Chances are good you’ve seen at least one of the many episodes of popular shows actress Nancy Eng has appeared in: “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Whoopi,” “Third Watch,” “Ed,” “Sex and the City” and “Guiding Light.”
Chances are also good that you’d never remember her.
“What keeps me going is the hope that I may get upgraded. You hope you get a director who will pick you out,” says Eng, who has appeared as a “background actor” on those TV shows and in movies such as “Maid in Manhattan.”
A graduate of New York’s High School of Performing Arts, which was featured in “Fame,” and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Eng has made a career that encompasses bowling on “Ed,” helping solve crime (silently) as a detective on “Law & Order” and, most impressively, being a corpse on an episode of “Law & Order: SVU.”
Some actors think of “extra” work as a waste of time, but Eng is willing to do what it takes. The thirtysomething actress had always planned to go into the business but found a dearth of good roles for Asian actresses at a time “before there was Lucy Liu.”
Eng got one of her biggest breaks playing the week’s victim on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” The role required Eng to lie in the meat packing district in a skirt and bra.
“People kept bringing me tea, and [stars] Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni kept coming by,” she says.
Being an extra might not mean instant stardom, but for Eng it makes good sense–and earns her decent money. SAG members must earn a certain sum from acting each year to qualify for health benefits, and extra work helps qualify her for that coverage. Being an extra also provides good networking opportunities.
There are, however, some drawbacks. Most shows won’t audition actors for principal roles if they’ve been recently featured as an extra on that show, because they don’t want audiences to recognize them. Eng had to give up a possible role on “Sex and the City” because she’d been in the “City” background recently.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Victoria Rodriguez (vrodriguez@tribune.com)
