Sixteen character actors  …. many of which you will (think you) recognize from countless movies and TV shows … talk disarmingly frank on camera on how tough it is to make anything approaching a living wage from their chosen profession.Without exception, all of them admitted to being a wee bit mad as a reason that they persevere with their careers which mingles success with a great deal of hardship and frustration. 

In this rather wonderful documentary filmmakers Ian Roumain & Michael Schwartz engage their subjects and get them to open up about how tough it is to be constantly auditioning for acting jobs that they never get. If they do land a plum part, such a recurring role in a TV series, then nine times out of ten it will be followed by a dry spell of no work which  ensures that they never get carried away with any level of success.  What all 16 of them possessed, besides their drive and sheer bloodymindedness, was an extraordinary good sense of humor which seemed to shine through even when they talked about what they had to resorted too when the work and money out.

When you hear the facts and statistics about making it as an actor today it makes you realize that you need far more luck than talent just to survive let alone to get to the point where you are so successful that we get to remember you as ‘the guy that was in that thing’!

Totally fascinating and completely compelling and I am going to make a real effort to appreciate the lawyer/doctor/cop supporting the star next time as I now have a sense of what they went through to get that part.

★★★★★★★★

Available on www.netflix.com