutes from your hours, for that day. Some production companies try to nickel, and dime you, over this, but more often, than not they end up paying you. I have been on sets where extras were willing to commit crimes, and go to jail, if production tried to take too much money, from them. Another reason for the mad dash, is that you get the best choices, of the food available, if you are among the first in line. 

     I have worked on sets with big, fancy catering companies, mom, and pop catering companies, and no catering at all. If you are not on location, you usually fend for yourself. Production companies were only required to provide lunch, if the shoot was on location, and expected to work over 6 hours. I have enjoyed lunch, at the cafeteria at Warner Bros. Studios, Universal Studios, and Fox Studios, just to name a few. Sometimes the studio will feed you anyway, and when I worked on “E R,” there was so much food, already on set, that going to lunch really did not matter.

     Some production companies would provide the non-union extras with a “Box” lunch. A box lunch usually consisted of a sandwich, a bag of chips, a piece of fruit, and a soda, or juice box. On “Sea Biscuit,” the box lunches were pretty good, and I remember another set where the box lunch was easily worth 20 dollars. Sometimes production would order pizzas, for everyone, or all the fried chicken, in the world. This usually happened on very long days when production had to feed us dinner, as well as lunch. After all, the rules stated that we get lunch, every 6 hours. Sometimes production would send us home, right when lunch was due, to avoid feeding us. Others fed us like kings, no matter how long we worked.

     I worked for one production company, where the director’s wife, cooked for everybody. Pretty good too! These were usually very small shoots, and this only happened to me 2, or 3 times. In all the years I did extra work, I was first in line, for lunch, only once. I was coming back, from the bathroom, when they called lunch. About 200, or so, people on set, and I got to eat first. I would love to be able to say, “I planned it that way,” but in reality it was just dumb luck. 

     Some sets, I have gone without eating lunch, because the food was nasty. One night we were at LAX, shooting scenes for, “Independence Day.” I refused to eat dinner, and a friend of mine wrote on his pay voucher, “Dinner was unpalatable swill.” He wanted to make sure the production company knew how much the food sucked. Catering gets X dollars, to feed us. If they can feed us, for less, they keep the rest of the money. Sometimes they try to keep, too much. At least this is what I have been told, many times.

     We did a “Gatorade” commercial, and they gave us water that tasted like it came out of a brand new garden hose. Surely you didn’t think they would give us Gatorade! After this experience, I stopped drinking Gatorade. On the movie, “Ed,” the caterer actually tried to charge money to feed us breakfast. Some people paid 2 dollars, for a breakfast burrito. Sounds crazy, but I am still in touch with other extras, who were there, and we still cannot believe it ourselves. Small wonder that many people think of Disney, as a “Mickey Mouse” outfit. When I was working on “Independence Day,” at the old Hughes Aircraft facility, in west L A, somebody had written, on the bathroom wall, with a black magic marker, in really big letters, “God created Satan. Satan created Disney.” I wonder if the writing is still there. Probably not. After all, this was around 2o years ago. When we were working on, “My Left Hook,” one of my friends said to me, “Have you seen the pretzel bar?” I never heard of such a thing. He led me to a table that had been set up for the non-union extras. It had 3 large wooden bowls on it. Each bowl contained a different kind of pretzel. Unbelievable, but true! We still joke about that one!

     It is not all bad. Steven Spielberg fed us prime rib. “Boston Public” fed us lobster. “Mad TV” fed us prawns. If you worked on a set with John Travolta, or Angela Lansbury, you ate what they ate. According to the rumor mill, they demanded it. I believe it is true, because I worked on 3 different films, featuring John Travolta, and we ate like kings, on all 3 productions. “White man’s Burden, “Lucky Numbers,” and “Face/Off.” I also worked on, “Murder She Wrote.” We were on the back lot, at Universal Studios, and even though we were not on location, we were treated, like we were special. Not bad, for a TV show. Most of the time, the extras, union, or not, were treated pretty good. Every time I heard someone bitching about having to wait, in line, for everything, I would say, “You do not need to wait in this line. You can go, and wait in the unemployment line, or the welfare line, if you want.” 

     There are “Meal Penalties,” paid to extras, who are not released for lunch, after 6 hours work. SAG extras always got them. Non-union extras could get them too, but they were never guaranteed, and usually paid less money. In the nineties, meal penalties were paid every 15 minutes, you were late, for lunch. This was for SAG extras. Production did whatever they felt like doing, for the rest of us. They knew we were scared of making waves, lest we get a bad reputation, for complaining too much, and then casting might not give us any more work. Luckily, some extras did not care about this, and went around set, bitching about everything. If you think I am too focused on food, try working a 15 hour day, plus travel time, without eating, and then tell me how great it was. Food is very important to a working extra. I have known extras, who were so poor, that I suspect they hardly ate, unless they were working. This, of course, is not the production company’s problem. They have every right to cut corners, to save money. I never relied on production, to feed me. I’m a big boy, and I can feed myself. Usually too much.