May 16, 2005--UNION extras upset by smoky fires on the Yonkers set of Freedomland staged a sit-down Thursday night that disrupted filming of the Samuel L. Jackson/Julianne Moore movie reportedly for nearly an hour.

The "background performers," who are members of the Screen Actors Guild, demanded extra pay before they would continue filming a riot scene in the nearly abandoned Mulford Gardens housing project, which is slated for the wrecking ball.

"SAG rules say the actors are supposed to get paid extra for hazardous conditions," said one extra. "Steam is okay, technical smoke is okay, but you can't burn cardboard boxes. The smoke is toxic."

The union extras-—who were playing cops, reporters and rioters-—refused to work unless they were paid more. The job action didn't end until a production manager gave an impassioned speech.

"He threatened us," said another extra. "He said, 'We'll never bring any more movies to New York if you hold up shooting here. We'll let everyone in California know about this.'"

Along with the stick came a carrot. "They compromised and said they would pay us," the extra said, "and then turned around and canned us. We finished that night's shooting, and then everyone who had complained was told not to come back. We're blacklisted."

Freedomland is based on the brilliant book by Richard Price, which was inspired by the case of Susan Smith, who drowned her five children and told police they'd been kidnapped by a black man. Jackson plays a police detective who is helped by a newspaper reporter, played by Edie Falco. Moore is the homicidal mother. The movie is being directed by Joe Roth and produced by Scott Rudin.

A Freedomland spokeswoman said shooting was disrupted for no more than five minutes and denied rules were broken.

"We're a union shop. If there are grievances, there are ways to resolve them," she said.

The spokeswoman also denied anyone had been fired: "We had 275 extras on Thursday night. We needed only 175 on Friday night."

The pampered extras also complained that they were cheated out of their "meal penalties" (overtime for missed meal breaks) and that they weren't provided with enough toilets and a space to wait between scenes separate from the non-union extras.

"They've been breaking every rule in the book. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with it," groused one extra, who said he was fired.