My life as an ‘extra’
The author is the man drinking coffee at left in the background at Little Victories in the Glebe.
My life as an ‘extra’
By Josh Rachlis
If you saw snow in the Glebe in July, you weren’t dreaming. That was the set of a Hallmark Christmas movie where a dreamy, tall leading man with great hair was romancing a small-town girl. And if you saw a short, bald man drinking coffee or wrapping presents behind that dreamy couple, that was me – a background actor with a dream of being noticed.
And that dream has come true! I always thought I’d have to fly to LA to become famous. But it turns out I just had to walk to LV – to be clear, that stands for Little Victories Coffee, not Las Vegas.
Flashback to July 2019. I sold my Toronto condo to be a digital nomad. I’d been interviewing celebrities at the Toronto International Film Festival for my YouTube channel, and now I dreamed of interviewing celebrities in hotel lobbies around the world. In March 2020, I finally left Ontario to attend a podcast convention in Orlando. Now that I was travelling, I thought, “OK, now I can finally go to LA!” But due to COVID, Trudeau announced that it was time for Canadians to come home. But what home? I returned to a locked-down Toronto and was leery of going through lockdown with a random roommate. So, like a Hallmark leading lady, I returned to my hometown, Ottawa.
Cut to December 2020. I’m living in my parents’ basement, with no friends in town and with everything closed because of COVID. At 11:23 p.m. on a Sunday, I googled “Ottawa talent agents” and sent this email to Angie’s Models: “Hi. I was living in Toronto but I’m in Ottawa now. I’m a full ACTRA member. It just occurred to me to check with you if there are jobs I could audition for or do. Even background or small parts, if they need ACTRA members.”
Fifteen minutes later, Angie replied, and a few days later I had a background role as a cop in a crime thriller. In the spring, she messaged me on Instagram, asking if I wanted to be in a Christmas movie. That shoot in the ByWard Market was my intro to fake snow. Since then, I’ve background-acted in exotic locations like Carleton Place, Almonte, Stittsville and Manotick. Half my earnings were going to Uber drivers. So, I loved the two gigs I got in the Glebe. Even Hollywood stars don’t live walking distance to movie sets.
In November 2023, I was in the movie Everything Puppies as a customer in Little Victories. My many hours sitting in Glebe coffee shops had prepared me well for this role.
In June 2024, I walked to St. Matthew’s Anglican Church to be in Unwrapping Christmas: Tina’s Miracle. While there, I remembered that Angie had asked me to submit a video audition for a speaking role. I filmed my audition in the church basement where “background holding” was but discovered that Bell’s mobile service doesn’t reach inside the church or even outside on First Avenue and is even weak on Bank Street. I had to wander to Starbucks to upload the audition and had a fellow background actor text me when I was needed back on set. It was the kind of excitement you’d expect in a Mission: Impossible movie. Maybe the Glebe BIA should pitch Tom Cruise the idea of shooting in the Glebe. Forget the Burj Khalifa – he could climb Lansdowne 2.0!
Then, for my biggest break, I had to travel far from home – to Brockville. That’s where I spent 12 days in April on the set of Hot Frosty. After it started streaming on Netflix this November, people started messaging me that I was going viral on TikTok. Elana Mai, a wheelchair-using singer and background actress in England, had posted a video zooming in on my funny facial expressions in a party scene, with the caption: “Praying the man in the blue shirt in the background gets the big break he was hoping for.” Well, her video was my big break. It has 2.6-million views, plus millions more on Instagram where other pages have posted it. People are commenting that I should have my own movie. And Jonathan Bennett, host of Finding Mr. Christmas, a Hallmark+ show where actors vie to be the next Hallmark leading man, commented, “I’ll make a call.”
So, the next time I’m acting in the Glebe, maybe I’ll be a short, bald leading man. Or maybe I’ll just continue to delight millions with my facial expressions in the background. But one thing is for sure – just like the trees blocking my mobile service on First Avenue, my fame has its roots in the Glebe.
Josh Rachlis is a background and voice actor and a cartoonist and was recently an independent candidate for Ottawa Centre MPP.