A feature film shooting on the Gulf Coast is casting a wide net for background actors, and producers say they need roughly a thousand of them.
The production is “Jesus Revolution,” a film starring Kelsey Grammer. Casting notices went out seeking local residents willing to appear on screen as extras.
Who producers are looking for
The casting call sought adults and teenagers to fill period roles, including adult and teen hippies. Producers also asked for teenagers to play a range of high school types — jocks, nerds, surfers and ordinary students.
According to the casting notice, extras were required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and to undergo testing before working on set, in line with the health protocols most productions were operating under at the time.
Film work on the Gulf Coast
Large background calls like this one tend to have an outsized local footprint. A production needing a thousand extras has to pull almost entirely from the surrounding area, which means hotel bookings, catering, equipment rental and short-term hires spread across the region for the length of the shoot.
Alabama has courted film work through a state incentive program, and the Mobile area’s mix of historic architecture, waterfront and mid-century streetscapes has drawn productions looking for period settings without building them from scratch. For a story set in an earlier decade, those existing streetscapes cut set-construction costs considerably.
For residents, an open background call is one of the few points where a film production is directly accessible — no experience required, and a day on set that mostly involves waiting.