Olga Simon turned to the movie industry just two years ago. An ethnic Russian from Kazakhstan, based in Budapest since 1998, Simon has 30-plus years of professional interpreting experience at “pretty high levels.” This meant working mostly for Russian and American clients, including organizations such as U.S. AID. But after 2022, such work began drying up, with little sign of it improving in the immediate future.
“Even though I do not want to work 40 hours a week anymore, it is nice to sometimes keep busy. Money is not really a factor here because what an extra makes after a 12-hour shooting day used to be my hourly rate,” she tells the Budapest Business Journal.
The job itself is “entertainment” and a way to develop her artistic skills, “If I have any,” she laughs, adding, “I look at acting as a very badly paid hobby.”
Since 2024, Simon has shared the set with actors Russel Crowe in the film “Nuremberg” (released last September and based on the post-World War II war trials of leading Nazis), and Keanu Reeves in “The Entertainment System is Down” (a satirical black comedy set for release this year).
Having played a refugee in “Nuremberg” and an aristocrat at the Vienna court in “The Vienna Game,” she finds special pleasure in “living through the life of a different person who lived in different times.”
Simon is one of thousands of students, pensioners and even visitors on short stays who have taken the chance to work in the movie industry as it has boomed in Hungary since successive governments began offering tax rebates on production costs to attract productions, starting in 2004.
Gábor Tárnok, a Hungarian currently studying for his master’s in philosophy, opted for the role as an extra at about the same time as Simon and hit the jackpot right away.
“My first job was in ‘The Entertainment System is Down’. It was my dream job, really amazing people, and we were shooting for something like five months,” he says.
Since he also won a speaking part, it was also “amazing pay,” though he declines to reveal details, citing non-disclosure agreements. (The standard rate for a simple background extra is HUF 20,000 a day. “It was much more worthwhile [than that],” Tárnok hints.)
For the student, however, one of the biggest draws to extra jobs is the flexibility of working when time suits.
“You can live your own life and do extra work next to it,” he says. The group on set also plays an important role.
“Being an extra is kind of like having a vacation sometimes. There can be quite a nice community, because there are a lot of students and others at work. Sometimes you are not even asked to go on the set; you can just be talking all day, make connections, just relaxing in some absurd clothing that you have to wear for the set. I’ve got friends from all around the world just from meeting extras in movies,” he says.
There are, of course, downsides, not least the long hours, especially on night shoots.
“It can get really bad, for example, doing a night job, and you are shooting, like 15 hours a day, in really uncomfortable conditions. And you sometimes have to wear big, thick coats and do a winter movie during the summer. I’ve done that,” Tárnok recalls with a grimace.
Dean Smith, originally from Great Yarmouth, on the English east coast, but now based in Budapest with his Hungarian wife, turned to extra work in 2022. A barman in his day job, he rattles off a checklist of stars, including Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh with whom he’s shared a set. Like Tárnok, Smith revels in the life of the shoot.
“I just love the atmosphere; it’s amazing. Just to work in the movie industry. It’s meeting so many different people, different cultures, and we all bond together, and we have a good laugh,” he says.
Smith is another who found work on “The Entertainment System is Down,” and says actor Keanu Reeves is an impressive personality. “As a main actor, he’s just normal. He’s not like, ‘OK, I’m rich.’ So, he stands out to me,” he says. However, like almost every extra, Smith rues the long hours and time spent idle.
“Hanging around? That’s an extra’s life. You know, it’s tiring sometimes. On [the television film series episode] ‘Dune Prophecy: The Hidden Hand,’ shot in 2024, I worked 18 hours on one shoot,” he says. While there was additional pay for work well into the night, there was no warning for those on the shoot beforehand.
“There were 700 people on the set. It was very hard on some to get home,” he recalls.
Then there is the issue of mobile phones. Unlike the days of celluloid film, when many a director would allow an extra to shoot the odd photo on set, the advent of digital photography via the ubiquitous cell phone, the efforts of some fans to get selfies with a star, and the instant and uncontrolled transmission of images around the globe worry many a movie producer fearing negative publicity.
In “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t,” some of which was filmed in Budapest last year, phones were a strict no-no. “There were no phones allowed on set. We had them put in a box,” Smith says. Though conditions vary, it’s a common prohibition, Tárnok concurs.
And what of the future? In the second half of 2025, the Hungarian film industry suffered a downturn after a bout of uncertainty brought on by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on foreign film imports and a block on Hungarian tax rebates imposed after the funding ceiling was hit.
Tárnok, currently facing university exams, is not seeking work, and Smith had nothing on the immediate horizon at the time of his interview. Simon, however, is hopeful:
“Currently, I am lined up to go to casting for a Korean movie. Wish me luck!” she says.
Budding extras should register with casting agencies in Budapest, easily found via an internet search, to learn of potential work on film shoots. Agencies usually allow extras to register with competitors.
As Simon puts it, “I am registered with Karakter Casting and with pretty much every agency that exists in Budapest. There is no conflict of interest as long as you do not sign up with two different agencies for two different films on the same day. Everyone understands that this is a freelance business.”
The BBJ would like to thank Zoom Casting and Karakter Casting for making contact with Dean Smith and Olga Simon, respectively, for this story.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of January 16, 2026.
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