In Namibia, Mad Max: Fury Road has been shooting since July. 50 young men ages 16-18 were selected as extra and given contracts that last until November. Many of the extras have been working since April, learning shadow-fighting and drama. They were paid between US $12-60 a day for their efforts. Although it was promised that most of the work for the extras would occur during the May school break, in actuality, the filming has been scheduled at odd hours, seemingly whenever the production team wants.
Some of the extras have been getting called in as early as 6:00 a.m., without any warning. The extras seem to be called randomly, and there is no real schedule for their work. They work extremely long days and have been attempting to juggle the work with their second term exams. Although exam results have yet to come back, they will show if the acting work has taken a toll on the students’ educations.
Although school officials did not like the idea of students working such a demanding job, they ultimately had to leave the decision up to the parents. As one parent said in The Namibian, “School comes first. This international film company probably thought Namibia is a poor third-world country that does not know better, but they are wrong.”
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