The Movie Extra

Hugo was studying engineering in Belfast for a year when he saw the advertisement on the university notice board: "Extras wanted for a fantasy film. No experience needed. Must be available all day." He sent a photo the same evening. Two weeks later, he received an email: he had been chosen to play "Villager Number 14".

He called his mother in Valencia immediately. "I'm going to be in a movie!" he told her. She was so excited that she told the whole family, the neighbors and the woman at the bakery. By the end of the day, half of Valencia knew that Hugo was going to be a movie star.

On the day of the shoot, he had to be at a field outside the city at four in the morning. It was dark, it was raining, and about two hundred other villagers were standing in a long line next to some tents. A young assistant with a clipboard checked his name and sent him to the costume tent.

There, he was given a brown wool tunic that smelled of old potatoes and a pair of boots that were two sizes too big. Then he went to make-up. He had his face painted with fake dirt, his hair styled into something that looked like a bird's nest, and a scar drawn on his cheek. "Why does a villager have a scar?" he asked. "Dragon attack," said the make-up artist, without looking up.

Then he waited. He waited in the tent, he waited in the rain, and he waited in a muddy field while the actors' scenes were filmed again and again. Lunch was served at eleven. Tea was served at three. Hugo read his whole book, made friends with a retired postman called Seamus and learned three Irish songs.

At last, at half past five in the afternoon, the villagers were called. The director explained the scene: a dragon flies over the village, and everyone runs away screaming. There was no dragon, of course; it would be added later by computer. "Look terrified!" the director shouted through a megaphone. Hugo ran, screamed and fell in the mud. The scene was shot nine times.

His total time on screen, he discovered months later in a movie theater in Valencia, was about thirty seconds. In fact, you could only see him clearly for two of them: a muddy figure with a bird's nest on his head, running to the left of the screen.

His whole family had come to see it. When the moment arrived, his mother stood up and shouted, "That's him! That's my son!" The people in the theater laughed and some of them applauded.

Hugo was paid eighty pounds for eleven hours of work. He had the money changed into euros and spent it on dinner for the family. "So," asked his little sister, "are you going to be famous now?" Hugo thought about the cold, the mud and the potato tunic. "No," he said. "But I've got a very good story."