S'porean man, 43, has appeared 60 times as an extra in shows & movies like 'Bridgerton' & 'Doctor Strange'

Netflix's latest season of "Bridgerton" recently dropped to much fanfare.

Clandestine romances, steamy drama, and the flair and pomp of regency-era shenanigans take centre stage, but what you might not know is that a Singaporean actor is part of its lavishly dressed cast.

It's a fair oversight. Eugene Lin appears not in a starring role, but as a vague figure of a footman in the back.

This five-second clip is just one of multiple minor appearances the 43-year-old makes throughout the show as a royal footman.

An actor and model, Lin has an Instagram page dedicated to his cameos.

Of which there are many.

Over the past six years, Lin has made over 60 appearances in different movies and TV shows.

These include major feature films like "The Batman", "The Fantastic Four: First Steps", "Wicked: For Good", "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness", "Star Wars: Andor" and "The Crown".

12-hour shoots

As a seasoned "extra", Lin is no stranger to the invisible grind that goes behind the brief few seconds in which he and the other extras appear onscreen.

"Let me drop a truth bomb for you," Lin says emphatically over a Zoom call from London, where he's lived since 2003.

The fancy balls you see in "Bridgerton", he revealed, actually take a minimum of 12 hours to shoot, three to five days a week.

During that period, actors have to remain in their stuffy costumes, wig and headpiece included, even during lunches and breaks, regardless of the weather.

"[The wig is] glued to your head the whole time," he describes:

"My footman jacket alone, this gold one, is about eight to 10 kilos.

It's really heavy and thick. It's beautiful, but it is painful."

Anticipation

What's potentially tougher than the gruelling shoots is the tense anticipation of watching the final product.

As an extra, the time he puts in isn't proportionate to how long he appears on screen.

One ball scene in season two of Bridgerton involved a five-day shoot that ended up being cut to a two-and-a-half-minute clip in the show.

And yet, even these short scenes don't always make it through.

Lin got the chance to play a U.S. military officer in the 2021 feature film "Black Widow".

In the finale, he was able to get up close and personal with Scarlett Johansson in a scene where he had to open the door for her.

But when the movie eventually came out, Lin awaited that one scene with bated breath — only to find out he'd been cut out of the frame almost completely.

All that remained was his shoulder. "Gutting" is how he describes the feeling of the scene being axed in an Instagram post.

This, Lin says, was when he learnt that "you can't expect that you'll actually be in the shot for anything".

"It was quite sad, but it is what it is," Lin says.

60 appearances

Lin first moved to the UK in 2003 to pursue a degree in fashion design at the University of the Arts London.

This was despite getting a placement in Law at the National University of Singapore. Candidly and jovially, he recounts the decision he made to his mother:

"I told her, f*ck, no, I'm not doing this. I've got a place in Central Saint Martins to do fashion, you know, where people like [Alexander] McQueen and Stella McCartney graduated.

Why would I not do that?"

He didn't end up staying. After 10 years working in fashion following his graduation, Lin decided to leave the "toxic" industry in 2017.

In the following period of funemployment, a friend suggested that he appear as a a "passerby" in a TV show.

This kicked off Lin's acting career, and he went on to take up a second gig as a U.S. Marine in "The Old Guard", starring Charlize Theron.

Since then, he's made small appearances in an impressive 23 movies and 37 TV shows, not counting other commercials and promos.

As for the roles he's taken on: Security Man 1, VIP Funeral Mourner, Construction Worker, Armed Police, Imperial Officer, and more.

Most of Lin's roles have been without lines, but in his latest gig, Lin snagged the role of a security officer in the movie "Wildcat".

In the brief few seconds he appears, he shouts into his earpiece, "I need back up!" before getting shot in the leg.

"It has taken seven years to be given the chance to audition and book my first speaking role," Lin wrote in an Instagram post.

Escapism

Although it might seem like he's had plenty of projects to show for the past five years, Lin admits that these are merely the few times he's made it through the screenings.

Between 2024 and 2025, he mailed out 118 self-tapes. Of these, he only managed to book six jobs.

It's certainly not enough to pay the bills, and in between acting, he has to hustle at events jobs or modelling gigs to sustain himself.

He describes these jobs as "not that glamorous", especially when "you're not at the top of the food chain".

"That's the hard part, [when] you're in between gigs... [It] makes you question your sanity."

"Mundane" is how he paints his life outside of acting.

Work, gym, look for the next job or side hustle, respond to tape requests, repeat.

"What is it about acting you enjoy so much?" I ask. Thus far, none of the roles he's taken on even has a name.

"It's the thrill of not being you," he answers readily, laying out his vision of escapism.

"It feels like you've just gone on a short holiday, and [then you] come back to your reality."

Luck of the draw

Lin's still trying his best to make acting a "full-time thing".

He does recognise though, that at the moment, he is far from his big break.

Luck, he believes, is one of the main factors holding him back.

Time and place matter when it comes to auditions and roles, Lin tells me.

He recounts how he was able to be a stand-in (someone who is a substitute for an actor for lighting checks and the like on set, as I later find out through Google) for eight months for Benedict Wong on Netflix's "Three Body Problem".

"That was amazing... He's lovely," Lin says.

However, he wasn't able to continue the role for the show's second and third seasons, as filming took place outside of London.

Another stumbling block is the lack of Asian, in particular Southeast and East Asian, representation in films and TV.

"The very sad fact of the matter is there just aren't that many speaking roles for east Asians generally in Western media," Lin opined.

Therefore, every role he manages to clinch, he cherishes and holds close to his heart.

Lin recounts one moment where he was doing signing at a small Star Wars convention outside of London, when an elderly Indian man came up to his stand and asked for his autograph.

"He said, 'I came specifically for you, not the biggest stars'. And I'm like, why would you do that? Are you bored or something?" Lin jokes.

Baffled at the man's interest in him, he found out that the man had seen his name on the roster of "Star Wars: Andor".

He recalls the man saying: "This is the first East Asian ever [on the show], and I felt so proud that an Asian's on screen."

Surreal feeling

Truth be told, I only found out about Lin's involvement in "Bridgerton" after he commented on a recent Mothership news article.

As an extra, he doesn't even get his name on the list of credits. He tells us about when the episodes were finally released, how he scanned the screen, and his eyes caught on his own blurry countenance.

"I had to wait like everyone else to watch 'Bridgerton', and then when it comes out, and then you see you make the final cut, you're like, oh my god."

Lin's family doesn't seem to approve of his unconventional career choice. They believe that he should "get a real f*cking job", he says.

But this is as real as it gets for Lin.

"Some days you just pinch yourself. You're like, I actually do this crazy sh*t for a living that no amount of money can buy."

And so the cycle repeats.

Lin's life is defined by these peaks — being on set and moments where he catches glimpses of himself on screen — and troughs — when he's between acting gigs.

He has no backup plan if acting doesn't pan out. With an unexpectedly laissez-faire attitude, Lin says:

"I may or may not get my break, may or may not ever be rich, but you know, I've done some incredible, incredible things, and I still get the chance to do that...

Life is so short, and if I'm going to go out, I'm going to go out when the wheels go off."

Top photo from its_eugene_lin/IG