Issue 31 considers the extra: the day-rate background actors who appeared alongside Hollywood’s biggest stars, the unknowns who hammed it up (sometimes a bit too much), and the rare few who became bonafide A-listers—plus the townsfolk, beachgoers, and stormtroopers whose bloopers made the final cut, paving their way to YouTube fame.

Featuring an original piece about Leon Trotsky’s rumored turn as extra by humorist John Kenney, interviews with extras casting directors, and a few words of wisdom from 1996’s The Movie Extras Guidebook: How To Make Good Money As A Hollywood Extra.

Research and writing by film critics Mark Asch and Charles Bramesco.