Yesterday was a very good day. In the 6 months or so since I jacked in my day job and started this whole process of becoming a full-time arty farty type, I’ve made some fun indie films, spent two days in Albany shooting a crazy independent TV show and sleeping on the floor of the director’s house, sat in countless boring offices answering the phone for investment bankers and submitted god knows how many headshots and resumes for films. Yesterday, it felt like I was taking a good-sized step up the ladder.

I’ve been trying to get into background work since January – I’m registered with most agencies and submitted for plenty of calls. The only bite I got was on a day that I couldn’t work. However, after really determining to make a breakthrough with my career this week, I got a call out of the blue from the lovely folks at Grant Wifley Casting, calling me in for a day on Curb Your Enthusiasm which is filming in New York at the moment. I was super psyched to get on this show, which I find incredibly painful to watch but also hysterically funny.

After managing to get to a great audition in the morning (hurrah for a late call time) that also went extremely well, I got to set and after the usual waiting around was taken, with 250 or so other background, to the Lyceum Theatre on 46th Street where they were filming this scene. I was pretty surprised (and excited) to see Ricky Gervais up on stage, obviously rehearsing for the scene! This day is getting even better, I thought to myself.

The AD then scans the crowd and picks me out to come and sit where they are setting up all the cameras. Brilliant, I think. I’ll actually get a bit of screen time. I then realise they are keeping the three seats directly behind me empty, because those are the seats for Larry David, Susie Essman and Jeff Garlin.

Oh. Hell. Yes.

I spent the next four hours being annoyed at the three of them as they argued over which seat they were sitting in, and got to actually glare at Larry David as he bumped my seat switching places. Featured background credit? Oh, I think so.

The day was topped off by watching Ricky cackle his way through his takes, playing a pretentious version of himself as a Broadway actor, making Ruthie Henshall laugh (she was his co-star in the ‘play’) and thinking that it was the best day to have been called to set if you were English. To cap it all off, we wrapped two hours early so I was home by 10pm.

And that, dear readers, is a day that will never likely happen again. Most of the time background work is deathly dull, tiring and uncomfortable. I got paid to spend the evening acting with Larry David and Ricky Gervais, in an air-conditioned theatre sitting in a cushioned seat. Ah, the good life.