Ramos Praises Yellowstone TV Show for Helping Missoula's Economy

The wildly popular Yellowstone TV show just aired its season four finale and a familiar face made it on the big screen. Former Missoula City Councilor Jesse Ramos was cast as an extra and he explained why he threw his hat in the ring to be an extra on the show.

“A couple people that were on the show as extras told me that I should sign up as an extra just to see how the operation was going, how many people were employed, and to get an idea of the industry and the benefits that the filming of Yellowstone brought to Missoula,” Ramos said. “I just singed up like everyone else to be an extra. How I got in such a featured scene, I will never know. I think it was just dumb luck and it might have even been an accident.”

According to Ramos, a professional extra from Chicago and another from New York were in the scene with him.

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“I think they might have accidently switched me with the other professional extra who wasn’t in the shot at all and that is how I ended up being there,” Ramos said. “When I watched the show with my wife, we couldn’t stop laughing because I didn’t think those were Oscar winning facial expressions, but apparently they wanted to feature them. It was hilarious and a really cool experience.”

Ramos said he was impressed with how many extras Yellowstone employed and how much money was brought to Missoula.

“I know that when they did the scene in Ruby’s Café, they broke a window nine or ten times,” Ramos said. “A local glass shop got to come and fix that window. Ruby’s obviously got a fairly substantial rent check. It was a great experience and I was glad they were able to come here and pump so much money into the economy at a time when we needed it the most.”

Ramos was an extra that had more responsibilities than most, but he said he got paid the same as everyone else.

“It was kind of funny,” Ramos said. “I got paid the same as any other extra even though I had to go back and forth with the actors in every scene. I had to walk in and out. I even had a couple of things that I said, but those got cut out. At the end of the day I made $187.50, just like all the other 50 to 60 extras that were there that day. I don’t know what the hourly rate was, but I know after taxes and everything it was $187.50. I am a professional paid actor.”

Ramos said his big scene was shot in the 3^rd floor of the Missoula County Courthouse and that Yellowstone production paid Missoula County a few thousand dollars to use that facility for the day.