‘Burn Notice’ seeks extras

From The Miami Herald:

Burn Notice brought a novel problem to local casting agent Ellen Jacoby: She’s running out of actors.

South Florida’s talent pool usually runs deep enough for Jacoby to pair local actors with the minor parts visiting productions need to fill. But as Burn Notice hits the midway point of its second season, Jacoby faces the complications a returning show brings.

Since actors can only play one role in a series, she’s having to stretch past her usual pool of standbys to fill the six or eight secondary parts Burn Notice casts each episode.

”I’m going through hell today,” she explained from her 10th floor office in downtown Miami, where actors wait in the lobby for the chance to read lines before Jacoby and a video camera.

WANTED: ATTRACTIVE MALE

On this morning, Burn Notice wants an attractive man in his 30s to play a possible love interest for star Gabrielle Anwar’s character. ”Certain age categories are tough for us down here,” said Jacoby, who also cast for Miami Vice, the last series to return to Miami for a second season. “We’ve got really good actors in the over-40 range. In the 20s and 30s, not as many. The ones we do have, we’ve used.”

Each Burn Notice episode requires up to 300 extras — actors required to pantomime conversation as they silently move through the background of a scene. Most jobs go to the young and attractive — Burn Notice‘s Miami generally looks much better than the real thing — but Jacoby also needs the more mundane looking.

LOOKING THE PART

”Every once in a while, I need older people who look like they have money,” she said. “I’m going to a fisherman’s place this episode, so I need people who look like fishermen.”

Interested? Extras get paid $100 for a 12-hour day, plus a free meal. Jacoby said candidates should mail her a recent snapshot, along with height, weight and clothing size, to: Ellen Jacoby Casting, 150 SE Second Ave, Suite 1007, Miami, FL 33131.