warm prop

plural warm props

1. derogatoryinformalAn extra (type of actor).

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

   1976, Wayne Thiebaud, Phoenix Art Museum, Wayne Thiebaud: Survey 1947-1976, page 16

   1 more example

   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.

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