By Steve Fronczek
22 November 2007

Future-Past.com had the pleasure to interview Troy Rudolph about his time as a background actor on Razor and Season IV of Battlestar Galactica. Not only is Troy a huge fan of BSG -- and we all envy him -- but he is also a die hard Brown Coat as well, so all you Serenity fans take note and read more about it in the interview. Troy can be found on the IMDb.com, though it isn’t a complete list of all of his film work, it does give a pretty good example of his acting career. This exclusive interview was made possible by the great folks from Happy Mushies Marshmallow Snacks, Caprica City, Caprica.

For my readers who may not be familiar with acting what does an extra do, and what are your responsibilities?

Basically, it is the job of an extra to fill in the empty spaces around the actors, and help make a scene look natural. On Battlestar, we’re often walking down corridors, or filling the various posts in the CIC. Sometimes it can be fun, and exciting, especially when there’s interesting stuff happening in a scene, and you get to react to things. Other times it can be pretty mundane, but I always find something fun in it, no matter what we’re doing. I just get so excited when I get to put on that uniform, and walk the halls of Galactica.

How did you get your start in acting? Did you go to acting school? How long have you been an actor? Where are you from?

I got my first taste of acting doing school plays when I was a kid, and enjoyed those, but as I got older, the allure kind of wore off, mostly because the group of friends that I had weren’t really into that sort of thing. After High School, I decided I wanted to work in Film and Television, so I went to film/TV school at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary; where I’m from. While at SAIT, there was a mandatory acting class that we had to take, and as a part of that class, we had to do a stage play. While playing the role of the Marquis in Cyrano de Bergerac, I rediscovered my love of acting. I had a few opportunities to do a little of it during my studies, by appearing in other students projects. After film school ended in 1994, I started seeking work in the film industry working behind the scenes. I figured it would be an easier way to make contacts, and transition into acting by working behind the scenes, than by jumping straight into the acting world. I worked on various TV and film projects as a production assistant and assistant director, and in 1999, finally decided to get an agent. Due to my having to make a living and pay the bills, I continued working as an Assistant Director (A.D.), and that limited my ability to audition, and the acting work kind of dried up for me. I did some extra work on a couple of things, and auditioned now and then, but never booked anything. In 2005 I decided to move to Vancouver, and signed with an agent here before I actually moved. Once again though, I found myself spending all my time working behind the scenes, and was missing out on auditions. After booking a small roll on the TV series Psych (where I was also working as an A.D.), I decided to devote myself full time to acting. It’s been sporadic at best, but I think there are some opportunities on the horizon.

Extra work can be mind numbingly boring at times, and often you’re herded around like cattle, and some people will treat you like second-class citizens. But as long as you have a good attitude, pay attention and do what you’re told, everything will be fine. The best thing to do is get an agent. In smaller markets, most agents will handle both principal acting work as well as extra work. In larger markets there are agencies that deal exclusively with extras, and will handle all of the hassle of submitting you for projects, and dealing with the bookings and whatnot. Do your homework though, and find a good agency that’s not going to try and rip you off. The important thing to remember is that they shouldn’t be charging you large amounts of money up front. Some will charge a small listing fee (ie: $25 CA) per year, but generally your agent only makes money when you make money. Oh, also…bring a book, there’s often a lot downtime as an extra.

How has your profession in acting affected your life as a whole concerning family, friends or even where you live?

Actors and film makers are somewhat nomadic by nature, we go where the work is. In 2005 I felt the film industry in Calgary was waning, and had to move to Vancouver, leaving my family -- parents, brother/sister-in-law, extended family -- and most of my friends behind. In the near future I may find myself having to move to Los Angeles if I want to continue to work, that’s just the nature of the beast. We also work really long hours, often 12-14 hours, which makes it hard to see friends or have a relationship with someone. Currently I’m single and have no children, which allows me a lot of flexibility with my work, as I don’t have to worry about scheduling around my family or a relationship, and should I have to move to L.A., it won’t be as big an upheaval…not that leaving my friends is a happy thought. You just have to try and make time when you can, thank goodness for weekends.

What is it like to be part of creating the top Sci-fi drama?

It’s an amazing experience, especially as a HUGE fan. The first time I did any work on the show was during Razor, and it was a scene in the hangar bay. Getting to put on the costume, and walk onto the set was an indescribable experience. I had a giant grin on my face the moment I first walked into the hangar bay, and it took every ounce of self-control I had to keep a straight face for the first couple of shots.

Where can we spot you while watching BSG?

I pop up in a few places as the season goes along, most of which I can’t talk about in any detail. I don’t want to ruin anything for the fans, plus we’ve had to sign non-disclosure agreements. But, that being said, one place I know for sure you see me is when Apollo is addressing the Pegasus crew after taking command in Razor. There’s a shot of the assembled crew, and I’m dead center making a gesture like I don’t want to be there. After Razor, my "character" shows up on Galactica, often in the corridors, and I’ve also done duty in the CIC, and the hangar bay for an official function. There’s another set I spent a lot of time in for one episode, but that’s something I can’t discuss until after it’s aired.

