The Day An Extra Quit Jaws

Being an extra in Jaws sounds like everyone’s idea of a great time, right?  Well not for one extra who decided he had enough by lunchtime.  John Alley was cast as one of many fishermen who was supposedly eager to get their hands on the great white shark. The day didn’t start well for the extra, John Alley.

“I was assigned the role of a not too terribly bright fisherman with a pole big enough to catch a trout - supposedly to catch the shark.  Well I was unhappy with the job from the get-go.  It was cold, wet, miserable day and the [filmmakers] had given everybody ponchos to wear under their clothes because of the rain.  But I didn’t get one because they had run out by the time I got there and you couldn’t wear a jacket as it was supposed to take place in July.”

John explains that a lot of the extras were freezing that day as they had dressed for a summer day.  He also remembers that the extras had to look like “scrubby fishermen-types” recalling that one extra was deemed to be too clean so got sprayed with a can of dirt.

“I was wearing suspenders (braces) and the filthiest pair of blue jeans I owned.” 

Accompanying the attire was some rather large rubber boots and it is these boots that got John in trouble with the lead for that scene, Roy Scheider.

“The first shot I did was walking down the dock ahead of Roy Scheider and Jeffrey Kramer.  I’m wearing these enormous rubber boots and was supposed to hop into a ridiculous little ten-foot dinghy while the actors were talking.  Somewhere after take five I unintentionally stepped on Roy Scheider’s foot.  They hollered ‘CUT!’ and Scheider said ‘For Christsake, watch where you’re going!’  By take fifteen I was cold, wet and getting pretty tired of it.  They told me they planned on doing a lot more takes, and that I’d probably have to stick around all day.”

Now, as someone who has done extras work myself, one thing you plan for is the whole day, if not more will be mainly waiting around a lot or going over and over the same scene.  You get paid for a long day's work of mainly doing nothing but generally you do get fed.  One thing you must not do is interact with the cast and definitely not have fun on the set at the expense of a take.  Our Jaws extra, John Alley obviously didn’t get the memo that day.

The next scene after lunch for John involved Richard Dreyfuss steering his boat into the dock from Woods Hole.  By this time, John was feeling tired of the whole filmmaking process so decided to have a laugh.  He noticed that Richard had no idea about boats and spotted his chance to have a bit of fun.

“As the boat pulled up to the dock, I said ‘A little more to the left’, and he ran right  into a spile.  So they had to back it up and start over.  For the next one, I’d tell him to go a little to the right, and he’d run into the dock again.  We did that about five times, and the last take was the one they used in the movie, which was simply the boat stationed at the dock and Dreyfuss behind the wheel.  I supposed they would have thrown me off the set, but no one but the guy steering could hear me.  Besides, if anyone had questioned me, I could have said ‘I didn’t mean that far left!’

Another mishap that happened to John was he lost his prop.  A flimsy fishing rod that he lost because his hands were so cold.  He dropped it and it fell through an opening on the docks.  At the start of the day all extras were warned that if you break the prop or lose it then they will dock them a day’s pay.  Well, John was miserable anyway at that point so decided to take another extra’s prop that was lying around.  

The final straw for John was that his hands were so cold that when he decided to warm them on a huge key light, he burnt his hands.  That was it for John!  

“That was the final straw.  I quit.  The next morning Barbara Bass called me at the store and said ‘John, you’re expected on the set.’  I said ‘don’t hold your breath, lady, ‘cause I ain’t comin’ back down there.  You’re not paying me enough money, and it’s a boring pain-in-the-ass-job.  The work is cold and miserable, and I’m not one for running around all day pretending.  I’ve got a store to run.’”

I suspect that if John had turned up then we would probably be writing about the day an extra was thrown off the set.

Story and quotes from the excellent, JAWS: Memories From Martha’s Vineyard.  You can find out more about John Alley in this wonderful article from Martha’s Vineyard Magazine.

By Rob Wainfur

Rob is a Welsh guy who runs the website, The Bearded Trio.  You can find him on Twitter @welshslider.