[imagesource: Twitter / @JohnnyNeff_]

The job of an extra in the entertainment industry is to blend into the background and leave the limelight for the stars.

Sit at a restaurant table, stroll past with an umbrella, whatever the case – you’re not the point of the shot and you should remember that.

Except, every so often, an extra goes above and beyond the call of duty and earns themselves a special mention.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as the titular Stephen Strange. Shortly after the movie begins, there is a scene featuring Strange at the wedding of his ex-girlfriend looking rather uncomfortable.

Forget about Benedict and turn your attention to the woman sitting behind him. According to The Guardian, and I have to agree, “she absolutely loses her mind”:

Her agent told her to give the performance of a lifetime and she did pic.twitter.com/d09On8uqXU

— Johnny Neff (@JohnnyNeff_) June 27, 2022

I’ll have what she’s on, thanks.

That’s it, case closed. Give her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at once.

You see, sitting idly in the background of a shot is not an easy task:

She can’t simply look ahead, because then she would be staring right down the barrel of the camera. She has no companion to chit-chat with. She can’t just heave and sigh with boredom, like everyone else does at weddings, because it would have undercut the emotional tension of the scene…

It’s a magnificent performance (after all, not everyone has the charisma to yank your attention away from Oscar-nominated Benedict Cumberbatch) and one that has secured the actor’s entrance into the pantheon of bewildering extras.

That is a pantheon that is surprisingly competitive.

Ever heard the one about the air sweeping extra from Quantum of Solace?

Rumour has it that sweeping works better when you make contact with the surface you’re trying to clean.

In Back to the Future III, there was also the curious case of the crotch-pointing child:

The scene has been picked apart for years and it’s reported that the kid was trying to discreetly tell the crew that he needed the toilet.

One more for the road? In 2003’s The Last Samurai, starring an increasingly wealthy Tom Cruise, one unfortunate extra met the wrath of a horse’s foot:

As things stand, the name of the woman behind Cumberbatch has not yet been made public.

What do you think about this guess?

That’s Benedict Cumberbatch mom https://t.co/3dEChDN4m1 pic.twitter.com/xSVDAyPUcJ

— emu (@emmonvfx) June 28, 2022

Cumberbatch’s mother is actress Wanda Ventham.

It certainly adds another layer of complexity to the performance.

[source:guardian]