I’m sure award winning producer Sam Mendes has no idea that homeless people recruited as extras for his latest film are being way paid below the going rate.
The film makers probably think that £50 a day is fortune for these down and outs, 
compared to the basic rate here of £78.40 per day, or £72.50 a day for this latest Stephen Fry drama, and my husband believes he was paid £75 a day to appear as an extra in this blockbuster – three meals a day included too.
It particularly goes against the grain as the Mendes film describes the tortured life ofStuart Shorter, an alcoholic with a violent past made famous in the bestseller Stuart: A Life Backwards.
Stuart Shorter was, when his biographer Alexander Masters first saw him, sitting on a square of cardboard on a pavement in Cambridge at Christmas time in 1998, aged only 30, broken-toothed, hairy, filthy, weird looking, the sort of man people edit out of their consciousness. I’m wondering if I might have walked by himself and not given a second glance.
The crew are filming in Cambridge for two weeks and some of the city’s homeless, including a couple who knew Stuart, have been recruited to play his friends. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for them, Mendes will make a few million from it, so come on, don’t be mean, pay them the going rate.
As he has been ‘found out’ this will backfire on him unless he does pay them a fair amount.
Jean-Luc, the chances are, these down and outs are probably earning more with their begging bowls on the streets of Cambridge anyway. They will add a great touch of authenticity to the film which would have been lacking without their involvement. We can’t moralise about how they will spend their money, but they are entitled to be paid the full going rate.
Hi liked reading through once more.
cambs has a lot of them.
Thanks for sharing
Wish you well
They should definitely be paid the going rate. It is not fair to treat them differently because of judgements Mendes might be making about them. Well done for exposing this, Ellee.
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Thanks for sharing this!
Ellee,
Perhaps I should wait and see the film, but in case I don’t catch it, how did Stuart Shorter end up? I assume he is no longer with us. Do you know how the story ends?
John, I assume not, here is a quote from Alexander Masters about the film, which Stuart’s family are helping with:
“I wish he was still here so we could be astonished together – then go out, whoop it up and get rat-a***d!”
There are several references to him not being around, but I don’t know his fate. We will have to wait and see the film.
Great Spot Ellee, maybe they will take note!
If these ‘down and outs’ spend their £50 windfalls on beer and cigarettes, should we really hope they could have spent £75!?!
Will their benefits be cut for these two weeks!?!
ahhhh man.
I just have to wonder …what the hell are people thinkin?
Hi Elle, Happy Wedding Anniversary. Hope u had good time. I agree with u, those homeless people who are acting as extras shd be paid the going rate. I hope the person who is planning to make millions by making a movie on homeless people understand this.
Raj, but the market rate is £50 if the ‘down and out’s have agreed to do the work for this day rate!
Why should Sam, or anyone else come to that, be expected to pay more than the market rate if they happen to be wealthier!?!
One of the best fims I’ve seen is/was made by a Cambridge down and out. It was about how his life came apart just from some horseplay on a tractor – he fell off – banged his head – lived with brain injuries – lost his job with tied cottage – then his wife walked out with his kids – lived on the streets – was found by a filmmaker – success.
[…] I previously wrote about the filming of this in Cambridge, how the homeless were used as extras and paid less than the going rate. The city is never short of these down and outs, I saw them yesterday, but I’m never sure how to react. Would giving them money just further fuel their addictions, would they prefer food instead? A sandwich? Maybe not. I remember one homeless man who was found murdered in public toilets in Ca,bridge several years ago, it was never solved. The unpleasant details confided to me by police. […]