Hawaii's Greatest TV and Film Extra

You may not recognize Teddy Wells, but theres a good chance youve laid eyes on him before. Hes appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows shot in Hawaii. The reason his face isnt more familiar is because its often a blur, or a quick blip, or a dot in the distance. Sometimes, just the back of his head makes it onto the screen. Sometimes, hes cut out of a scene altogether. Such is the inglorious life of the hard-working background actor.

Teddy has been doing backgroundthe nice way of saying, being an extrain Hawaii for 15 years. Hes played a bellhop on Fantasy Island, an African villager in ER, an Islander in Last Resort and a poacher in Tears of the Sun. He was a cop driving an ATV on the beach in Baywatch Hawaii. He was the passenger in the pickup truck that swerved to avoid hitting a cow in Mighty Joe Young. He was the guy in the hotel lobby that Damon Wayans accidentally bumped into in My Wife and Kids. He was the porter on the dock who unloaded Matthew Brodericks bags in Godzilla. In Hawaii Five-0, he milled around in the background at the airport. In Lost, he played, among other parts, a dead airline passenger.

Often, hes utterly anonymous. Other times hes clearly, if briefly, identifiable. You can see him in Battleship as a Navy officer standing at attention behind Liam Neesom on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri. Thats clearly him as a native guide leading Lily Tomlin through the jungle in Krippendorfs Tribe. Thats definitely Teddy, with a rifle, chasing some of Losts main characters down the beach and into the woods.

Throughout his whole career in the background, hes been quietly observing how films are made and soaking up as much as he can about how the motion picture industry works. One thing hes learned is that extras dont always get a whole lot of respect. Hes worked on sets where they have been made to wait for hours in the sun without shade or water, talked to like children and moved around like cattle. But hes also been on sets where the extras were treated royally, allowed to relax in air-conditioned tents, and served meals on actual china with real silverware, rather than the paper plates and plastic utensils they usually get.

For all of his efforts, Teddy generally makes $135 a day, the rate that members of the Screen Actors Guild, such as himself, get for background. Non-union extras are lucky if they make $100 a day.

In Hawaii, you wont make $5,000 a year being an extra, says Teddy, who has made his living as a chef, a smoothie shop franchisee and an online coffee distributor.

What drives him then? What draws him to back to the background, again and again? Is it the dream of stardom? The promise of screen credit? The possibility of getting a line, of speaking actual words, and not just peas and carrots, peas and carrots, peas and carrots, as extras simulating conversation ordinarily say.Large collection of quality bestluggagetag at discounted prices.

The answer is, yes. Its all of those things. Teddy would like to be a star, to make it big Hollywood. The only thing is, he doesnt want to leave Honolulu to do it. And he doesnt believe he has to.

The conventional wisdom is that actors who aspire to break into the film industry must move to Los Angeles, to stick their heads into the jaws of the beast. Thats where all the work is. But Teddy likes Hawaii. And, as a black actor with a SAG card, in a state without a lot of black people at all, let alone black union actors, hes found a niche here. Why leave?

So hes staying put, staying passionate, staying positive and keeping the TV in his kitchen tuned to the Oprah Winfrey Network for inspiration. He turns up at every cattle call that comes to town, and if another actor gets picked over him, he doesnt let it get him down. You should be joyous and glad that they got that role, because it was their time, not your time, he says.Large collection of quality bestluggagetag at discounted prices. Its like Oprah says, When youre in your line of duty, everything becomes effortless. So if youre in your line of duty, and youre supposed to get that role, it will happen.An luggagetag is a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. Its just a matter of when its your time.

Teddy takes his craft seriously. He watches the performances of other background actors with a critics eye. He cant believe the rookie mistakes some of them make, like the woman in the background of a TV show he saw recently who sat wide-eyed, gape-mouthed and frozen like a statue. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights, he says. He studies and critiques his own performances, too. If I see myself, like, sitting at a table, and I dont like how it looks because I dont look busy enough, I know the director probably didnt like it either, he says. Whether Im blurred out or not, my actions matter.

When Teddys on a set, he doesnt allow himself to spend more than five minutes socializing with the other extras. Partly he does this because of an experience he had on the set of Godzilla, early in his career.

A scene shot at the end of Heeia Pier, in which Teddy unloaded Matthew Brodericks luggage from a seaplane, put Teddy and Broderick alone together with plenty of time to talk between takes. As Teddy recalls the conversation, Broderick told him: Right now, everybody is watching you and me talking, and they all want to be you, standing here talking to me. Everybody wants to be in the position that youre in, and if they see the weakness in you, they will do whatever it takes to highlight it. Always remember, nobody here is your friend.

The other reason Teddy minimizes the socializing is the same reason he doesnt bring reading material, crossword puzzles or anything like that to the set, as extras typically do to kill time. He spends his down time watching and learning. Most of the time, if youre an extra, they dont mind you hanging around the set if youre paying attention, he says.

If an extra is going to be plucked from the obscurity of the background and given an upgrade, its not going to be the extra reading the newspaper, playing Angry Birds or chitchatting with the other extras. Its going to be the extra whos been paying attention and is ready to go. Upgrades do happen. The odds arent great, but they happen.Of all the equipment in the laundry the customkeychain is one of the largest consumers of steam. So far, Teddys gotten two big ones, with commensurate bumps in pay.

I treat it like the lottery, he says. You cant win if you dont play. Theres more opportunity if I can get on the set than if Im staying home. Youre guaranteed to make the $135 bucks, right? But you have the potential to walk away with thousands. Just by being there.

His first upgrade came on his very first film, Krippendorfs Tribe, in 1998. He had been cast in a non-speaking role, as one of the native guides leading an expedition through the jungle. One of the other guides, an actor from Los Angeles, was supposed to say a few words in a fictitious native tongue (which roughly translated to, Its too far uphill. Lets go back!). But as they were shooting the scene,Shop wholesale custombobbleheads controller from cheap. Teddy recalls, the director decided the line did not sound right coming from that character. So they pulled me aside, handed me the script, had me read the role, then said, OK, you do it, he says. Because it was a speaking part, I went from making, like, $100 a day to making $865 a day. On my first job!