What is your character's name and rank? Does your character have a back story?

My character has no name at present, but I’m hoping to change that. He started out as a Major on the Pegasus, but by the time he’d transferred to Galactica he was busted down to Captain. The real life explanation for that is, when I came back as a Galactica officer, they didn’t have any Major pins with them, so they made me a Captain, and continued to do so as the season went along. I’ve only worn dog tags twice, as they only give them to you if they’re going to be seen on camera. The first time, I was actually wearing Kat’s tags, as they said L. KATRAIN (yes, that’s how it was spelled on the tags) on them, and the second time I wore them, they were blank.

While he doesn’t have an official back-story, I’ve crafted one for him that allows me to get into the proper mind set when I’m on the show. It pretty much started with my first scene on the show during Razor. When we shot the scene, we were told that at this point, we'd been through 3 different Commanding Officers of varying quality. Now we find out that the Admiral's son is being given command of our ship, so whoop-di-doo. My take on it was, at the time, I was a Major and I was on the command track, so having been passed over for command in favour of the Admiral's son, who was still (I think at the time) a Captain did not sit well with me. I had also decided that while they wanted a lot of people to appear less "buttoned down", you’ll notice that a number of the uniforms were open or un-tucked, etc., my character has too much respect for the uniform to do that.

I had felt that he is career military, whose father had also been a command level officer in the fleet. I have a twin brother who was a deck mechanic on the Pegasus same time I was an officer there. My brother survived the initial Cylon attack, but did not survive to the point where the Pegasus met up with Galactica... he had aspired to be a Viper pilot, but his poor vision prevented it. (this is all due to the fact that I appeared briefly as a deck hand in Razor aboard Pegasus, but I was wearing my glasses to differentiate my character). The death of his brother, coupled with what happened aboard Pegasus (peaking at Lee being given command of the ship) caused disciplinary problems for him. He was insubordinate, and sometimes derelict in his duty. He was disciplined by being busted in rank from Major to Captain, and eventually transferred off of Pegasus to the Galactica. Under Admiral Adama's command, my character was once again moulded into an exemplary officer, eventually serving duty in the CIC. With renewed purpose, he decided to try and make his brother's dream live, and started flight training, finally passing and becoming a Viper pilot. He now splits his time between shifts in the CIC and in the pilot's seat.

What was a typical shooting day for you on the set of Galactica as an extra?

We’d get there early, though usually after the main crew call, sign in with the extras wrangler, and go get dressed. Charron was our costumer, and she’s awesome. Once you start to work regularly on the show, she quickly learns your name, and your size, and is just a cool person to talk to.

After we got changed, we’d head back into the extra’s tent, and Jimmy the prop guy would come around and give us our various insignia and costume relevant props (the marines would get all their gear, the pilots, deck hands, signalers, etc.), once that happened, hair and make-up would take a look at us. The guys rarely had to have anything done, and mostly the women just had to have their hair pulled back into a neat ponytail (if it was long).

Then, usually the waiting would start. People would chat, read, listen to music, etc. There was one guy who would always bring cards and poker chips, so there’d be a game going on.

Once we got called to set, the assistant directors would give us an idea what was happening in the scene, and place us on the set and give us appropriate action. Sometimes we were allowed to improvise stuff, especially if they were pressed for time and weren’t able to give everyone an individual action. We’d rehearse, and do a few takes from different angles, then we’d move on. Usually we’d get sent back to the tent while they set up the new shot.

The length of the days varied depending on the workload. There were days I was there for 5 hours, and some days I was there for almost 14 hours. I recall one instance where they didn’t even use any of the extras until we’d already been there for over 8 hours. It’s days like that when it’s important to have a book, or something else to distract you.

How much of what you do as a background actor is outlined in the script? Do you improvise a lot of scenes?

The background action, when it is mentioned, is often general and vague. Things like "everyone reacts", or "the corridors are bustling with activity". As I mentioned, often times the A.D.’s will give you specific action to do, such as "when the actor comes into the room, I want you to cross in front of the camera and leave". There have been situations where they’ll say "okay, we need lots of activity in the room, so when this happens, I want you all on your feet, and moving" etc. Sometimes the improvising works, sometimes not. We always have to be conscious though, as background, not to take the focus away from the main cast.

Ok, I've always wanted to know this... What do extras talk about when they need to look like they are talking in the background of a scene?

Mostly we’re just moving our mouths in a non-sensical fashion. Usually they’re recording the actor’s dialogue, so we have to be as quiet as possible. Some people will actually mouth words like "rhubarb watermelon" so that it looks like they’re saying something. There are times though, when we’re far enough away that we can whisper a conversation, or actually speak normally during a scene. In those cases, we just carry on whatever conversation we were having between takes. There are even rare occasions where we have to speak up during a scene, but they are careful never to give us specific, individual dialogue, because they get into an "actor upgrade" situation then. They may say something like "okay we want you all to approach this person as they’re walking by, and try to ask them something" or when they have a large group of us, they’ll have us say, in unison, things like "So say we all".

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