What are smartphones stealing from us? When mine was taken away, I found out | Alexander Hurst

A Hollywood comedy-thriller with an all-star cast and a wacky plot was looking for extras.

Being an extra often involves a lot of waiting: you’re technically on set, but not in every scene.

A movie set, on the other hand, is largely still a phone-free space.

It was gloriously old school. A glimpse into what life must have been like before everyone’s head was inclined forward.

The process of bringing the world to life on screen brought us to life in a way that we normally avoid.

There’s an irony here that playing roles in a faked representation of the world brought us, for a time, back to what is most real.

Whether I make it into the final cuts or not, for that alone, the early morning wake-ups and the sometimes interminable waiting were far more than worth it.