The trivia section says "John Malkovich, Joan Allen, Terry Kinney, Alan Wilder, George Wendt, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Houston and Hedda Lubin were extras." But where? It seems to be a finite cast and virutally all scenes take place in the mansion, and there seem to be no superfluous background actors in any of the scenes.
shareYou're right. I just finished watching this and don't remember seeing very many extras at all, much less any with familiar faces.
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It's been years since I've seen it but I'm sure I remember many of those you listed were members of the security team.
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There are actually a good 30+ background extras throughout the film: a band and choir at the church; multiple catering, security, service and entertainment staff at the house; several police/firemen at the freeway accident. None of them are clearly Malkovich, Allen, Wendt, Metcalf, etc., but most are in the far backround of scenes, so it's hard to tell. 'A Wedding' was filmed in the Chicago area, and all of the actors listed were members of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre troupe at the time, so it's definitely possible that Altman turned to Steppenwolf for extras. (Not making sense is Malkovich being listed here as a Wedding Guest – every wedding guest is clearly shown and listed in the credits, including the children. None of them are Malkovich.)
shareThe Steppenwolf extras came aboard via Jeff Perry, himself a Steppenwolf member and a principal actor in "A Wedding." They played caterers and maids. Malkovich played a caterer, not a wedding guest, so JavierBoredom is correct. George Wendt, then not well-known nor with Steppenwolf, got to be an extra on his own.
Piece of possible trivia: On one of the last days of filming--which involved taking advantage of a real storm approaching Lake Bluff, IL, and enabling a realistic ruin-by-weather of the post-wedding festivities on the lawn--Altman was discussing a mystery as his next project, expressing his desire to cast English actors "because they do that kind of thing so much better." This was in the summer of 1977, and I say "possible trivia" only because if he was referring to what became "Gosford Park" (2001) it was hardly his next project and many years before he got around to it.
Interesting post riogarhed, I'm wathcing it now. I have seen the film several times and can never find Malkovich or the others.
Loved "Gosford Park" as well.
After watching this movie a second time, I was able to spot Laurie Metcalf quite clearly. She appears 34 minutes into the movie (Scene 8 on the DVD Scene Selection feature) in the scene where Ingrid Hellstrom (the drunk lady in purple) is lying down on a table being offered medication by Dr. Jules Meecham (played by Howard Duff). Laurie is the maid on the right, smoking a cigarette, offering a puff to the maid standing next to her. She'd only be about 22-years-old when this movie was made and it's only about ten seconds of footage but it's still very interesting to see where these actors got their movie starts!
shareEverybody mentioned by the OP is very young and at the start of their respective careers. Not astonishing you wouldn't notice them then, or now
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Don't forget Dennis Franz is in it as a Security Guard, and he's never been hard to spot
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