I knew exactly what the question would be before even opening the thread. I’m always amused my a mute eye-rolling or nodding extra.
I don’t know why but it never occurred to me that a movie star would get paid to promote a movie on a talk show. I always thought the promotion was part of the job. Do they get paid for magazine interviews, too?
A number of years ago I had a friend that was an extra. He claimed (no idea of the truth of this) that as an extra he could say 5 words at one pay scale, but at the 6th word his pay jumped dramatically.
He told the story of trying to sneak in a sixth word and being caught requiring the scene to be reshot.
They’re in the union, they’re appearing on a TV show, they have to get paid.
Believe me, the actor who makes $2 million a movie or $100,000 an episode is not going on Letterman for the $300 (or whatever it is; that’s the right ballpark) fee.
Not word, line.
AFTRA (don’t know about the new megaunion) had one rate for people who said nothing (“extra”), another for people who said five lines or fewer (“under-five”), and then up from there.
One time when I appeared as an extra (on live TV), the lead actor ad libbed a greeting to me when I walked onto the set. I replied, “How ya doing?” or something clever than that. Later I asked if I should be paid as an under-five given that I had said a line. No dice. It wasn’t scripted, so I didn’t get paid.