MovieChat Forums > The Best of Times (1986) Discussion > I was an extra in this film

I was an extra in this film

posted 10 years ago by art6602
3 replies | jump to latest

I was an extra during the football game scenes. We were on set from 4pm to 4am, 5 days a week for 2 weeks. It was in January of '85. I earned $300.00 cash for the 2 weeks I was there, (not bad money back then). I also got to meet Kurt Russell, (he was coming out of a porta-potty when I was going in). Cool guy. I didn't care much for Robin Williams. He held up scenes for a ridiculous amount of time doing his schtick. You could see that the crew was growing tired of him, but no one dared say anything. He is still like that. He can't keep his mouth shut. You could see he was pi#$ing off Bill Maher when he was on his show a few weeks ago. He was obnoxious. Genius, yes. But still a jerk.

[–] Airjordan2288 10 years ago

That's pretty cool. I was an extra in the Steve Martin movie LA Story and it sucked. Didn't get paid nearly as much as you

This movie came out my junior year of high school and I always loved it. I am a big fan of Kurt Russell. Robin Williams not so much. His humor is so spazzy and annoying that it detracts from everything he does. Good Will Hunting is about the only thing I liked him in. Still a travesty though that he beat Burt Reynolds for the oscar that year

"Shotgun! Anal!"

[–] art6602 9 years ago

I've heard all the nice things that people said about him when he passed away this year. I'm not saying that all of that is crap, I'm saying I didn't see any evidence of that. He just seemed annoyed with my friend and I. He just rubbed us the wrong way. And he was obnoxious in between takes.

[–] AdmiralTugBenson 9 years ago

That's awesome, being in such a classic movie scene. Did you get up and cheer when Reno came out in his white shoes? Kurt Russell is by all accounts a really great guy. I haven't met him, but I've heard a couple of commentaries with him and John Carpenter, for The Thing and Big Trouble In Little China, and he comes across as a friendly/laid back guy. I'm not surprised to hear about Robin, though I'm not sure he was being a "jerk". He was just an odd guy, There were times when he would go off on his shtick when it seemed like he wasn't even into it, he just did it because that's what people expected him to be like. It was almost like he didn't know how to behave normally. It did get irritating at times though, I saw him on several talk shows where I thought the interviewer was going to tell him to shut up and relax. I love some of his movies though. I grew up on The Best Of Times and Club Paradise (thanks to HBO in the 80's), and I also really like Toys (thanks to HBO in the 90's), Jumanji and a couple others.

Even though you didn't find Robin to be a treat, at least you got to meet Kurt (Reno Hightower, Snake Plissken, Captain Ron, R.J. MacReady, Jack Burton) Russell, and got to see the Bakersfield/Taft rematch with Kid Lester.

See you guys at the 10 year prison reunion - Ben Richards