Stephen Chow's role in 1983's The Legend of Condor Heros
Chow Yun-fat in 1975's Dream of the Red Mansion
Figurants in scene from Feng Xiaogang's Wengu 1942 Photo: CFP
They appear in TV and films, but remain largely unnoticed. They receive a meager pittance of a salary per day; get up early and work until night. Most of the time, they are dreaming of that life-changing call from directors. This demographic of striving actors, also called figurants, are largely faces in the background, actors and actresses who have no spoken parts.
Some take the job as a way to make a living, but most use it to achieve stardom, a dream that comes true only in rare cases.
Hong Kong actors Stephen Chow and Chow Yun-fat, as well as recent rising Chinese mainland star Wang Baoqiang were all struggling actors at the start. Motivated by these stories of success, young people come to cities like Beijing and Shanghai to pursue their goal of reaching stardom. But like films, such dreams are quite different in reality.
Fraudulent agents
The Beijing Times ran a report about a non-Beijing actor, surnamed Li, who recently applied for a figurant position sponsored by Beijing Deren Youyi, a media company. But the job was not as high-paying as promised, and worse, the 20,000 yuan ($3,160) that Li was asked to pay during his interview was non-refundable.
The company arranged for Li to live in Xiantan village, in Huairou district close by the Xingmei Film Park. The Xinmei Film Park is the largest film studio in North China and was where TV series like The Grand Mansion Gate and The Eloquent Ji Xiaolan were shot. "The company promised me a fat salary with large bonuses," said Li.
As it is funded by many big-name directors and actors, Xingmei Film Park is attractive to young hopefuls nationwide. There are hundreds of young people like Li living in the village, trying to pursue their dreams.
Twenty-five-year-old Li originally had a satisfying job in Shanghai. While browsing the Internet in March, he discovered that Beijing Deren Youyi, a media company, was recruiting supporting actors and figurants. The basic salary was 3,500 yuan per month, coupled with bonuses. They told Li that they would provide for accommodation and other expenditures.
After successfully being booked, Li was asked to pay series of questionable fees including the cost of contract, sanitation service fees, and guidance fees among others. Li paid a total of 20,000 yuan in this process. Whenever he questioned or denied payment, the company threatened to take away possible acting roles.
A month later, the company withheld Li's stipulated salary. When Li asked for the contract, the company said they destroyed it. Upon realizing he was cheated, Li found that many aspiring actors living around him in the same boat. Striving actors living in this village seldom receive what is promised by the employers.
Contract rights
As for salaries, some are lucky if they receive any money at all, as many striving actors don't have the chance to even act.
"When I was asking for my first month's salary, they told me that it was based on 30 yuan per day, instead of the basic 3,500 yuan a month," said a struggling actor, who works under the name Zhang Hai. "We gave them money but didn't receive payment for our work. Then we realized we were cheated," Li said. Many people left after making the realization.
A low income among striving actors is the norm. According to the Beijing Times, many media companies and agents are frauds. They are responsible for recruiting actors for theater groups, which usually pays an actor 100 yuan per day. In the end, most actors only receive a fraction of the promised paycheck, as the intermediary company pockets a large part of the sum.
"Victims can use laws to protect their rights," said Kang Kai, a lawyer at Beijing Jinghua Law Firm. The work contracts signed by aspiring actors and the intermediary company are legal and protected by the law. If the company fails to honor its obligation, these striving actors can try to resolve the problem through legal channels, Kang said.
Competition
The market is not only intense, but oversaturated. Each year Beijing Film Academy, one of China's top schools for breeding film talents, sees an overflow of actors passing through. Nationwide, it's estimated that there are 20,000 to 30,000 applicants for figurant roles annually, while demand for these supporting roles hovers around 10,000. The current market price for these actors is between 30 and 500 yuan per day. The payment increases in accordance with degrees of difficulty of their acting.
Thirty, the lowest, is a non-speaking role. Acting roles considered more dangerous, such as that of a stunt man, receive higher payment, between 300 and 500 yuan. Though competition is intense, successful examples do exist. Chow Yun-fat once was only an extra role in various plays, acting as a servant or a corpse.
Another case is Stephen Chow, whose story is widely circulated. In 1983's The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Chow acted as soldier A in one episode and soldier B in another. In his 1999 film, The King of Comedy, in which he was the director and star, Stephen Chow depicts how a figurant rises to the role of a celebrity, the end goal for many small-time hopefuls.