When Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas showed up on Brighton Beach Avenue last year to film of a scene from the upcoming movie “The Code,” set directors set up a pair of chess-playing men and a Russian pastry stand to lend the scene authentic atmosphere.

Local residents gathered to watch the celebrities play tough guys on their turf. A 16-year-old student from nearby Grady High School laughed at the effort to recreate Little Odessa within Little Odessa. And he could guess at the plot, knowing nothing about the movie.

“Why would you film a movie in Brighton Beach unless it’s about the Russian mob?” he asked.

He was right. “The Code” is about a thief (Freeman) who recruits a younger crook (Banderas) for one last score in order to pay a debt owed to members of the Russian underworld. To film the street scene, the casting agent recruited extras from the neighborhood, looking for people with “European features.” The film is the latest in a run of crime dramas that portray Brighton Beach, and its predominantly Russian population, as a seedy underworld locale. But many residents welcome the business, at the expense of their popular reputation, because it pays well.

Lev Leybov, was working as an ethnic extra on the set of “Fighting,” an upcoming film starring Terence Howard, when he heard that “The Code” was also looking for Russians. Leybov is one of thousands of part-time New York actors who collect paychecks for making short appearance

Viggo Mortensen as Russian gangster Nikolai, in the film Eastern Promises.

_s in major motion pictures. He said the standard pay was $160 for a four-hour block of time. He can make an additional $60 to $100 per hour if the shoot goes into overtime. After several days on set, he can bring home several hundred dollars.

The money eases the consciences of those concerned with the reputation of Brighton and its Russian residents. Pat Singer, founder and director of the Brighton Neighborhood Association, works with casting agencies in finding extras. She places a higher priority on finding 30 to 40 people a paycheck than on worrying about negative publicity.

“We got dozens of people involved in Lord of War,” Singer said, referring to a 2005 movie about a gun-running protagonist and his brother, sons of a Russian immigrant family, who get their start when they first buy a set of Uzi machine-guns at a synagogue in Brighton Beach. “We don’t like that the movies portray Russian mobsters. Yes, there are mobsters out there, but you can’t generalize the whole population.”

Both Singer and the neighborhood have come a long way. In the 1970′s, when Brighton Beach was in economic decline, she led a fight to restore the area. Singer heard that a movie was being made called “Brighton Beach,” about thugs who terrorize elderly residents. Worried about the negative publicity, she petitioned the producers to change the name. When the movie came out, in 1979, it was called “Boardwalk.”

“We were trying to make the neighborhood livable,” Singer said. “But you know, the film was pretty accurate. Things were bad, back then.”

Now that Brighton Beach has experienced a revival and renewed economic prosperity, Singer and the residents are less concerned with fictional, criminal image.

In the filming the movie “Fighting,” Lev Leybov and Alexandre Slaugotnis were cast as part of a ringside crowd at an underground boxing match, where a Russian fighter goes up against the film’s protagonist.

“We were supposed to yell ‘go!’ and ‘punch him!’ and ‘sgeloy’,” said Leybov, thrusting his fists in the air. The last word is Russian, meaning ‘do him,’ or ‘kill him.’

“I laugh when I see movies about the Russian mob,” said Slaugotnis. “They play buffoons. They have no understanding of character. They only know stereotypes.” Slaugotnis is a professional performer, a ‘clown’ in the classic European tradition, and he said he knows a fool when he sees one.

Using an ethnic stereotype goes a long way in film, especially crime drama. Film critics allege that movie makers too easily rely on their audience’s prejudices to fill in the gaps in character and motive, playing off their imagination of what “those people” are like, letting the audience do their work. If a character is meant to be effete, casting him or her with a British accent may help the portrayal. If a character is meant to be poor or middle class, a Southern drawl or Brooklyn inflection helps achieve the effect. When it comes to crime, a dominant culture easily accepts malfeasance when done by “the other,” any visibly distinct outsider.

Karen Etcoff owns the casting agency that put out the call for “Fighting.” Casting extras is primarily about “their look,” she says. It’s an industry unlike many others, one where employers may discriminate based on ethnicity.

“They can’t be just anybody,” Etcoff said. “We look closely at people’s faces. We need Russian-looking people for some scenes, Spanish people for another,” Etcoff said. Plenty of crime dramas require specific ethnic background, she explained: “Every ethnicity has its own mafia.”

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