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Extras, Extras: Ros Breden

January 31, 2002 – When the script calls for a swarming sea of humanity (or near-humanity), or for a half-dozen malcontents to linger in frame, it falls to Ros Breden to deliver the bodies. She served as Extras Casting Director for Star Wars Episode II, and it was her job to cast the background characters without dialogue in the film. These background characters can range from the truly obscure — a passing pedestrian in Coruscant’s underbelly — to something more front and center – Jedi warriors like Luminara Unduli or Bultar Swan.

“For my needs, we actually don’t need any acting ability,” Breden says. “What we need is a look, and a lot of that we can get out of the photos.” Rather than hold lengthy auditions, most of Breden’s selections come from head-shots delivered to her from local casting agencies (local, in this case, meaning Australia). “I had thousands and thousands of photos sent to me by agents.” Those thousands were widdled down in a three-month process to the approximate 800 extras that were eventually cast.

“It’s been an organic process,” explains Breden. She generally works from the script, or from a more detailed brief, when hunting for the right extras. “Sometimes I talk to [writer/director] George Lucas and find out things about specific named extras. I’d put together photos and we’d choose from that.” For large crowd experiences, Breden would get a brief on the locale, and she’d determine the types of people that would mill about there. “We’d base it on an Earth-equivalent of what the patrons might be like,” she says. “For the nightclub scene, it’s interesting, exotic, filled with beautiful women and beautiful men and lots of different and individual looks in there. For something more truck-stop, everyone is a bit more rougher and tougher.”

The legacy of the Star Wars saga made Breden’s job easier, she says. “The response from the community for Star Wars has been like no other production I’ve worked on. People know it and they love it and they’re dedicated to it, and they’re fans. I’ve got boxes of photos that people have sent in. Normally, I wouldn’t get any. It’s been amazing,” she notes.
“The strangest calls I received are people wanting to come from international locations to be an extra for a day. The States, England, everywhere — at their own expense! But even coordinating people from Melbourne is difficult, so it’s kind of difficult when people want to come from the other side of the world to be an extra.”

Once on set, of course, the enthusiasm didn’t wane. “Those that get on for a day walk up to me and say, ‘can I come back?’ It’s amazing!” she laughs. “There’s so many people, and there’s not enough roles for everyone. I’ve had virtually 100 percent turnout rate. Out of the 800, there’s been like eight people that have been late and two that didn’t turn up, which is very unusual for a film.”

While photos sufficed for most of the extras casting, one particular task required a full in-person casting call. “The casting of the young Jedi was probably the biggest casting session that I did,” recalls Breden. “The reason for that was their age. We needed to find children that looked the same — identical twins, if we could find them — so that we could use half of them in the morning and half of them in the afternoon.”

As revealed in Episode II, before being paired to an elder Jedi as a Padawan apprentice, young Jedi candidates train in classes overseen by Yoda. These children would be seen given lightsaber instruction from the wise Jedi Master. “The first session I did had about 60 children. With parents, and guardians, there must have been about 100 people there. We got them to come here and fill out paperwork, and then quickly took them over to Nick Gillard, the Stunt Coordinator. He ran them through some basic moves of the Jedi. That was a lot of people and a lot of kids, from which we chose about 20 children,” recounts Breden.

“The hardest part was trying to keep all the kids happy, and all the parents as well,” she continues. “The kids are only four, and it’s the parents that are actually more enthused than the children. At four, I don’t know that they know much of what’s going on. I think it would be fascinating to speak to those kinds in 10 years time, after the rest of the Star Wars films have been released, and talk to them about it.”

Breden’s job didn’t end once cameras rolled. While the on-set management of the extras was handled by the Third Assistant Directors, she was there to assist. Breden also signed the extras in and out, and handled the paperwork necessary to see that they’d get paid. “The ADs look at where the extras are placed, they manage them, make sure they’re doing the right thing and that they’re not making too much noise, and that they’re in the right place at the right time. The biggest day was the nightclub scene, because when we have 150 extras, everyone of those people have to go through hair and makeup. We’ve got 60 girls that all need full hair and makeup, and that takes a lot of time. Even if you’ve got a lot of extra hands on it, you need to start early.”

For those wanting to become an extra, Breden offers some advice. “You send in your photo to an agency. They’ll send it to us so we can see what you look like. And then you just have to wait for the phone call. It’s a ‘don’t call us; we’ll call you’ scenario. The more different you are, the better the chances. It’s a waiting game. In film and television, there are no guarantees, but everyone’s got a chance. That’s the good thing. I look through all the photos that come in, and everybody who sends stuff in has a chance.”
Once picked, you’ll need to know the rules of being an extra. It’s simple, says Breden:

First of all, you have to turn up on time. That’s the first thing because time is such a big issue on film.
You have to be able to be patient. Because when you get here early in the morning, you might not get on set for hours, so you have to be able to entertain yourself.

You can’t go up to any of the lead actors.

You have to be seen and not heard.

You have to remember where you walk everytime you’re on set, because you have to remember your own marks.

You can never go anywhere without telling the AD, so that you can always be accounted for.

Take good care of your costume.

Never take anything off set.

You don’t eat until the main cast and crew have eaten.

And does the Extras Casting Director require a similar set of rules? “My rules?” asks Breden. “No. Just pick good people.”