What do American movie crowd-sourced actors really look like?

Chinese extras in a movie town. Two years ago, my parents sent 16-year-old me to Marshall High School in Los Angeles to study and stay with my aunt, who had immigrated to the United States for many years.　　By chance, I read in the advertisement section of the newspaper that Universal Pictures was looking for Chinese extras of any age for filming. So I went to apply for the job.　　When it was my turn to audition, the director asked, "Do you have any specialty performances?" I was nervous, my mind was blank and I didn't know what to do because the people who came out before me were doing so well. Only to see the assistant standing beside the director waving his hand at me and shouting, "Next!"　　At that moment, I snapped back to the taijiquan I had learned in my freshman physical education class in China. I took a deep breath and threw out a very beautiful set of taijiquan. The director smiled with satisfaction and said, "Count him in!" I later learned that the movie wanted actors with traditional Chinese flavor.　　Soon, my acting skills improved by leaps and bounds. Luckily, I also participated in a TV talk show hosted by Larry King, one of the most famous hosts in the United States, which changed my fate in just one minute.　　During the show, I stood up and spoke passionately to the American audience about Confucianism and the virtues of inheriting Chinese civilization, especially when I talked about how my parents patiently taught me how to behave in the world. After this program was broadcast, I started to play the role of a small actor in some movies starring celebrities.　　Inspiration from a precious lighter Once I played a doorman in a movie starring Jennifer Lopez, I realized that my idol Jennifer was an "old smoker" who smoked incessantly, probably because she had just broken up with her boyfriend, Ben Affleck, and was in a bad mood.　　　After she finished her scene, she turned around and left the set. I saw that she had left her lighter on the table, so I quickly picked it up and chased her out. She smiled knowingly and said, "Boy, here's one for you as a gift." I didn't want it, but she insisted that I take it, and the hospitality was overwhelming.　　One day, I happened to talk about it on a Jennifer fandom website, and after a user read my description of the shape of this lighter, he surprised me by telling me, "You're rich, this lighter was Jennifer's favorite, she used it for years."　　I was inspired, so I went to the auction site EBAY registered a user, and then used a digital camera to take pictures of the lighter from different angles and put it up for auction on the site. Surprisingly, the lighter's auction price shot up to $500 within a day.　　　That's when I realized that anything used by or associated with a celebrity would be worth hundreds of times more. Not only that, but I found out that many of the props that were thrown away after a movie was shot would be turned into treasures if they were put on the Internet and would be worth hundreds of times more.　　　I told my good friend Lin Xiao in China, she was surprised to hear this and left a message on the Internet: "Qiao Feng, this is a good opportunity to start a business, take advantage of it, don't miss this rare opportunity." I thought this might also be the stage to exercise my mind.　　Soon I set up my own "online store" on EBAY, with customers from all over the world, and the merchandise I sold expanded from movie props to celebrity autographs and movie posters.　　Spider-Man autographed T-shirts One of my most successful sales came from Spider-Man 2, where Spider-Man fights Dr. Octopus on a train. Considering the movie was going to be released worldwide, the actors playing the passengers on the train were required to be of all different skin colors, and I was fortunate enough to be one of them, but I had a bigger plan in mind.　　When filming was finished and leading man Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man) was about to leave, a number of extras gathered around to ask for his autograph. Tobey, who has always been arrogant and never signed autographs for his fans, was very friendly with us actors who had worked together and happily signed autographs for everyone.　　I hurriedly changed into a new T-shirt, turned my back to him and asked him to sign my back. I then left the crowd and changed into a different color T-shirt for him to sign, and since he didn't see my front and thought it was a different person each time, he unknowingly signed all 10 of my T-shirts. On the way home I had only two words in my head: Hair!　　The news of my auction of Tobey Maguire's autographed T-shirts went up on EBAY, and the price immediately shot up to $300 each, while my cost per shirt was less than $10.　　　　Just as I was mesmerized, suddenly, my phone rang.　　"Hello! Is this Joe Breeze, please? I'm a girl from Saudi Arabia and I'm a huge fan of Toby."　　When I heard the word "Saudi Arabia", I thought of oil and the rich people there. Sure enough, the girl went on to say, "I'm going to buy out all of your autographed t-shirts, please name your price and give me your bank account number!"　　　"One thousand dollars each!" I wanted to test her bottom line.　　　"Deal!" Hearing her agree so quickly, I regretted a little. But you have to be honest in business, and since 1000 dollars for a T-shirt is already a sky-high price, I successfully made this big deal.　　Special Correspondent for Domestic and International Entertainment Magazines With the increasing popularity of the online store, I accidentally received e-mails from journalists of some small entertainment newspapers and magazines in China, who asked me if I was willing to cooperate in providing some first-line news that happened in Hollywood, because it was very expensive to buy the copyrights of these news directly from the big magazines. I quickly agreed.　　The next day, I traded in the home camera in my hand for a gunmetal professional camera. Since I had a pass to the set, I could go wherever I wanted, but the camera had to be hidden in my backpack.　　Soon I was cast in a spy movie starring Tom Cruise. In China, I heard the girls in my class say that Cruise was tall and handsome, but when I saw him in real life, he was actually shorter than me by half a head, definitely not more than 1 meter 70, I thought the opportunity had come. But I have not been able to find any strong evidence to prove that he is very short.　　Until one day, to shoot Cruise and a Russian agent to talk face to face lens, the agent head is 1 meter 90. due to close shots, Cruise only Qi to this person's shoulders, and then the director of the brainwave, moved to a big box, to Cruise to stand in the box on the shoot.　　　I giggled, really have not seen such a ridiculous thing, and quickly picked up the camera to secretly take a picture. As my photo was exclusive, it was sold not only to domestic magazines but also to Entertainment Weekly, the top entertainment magazine in the United States.　　What is more unforgettable for me is that on the third day after the magazine was published, I received a phone call from the deputy editor-in-chief of Entertainment Weekly: "Joe, the angle of your photograph of Cruise is very innovative, and we are willing to hire you as a contracted photographer to provide us with five photographs on a fixed monthly basis." The microphone was down for a moment before I snapped out of my stunned state and then excitedly ran and ran around the playground. You know, to be a contract photographer for Entertainment Weekly is a dream honor for many photojournalists in Hollywood.　　Since then, I've been an extra, a businessman and an amateur journalist, and my income has begun to stabilize. This year, I am a first-year student at the University of Los Angeles. Now I earn all my tuition and living expenses, not only do I not ask my parents for a penny, but every month I send 300 dollars to my parents back home. Although I still can't afford to buy a sports car, I can only drive an old Audi to class, but I have confidence in the future, because I believe that "I am the best"!