warm prop

English

Noun

warm prop (plural warm props)

1. (informal, derogatory) An extra (type of actor).
   • 1976, Wayne Thiebaud, Phoenix Art Museum, Wayne Thiebaud: Survey 1947-1976, page 16:

     Outside the editing room he whiled away the closing hours of the War as a volunteer extra, a warm prop in dreary military documentaries.

   • 2017, R. J. Brideson, Blind Spots, page 166:

     They most often create work that features male hero talent and cast, while tending to use women as 'warm props', smiling ornaments exhilarated by the supermarket's offerings but without actually getting a speaking part.