U is for Underpaid.

Yesterday, my son and I were extras in an Adidas commercial. We were looking forward to it, but it was not really what we were expecting. Hey, we were extras, so I guess we shouldn’t really expect much! In going back to the original email, it was not misrepresented, per say. We were asked to be basketball fans watching Tracy McGrady and Tim Duncan. We did. Only they weren’t playing, they were coaching high school players! It was ok though. We knew the pay would be very little, but there were no drinks (we knew there would be no food), not even water! We got there on time and sat for two hours before we were led into the stadium. The shooting did not even begin until thirty minutes before the time we had been told we would be released! After two hours, I had to go as we had somewhere to be. It was tough getting past the security folks, as they were not releasing us and wanted us to go sit back down. I told the guy we had to leave and I did it anyway, in spite of his saying we had to go back to our seats…once I got back to the original casting director, it was ok, since we were well past the time we’d committed to staying. All in all, not as fun as it could have been, but it worked out ok. I don’t mind them paying me to come watch, I just wish we could have at least had some water (and they did finally turn on the AC!!) And even though we knew the pay would be very small, the longer we sat there, the less worth it it became. Being underpaid in dollars is one thing, but at least give us some water!