John Milton probably wasn’t speaking as a casting director when he observed, “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Nonetheless, in commenting on his descent into blindness, the visionary British poet inadvertently might have penned a motto for today’s union of Hollywood extras and body doubles. Certainly, it fits the job.
No assignment in show business is more excruciatingly boring than waiting for some assistant director to come to a decision on how some throwaway street scene for some doomed-to-failure movie should be played. Nor can any rejection match that of being told you’re not quite attractive enough to be believable as a patron in a trendy cinematic nightclub.
The pay isn’t much, but no major studio could do without the contributions of these anonymous stars-in-waiting.
Julie Janney is more fortunate than most of her peers.
The York Community High School grad has doubled for Meryl Streep in “She Devil,” “One True Thing” and Wes Craven’s “Music of the Heart.” Janney also has appeared in two pictures and a play for Robert Altman; toured around the world with Jerry Lewis in “Damn Yankees”; sang with the street-to-stage group, the Steinettes; had bit parts in “Ellen,” “Another World” and “Ryan’s Hope”; and recently had a prime role in the South Coast Rep’s production of “The Philanderer.”
“I’ve only been here for six months, so my L.A. work is still evolving,” she said, relaxing in a Studio City coffeehouse between call-backs at a Valley dance studio. “When I’m not on a set, I do a lot of looking for work and auditioning. To supplement my income, I’m also a personal trainer.”
In Miramax’s inspirational, based-on-a-true-story “Music of the Heart,” Streep plays Roberta Guaspari, a recently divorced mother of two who realizes a lifelong dream when she becomes a music teacher in an impoverished East Harlem school. Against all odds, Guaspari finds a way to a turn a generation of kids — more attuned to hip-hop and salsa — into classical violinists.
Not surprisingly, Streep delivers yet another Oscar-bait performance, as the singularly obsessed instructor. For her part, Janney will take her kudos where they come.
“I appear on-screen as a flight attendant for a fleeting moment, although no one would recognize me with all the makeup,” she said, with a chuckle. “Every once and a while, they would use my hands in scenes where her character would be writing, playing the violin or looking at pictures. That’s called doubling.”
In the emotionally charged Carnegie Hall finale, her back occasionally can be seen on stage, alongside the backs of stand-ins for some of the greatest musicians of our time. Although it ended up on the cutting-room floor, a speech Janney-as-Streep gave to warm up the audience of extras inspired all the intended applause and cheers.
Mostly, though, Janney’s doubling duties require her to be at the right place, on time, to help the director, cinematographer, sound supervisor and lighting technician set up their cues ahead of the arrival of the star. She might not be mistaken for Streep 100 percent of the time in a police lineup — Janney’s a “teeny bit taller” and their eyes don’t quite match — but she was able to fool the kid musicians, at first, and she offers something essential to the behind-the-camera contingent.
“I did `She Devil’ for Susan Seidelman, who thought I resembled Meryl,” the actress recalled. “But, more importantly, we have the same skin tones. The director of photography, Declan Quinn, told me that the `plains of my face’ resemble her’s.
“It’s really all about the lighting — how it’s going to hit her — and skin tones. In `Music of the Heart,’ we both wore wigs, so it was a plains-of-the-face thing.”
Janney’s job also means she must closely observe the rehearsals so she can step in and repeat it for the technicians when Streep heads to her trailer for makeup or a quick nap.
“I would do it in the same rhythm, so the cameraman would know when to move,” she said. “I would wear similar colors so they could see how the light bounced off the clothes, and I would carry around a violin a lot.”
On and off the set, the two women enjoy a “friendly, professional relationship,” but aren’t what could be described as buddies (“She’s really funny, more so than anyone imagines — and she’s a real mom . . .”).
Unless an actor already has a relationship with a star, doubles usually are cast by the same people who pick extras.
“It’s based on height, build, skin tone, facial structure and professionalism,” Janney said. “You can’t have someone on the set who’s making noise, asking a lot of questions or requiring a lot of attention. It’s rare for an actor to be on a movie through the whole thing, but because I was considered to be part of the crew, and I had to be there all the time.
“I learned more about movie making as a double than as an actor . . . neat little technical things.”
Going into show business was something of a foregone conclusion for Janney. “My mother did community theater, and she was involved in special events and publicity for Carson’s,” she said. “I grew up doing industrials, singing, performing, modeling, so I knew what I wanted to do even before I got into high school. York had a great theater program . . . we’d go to New York and London to see shows.”
If she were to go back to her alma mater for Career Day, would she promote her line of work to aspiring thespians?
“I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody,” she said, emphatically. “It’s hard. It takes a lot of endurance. It’s unpredictable and doesn’t provide any kind of security.
“The best thing that could happen to me would be to get a pilot that goes to series. I’m making a living, but I wish it was a better one.”
Just like everyone else in Hollywood.
