Last festive season my mother received a unique gift. It was a certificate that allowed the holder a visit to the set of the long-running, New Zealand TV show, Shortland Street with the possibility of being an extra. For my mama, an undying Shortland Street superfan, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Luckily for me, it was for two people.
Shortland Street is a five-evening per week soap opera set at the fictitious Shortland Street hospital. It has been running for over 30 years and is as popular today in New Zealand as it was when it started.
I have never entertained the idea of acting, being an extra or being on TV so this experience was not on my bucket list. However, it was an easy ‘yes’ when my mama asked if I wanted to come with her. Of course I would be way out of my comfort zone, but isn’t that what I advise people to do in my books in order to be rebelliously happy? I simply couldn’t turn down such an extraordinary opportunity.
Here are three ways being a TV extra sparked my happiness …
1) Being a TV Extra was a Reminder to Say Yes
All of us spend far too much of our lives being serious, busy and tired (and tired from being so serious and busy). As Oscar Wilde says, ‘life is too important to be taken seriously’. We need to grasp onto any chance for light-heartedness. One way to lighten up is to say yes – take action, go for it, proceed and not spend too much time dwelling on the exact outcome you want.
We didn’t know what would happen so the Shortland Street experience was the perfect chance to flex my ‘say yes’ muscles. I said yes to turning up early at the production hub across town. I said yes to changing into a nurse uniform and tying my hair back. And I said yes to every direction they gave me. The scene was at the hospital cafeteria. I was to choose a meal from the cabinet, walk to the cash register, pay for it and then walk back the way I came so I left the café and the scene.
As finding out we were going to actually be extras, changing into the uniform and getting scene instructions all happened in the space of about 15 minutes, this led to a hilarious exchange between myself and the actor playing the café manager whereby I wordlessly ‘paid’ for my lunch by swiping my hand over the credit card machine next to the till. I hadn’t thought to take any form of card payment with me when I was making sure the pen was placed correctly and my shoes were on the right feet!
2) Being a TV Extra was a Chance to Play
Play is so easily neglected. The thought of play can actually stress people out as it means important things are not getting done! But play IS the important thing. Dr Stuart Brown from the National Institute of Play argues that the opposite of play is not work but depression.
The Shortland Street talent and crew are all complete professionals who produce the equivalent of a motion picture every single week. I wanted to follow all the directions so I didn’t muck up the scene and cause the real actors and hard-working crew additional effort but I also wanted to enjoy the surreal experience. Being a TV extra was a time for me to play.
My mother and I obviously stood out backstage when we arrived with our Shortland Street goodie bags and no idea what we were doing. One extra said to my mama ‘who ARE you?’ I didn’t have a lot of time but I lapped up the experience by taking a few photos, asking the other extras questions about their work and sending a selfie of me in a Shortland Street nurse uniform to my friend who is a real nurse.
When I walked out of the scene (after ‘paying’ for my fake lunch), it was into a small room behind the cafeteria stage. The scene was still being filmed so I stood beside an actor who had also walked off from the scene. Then another actor joined us and soon I was squished between two Shortland Street actors, trying to not burst out laughing. I was thinking, ‘what is my life right now?’. The funniest thing about it was the scene ended up being shot twice so the exact same thing happened again, only somehow with a fourth person in the tiny space. When the filming was finished, we all shared a giggle at our ridiculous situation.
3) Being a TV Extra Enhanced Our Mother-Daughter Relationship
No one has yet proven that money, career choice or—unbelievably—even health, have much of an effect on happiness. But consistently, across many different studies, personal connections and strong social bonds have been shown time and again to make a meaningful contribution to happiness.
What appealed to me more than anything was sharing this unique experience with my mother. My mama is not shy and she struck up a conversation with everyone she met on set. She even got a brief hug from not one but two of her favorite actors! For my Shortland Street superfan mother, the experience exceeded any and all expectations she had.
We were all finished by 9.30am and so went to a (real) café to decompress and share stories. She chuckled at my squished situation at the back of the set and shared what it was like sitting at a table with another extra pretending to talk in the background of the scene. We laughed about the fact that mama also didn’t have anything on hand to ‘pay’ for her hospital cafeteria lunch purchase. We will always have this as a joint memory and, to me, that is priceless.
TV Stars
Even though I had never thought to include it on my bucket list, being a TV extra sparked my happiness as it reminded me to say yes, invited me to play and enriched my relationship with my mother through a shared experience.
Six weeks later we were super excited to be on the small screen. My mother had told everyone she knew and I let about three people know. If you concentrate very carefully around the middle Episode 56 of Shortland Street that aired on the 23 April 2024, you can see me in the background of one shot for about 8 seconds. Unfortunately, my mother’s entire appearance – except for a half-second glimpse of the top of her scalp – ended up on the cutting room floor.
Oh, the harsh world of show business!
I write about play and lightheartedness in my free ebook, Rediscover Your Sparkle, talk about the importance of relationships to happiness in Crappy to Happy and talk about getting out of your comfort zone in both those books plus Embrace Your Awesomeness. You can read any of the books or grab all 3 together in the Rebelliously Happy 3-in-1 Collection.
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