Good thing about being a hollywood extra: the pay. bad thing: being pulled up for overacting

In a couple of months, a film called Clash Of The Titans will hit your screens. It's a remake of the 1981 film in which Greek gods and monsters, well, clash. If you look closely, in one or two scenes you may see the top of my head or an elbow because last August, I was a film extra.

Nine years ago, I worked in a casting agency in London for extras. A photographer called Mike took shots of the dozens of people who'd just joined up. My job was to take the picture files from his camera and put them on to a hard drive. The pay was menial but you got to meet a good few characters or, at least, extras.

I'd wanted to be an extra or background artisteu00a0 since 1984's Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom. Many of the slave children from the mine sequences in that Steven Spielberg movie were from my school in west London (some went on to work in jade mines in Africa). But the people in my year didn't know about the casting, it was for the years below.

I must admit to being ever-so-slightly jealous of one boy, Raj Singh, who was two years above me. He went to stage-school over the weekend, if I remember correctly, and landed the plum speaking role of the Little Maharaja of Pankot, sat opposite Harrison Ford at that infamous feast where the heads of monkeys were used as bowls and creepy crawlies were chewed alive.

A still from Clash of The Titans (inset) yours truly Read Next Story 10Acious City› Trending Stories Latest Photos Latest Videos Latest Web Stories ADVERTISEMENT Mid-Day Fast ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT