The Audition.
/Auditions.
They are the hardest things you’ll ever have to do in your career.
Why go to the audition.
Going to an audition without doubt or hesitation is good.
However, before you go, it’s not bad to ask yourself, “Do I want to go to this audition?” You should consider both yes and no as possible answers.
Looking at the facts might help you clarify the yes answer.
- It’s an opportunity to get a role.
- It’s your job.
- Casting, producers, and directors will remember your audition.
- It fulfills your agreement with your agent.
- They can consider you for another role.
- It keeps you part of the industry.
- It gives you contact with your peers.
- It can give you creative satisfaction and keep you in flow with your artistry.
The no answer is all you really have as an actor. The state of the industry has you in a difficult position to say no. Sometimes saying no can put you in conflict with the producers, agents, and casting directors.
Projects that are racist, sexist, anti-human, pornographic, dangerous, etc. are ones you might say no to.
Taking a stand based on your conscience is something to be proud of and puts you alongside all the actors who’ve said no before.
Having a clear head as to why you’re going to an audition helps you act better.
American accent.
You have to have it to work in American movies.
Years ago, in acting class, the actor/director Adam McDonald came up with this handy line for practising your American accent:
I’m sorry, but I think it’s about time you get out of the house right about now.
Vitamin C.
Is a popular vitamin these days.
When you take it, the body takes what it needs and gets rid of the rest.
You pee it out.
Does that remind you of breakdowns? So much information on them that it’s hard to take it all in. Especially the character breakdowns. Enough adjectives and adverbs to sink a ship. Impossible to fulfill.
What to do?
You can’t absorb all that. It’s a bit like taking 10,000 IUs of vitamin C.
Take from the breakdowns what serves you to play simply and truly.
And just pee the rest out.
Block your audition.
One way to give you confidence in an audition is to block it.
That can be said both for Zoom and in-person auditions.
Choose how you’re going to sit or stand as that is where you will be playing from. Whether you’re leaning forward or sitting back. It’s your base, it shows character, and it supports your work.
Being on an angle, instead of facing front, looks better in the frame as it gives texture and shape to the picture. It also allows you to work away while thinking and to come back when you’ve got your point — making movements that are recognizable and suit the frame.
Starting the scene is key. Choose whether you want to enter the frame (that gives you volition) or start on camera being involved with activity that gets interrupted by the other character (that gives you a transition). Doing “the moment before” work can give you an imaginary start rather than starting by just saying your first line.
Eyelines are important. For multiple-character scenes, choose different eyelines for each character or not. You don’t have to have different eyelines so the producers know that you know there are different characters. Set your eyelines so it helps you play.
Move your eyes under the lens when you look from one side to the other rather than “spiking” the lens by looking into it.
Looking close to the lens is the best place to play most scenes. Look just under the lens if typing on a computer or looking at something. We want to see your eyes, and we can’t see your eyes if you look straight down.
If you are driving a car in a scene, you don’t have to look directly to your right to a character sitting beside you. You can look to the other side of the lens and then return back to your side.
Use props if you want to, but it’s never necessary to show the producers that you read the script and know that props are indicated. If you want to use a prop, then setting where and how can be useful. Keep the prop in the frame when needed, and don’t let it cover your face.
For high status characters, you can keep your head symmetrical, not blink, and be still. Actors call it “jawline acting” because the firm jaw denotes strength.
If you are going to cough or pull at your ear as a character trait, do it early on in the scene. Around the second line. That sets your behaviour. Then do it again about halfway through and that will confirm that your character has this behaviour. Doing it too much can divert the viewer’s attention, and doing it only once looks like it’s you the actor coughing.
If your character is in a scene that’s big and emotional, then blink and move around as much as you need to. Play without care about the blocking but with care to the truth of the situation.
Blocking an audition does not mean every moment is set in stone, but using your conscious technique can release your unconscious creativity.
What to wear.
What you wear to an audition is important.
The acting is more important.
Try not to second-guess yourself or compare what you wore to what others wore.
Learn to make your decisions on hair, wardrobe, and makeup quickly and clearly. You’re auditioning for similar types of roles, so learn the colours and styles that suit your types.
Then you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time. Those decisions are made — now on to the acting.
Listen to professionals who say which colours suit you and pay attention to Hollywood’s iconic colours: grey T-shirt is the shirt of choice, TV likes blue, black is everywhere, etc. The colours change as fads change.
You only need one piece of clothing per type, and you can wear it over and over to auditions. Buy cheap versions of designer clothes.
You won’t get hired for wearing a real designer outfit.
You don’t want to be diverted worrying about what you’re wearing or if your hair looks good while you’re auditioning.
If your outfit makes you self-conscious — don’t wear it.
Like what you choose, so you’re relaxed.
The waiting room.
This is the most difficult place.
Try to take it up for solution. Think about it and develop tactics that can become your habits, so before your audition you’re in a good state.
Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean you need to. So, if there’s a lot of chatting going on, you don’t need to chat. If colleagues are there and want to catch up, you can say “Let’s talk after the audition.”
These small efforts really help you be in the best space possible prior to playing.
Always try to go with what you need on that day. Be particular. Which means one day you might be chatty.
The waiting room is like backstage in the theatre. It’s the working space prior to performing.
Treat it as such.
Socialize if you want to, listen to the gossip if you want to, but be careful. Try not to get diverted. Protect yourself.
Any working actor who doesn’t understand why you’re doing what you’re doing isn’t professional.
Before you go to the audition, visualize the room and what actors in your type may be there. Especially the actors, room, casting people you don’t like. You must make a plan to deal with them, so you don’t get dragged down.
It’s best when you feel unity with your fellow actors — all in battle — and can draw succour from that.
It’s best when we “help the producers make their show.”
It’s best when we’re at one with the system and its parts.
That’s best.
But . . .
At some auditions, we need to protect ourselves and hold up the hand when someone comes over to talk.
Audition room.
You enter the audition room and are greeted by the person behind the camera saying, “Stand on the mark.”
Try not to get diverted and take that greeting literally by putting each foot equally on either side of the T.
The translation of their greeting is “Hello.”
Obviously, you are going to stand on the T, or near it, behind it, to the left of it. However you have prepped the beginning of the scene.
See if locking your feet equally on either side of the T is taking energy away from playing the scene simply and truthfully as yourself.
Clarifying moments like this adds up.
And doing as you’re told won’t guarantee you a job in the movies.
The reader.
“If only the reader would play the scene with me better, I’d do better auditions!”
A reader is there to facilitate the audition. They aren’t there to play the scene with you.
Scene partners are your fellow actors in plays or on set. And they’re the actors you practise with in class.
The best readers will make sense of what they say, say it lightly and fairly quickly.
They lift up the scene for you to take and do with what you will. They give it to you.
But they aren’t and shouldn’t be scene partners.
This needs to be learned, so one more false expectation is given up and one more piece of disappointment goes away.
Leaving a bit more space for your acting.
To the black wall.
Seeing a black wall at the end of your audition is deadly.
It’s best if your auditions are part of your ongoing work and life. With none of them ever being the be all or end all.
The continuity.
As with all your work, watch your visualization sharply and see what it looks like when you see your audition finishing. You should see yourself leaving the audition room and walking out into light rather than darkness. You should see your work and life continuing.
Not hitting a black wall.
See the end of your audition while doing your prep. What you see at the end is very important.
To like how you’re leaving the audition is as important as liking how you start because it sets you up for the next one.
Desperation is a horrible quality that can derail you. Take the auditions in your stride, put them in perspective, and see how you get stronger.
Putting you in good shape for the next audition.
“Get your 3 yr. old daughter to read.”
That’s what a top casting director said to me recently.
Or you could say, “You never get cast because of your backdrop and lighting.”
That’s true.
Lots of your auditions now are self-tapes and on Zoom and you’re usually doing them where you live.
Don’t get diverted trying to have a perfect “studio” setting. The showrunners and producers casting shows have a large quantity of actors to see in each category and they are scrolling on mobile phones or, at best, on a tablet.
Decisions are being made quickly using their own criteria. Lighting, backdrops, who is reading, etc. don’t come into play.
No need for you to feel overwhelmed having “ten pages to learn.”
Let them see who you are and what you are doing at the beginning.
If they consider you for the part, you might get a director’s Zoom audition or they may actually watch all of your self-tape.
You and your colleagues always do your best work. That will continue. For all the pages.
But as the audition pressures change — so you change.
. . . your 3 yr. old son could be a reader too.
“I think they liked it.”
When the audition ends and they stick up their thumbs and say “Good job, great, perfect,” it doesn’t mean you got the part.
It mostly just means “Thank you.”
An audition is only the middle with no beginning or end.
If there were a beginning, you and the director would have discussed the role, rehearsed it, and then, when it was polished, you’d film it. And the end would have been the two of you discussing the work, analyzing it, summarizing it.
That doesn’t happen.
All that happens in an audition is that you do the work in the middle. That’s the condition.
You prepare the audition on your own. Every actor does. That’s the beginning.
You summarize on your own. That’s the end.
If they said “Good job,” then you probably did do a good job. But don’t you do a good job every audition? You’re a professional, you’re prepared, and you have TV and movie experience.
Watch out that your desperation doesn’t have you grasping on to what they said. Learn to judge the quality of your work yourself.
Most of the factors in casting are out of your control, and you’re not privy to the discussions that decide casting.
What is in your control is your acting.
Keep getting better and better at that.
Audition feedback.
Asking your agent for feedback after an audition sounds like a good idea.
But does the feedback assist you, or does it make you self-conscious? Everyone may be doing it but does it help you? If it helps you, then great.
Before you ask for feedback, some questions are worth asking, such as: What is the process for getting the feedback to you, and under what conditions is the feedback being considered?
Just imagine if your agent asked a casting director for feedback only two days after your audition. The casting director may have seen fifty people that day in five categories and maybe the same again the next day. What can they remember and what can they say?
Don’t forget the pressure agents and casting directors are under. They’re busy doing their work.
Any comment that comes back to you from a casting director via the agent has enormous weight. It’s often critical and can, at times, be quite damaging to your confidence. A comment is sent to you and there is no discussion as to its meaning, and if it’s dire, then there you are left holding it. “He’s too theatrical!” It can stay on your mind for a long time.
Why not let the casting directors and agents do their work and you do yours?
Work on your craft with your acting coach in rooms where the critical discussion is full and does support your practice.
Asking for feedback might sound like a good idea — the reality might be something different.
Callback.
Do what you did in your first audition. Wear the same clothes.
Try not to overwork or overthink prior to the callback. You want to do well, but observe what diverts you from — and what keeps you from — the magic that you had in the first audition.
Usually the director will be there and sometimes producers. Go as you would go to a working session — like going to class. They’ll be giving you directions, so have your working-actor mind ready.
It’s a slightly different mindset than the audition one.
Getting a callback might not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Often, they bring in actors doing their first audition at the callback. Casting, directors, and producers want you there and for their own reasons. They’re not sure yet what they want — they’re looking for it.
Callbacks are positive, yes, but best if you can normalize them and not boast to give yourself validation. Even if everyone does it.
Producers’ sessions and multiple callbacks for series regular roles require strength and conviction. Come to terms with your conscience, so you’ll see the process to the end.
It’s hard work.
A callback is an audition that gets your hopes up.
Chemistry read.
You’ve done the first audition and the callback, and now they’ve asked you to come in for a chemistry read.
Does the term divert you?
So many terms in the movie business need to be translated. You can be caught off guard if you take them literally.
What does a chemistry read mean? Can you prepare differently for a chemistry read than for another audition? Is it adding to your pressure? Are you dispersing your energy trying to figure out how to make sure you have chemistry in the room? Is it confusing and mystifying?
You could say acting is making chemistry. The Oxford Dictionary’s definition of chemistry is “the complex emotional or psychological interaction between two people.”
Sounds like acting.
Your time in drama school, at auditions, and shooting movies has been spent doing just that.
Definitions are essential to being professional. Once you’ve clarified or translated the idea, then you’re free to fulfill it.
One thing you know is that the Hollywood publicity machine loves to talk about chemistry between actors. As if it’s special and different from good acting.
Has casting picked up the term from publicists, gossip columnists, and reviewers?
Sometimes you hit it off with your scene partner and sometimes you don’t. But you’re always professional, trying to play truthfully and fulfill the writing.
If you look right, have the right energy, and the right tone, then the producers will hire you. They might say afterwards, “Oh, the two of them had such good chemistry,” but they cast the actors that suit their taste.
After the audition, you could justifiably say, “We were two actors who knew how to connect to play the scene truthfully.”
Chemistry read. Sounds like Hollywood-speak.
Self-tapes.
You’re doing more self-tapes these days.
Many interesting points to consider while doing them.
Who you do the self-tape with is important. If it’s a friend or colleague, watch it doesn’t get soft and they start being coaches or directors. That will divert you.
Also, if it is in a casting studio, the same thing can happen with the reader/operator. You give them authority by asking them “what they think” because they are the only ones in the room. They’re used to being asked and are used to giving direction. Do you want it?
Learn to know your own work.
Don’t do too many takes. Usually where you’re at with the audition is where you’re at, and unless you’re an actor that really does improve after many takes, just do four or five.
More is not necessarily better.
It’s normal you’re a bit nervous for the first couple of takes but then you’ll drop in.
Watching the takes back is also something to consider. Do it if you want to, but as soon as you don’t like how you look or the sound of your voice — stop.
You’ll know which takes were good. There will be very little difference between take three, four, or five, so don’t beat yourself up by trying to pick “the best.”
Just because you’ve booked an hour doesn’t mean you have to work an hour.
The great thing about self-tapes is that you can choose where to do them, control the time, the amount of work, and channel the energy.
Homeopathy.
In homeopathy, one treats the main symptom first.
Do the same when you prep for auditions.
An actress with lots of theatre experience comes to me with a TV audition and says, “Geez, I’ve never been to a TV audition! I don’t know what to do.”
So I say, “Why don’t you go to the casting studio, look around, see the space, wait in the waiting room for a bit, and often a studio is open, so you could go in, stand on the mark, see the camera, and just experience it a bit.”
She does. Afterwards she tells me that it really calmed her down.
Allowing her to do her work.
Another actress blurts out, “I have an audition for the lead in a sitcom. I shit you not. Me an audition for the lead in a series? Whoa.”
I say, “My first point is to stop saying Whoa. You may not stop thinking it, but don’t say it out loud anymore because that will affect how you do the work. If you’re not going to read for the lead, who is?”
She has to deal with the idea of the lead before she can get to the audition itself.
The work.
Treat the main symptom first.
You’ll be one of the first to know.
You’ve done an audition and are dying to know if you got the part. Fair enough. It’s understandable — roles are damned hard to land.
So, you call your agent and ask if you got the part.
Good idea?
My agent once told me, “John, if you’re booked on a show, you’ll be one of the first to know.” Sound advice.
Watch that you don’t set yourself up for humiliation. Be professional and try to withstand the harsh winds of this business. Your agent has no idea if you’ve booked the job until casting calls and says so.
Then your agent will call you.
Desperation is easy to fall into. The very nature of show business gives rise to it.
Stay on the high road and know that your work is good, you have experience, and you’re ready, willing, and able to land a part.
Build your willpower to help resist urges that put you in a pit.
It takes too much energy to keep crawling out.
Eyelines in auditions.
You have multiple characters in your scenes for your audition.
What to do?
You never need to show the producers that you know there are multiple characters in the scene. That won’t help you get cast.
But you may want to sort your eyelines to help you play the scene. If so, look near one side of the lens — in a Zoom audition or in the studio — when speaking to the main character. Secondary characters can be on the other side.
Work in a triangle of about thirty degrees on either side of the lens. That way they can always see both of your eyes.
Practise crossing your look either above or below the lens. You don’t want to spike the camera — looking into the lens.
Be careful not to feel locked within that space. You can always move.
Often trying to place different characters in different places just diverts you from playing the situation. Your focus is on eyelines and not the acting.
If so — don’t do that. Play the scene looking close to the lens and leave it.
Big scenes — emotional or physical — should be played out fully and truthfully without attention to the eyelines. In those scenes you can be looking anywhere; you can have your back to the camera.
On set, eyelines are important and you should always ask if your eyeline is good.
In auditions, it’s up to you.
“My audition could have been better.”
The audition you do at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning is the best audition you can do at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
If you could have done better, you would have.
There’s no need to set yourself up for constant regret. You’re already in the business of auditioning and acting in movies and TV, so just keep going.
That’s the key — keep going.
If you want to summarize, critique, or analyze your audition — good.
The best way to do that is to pick one point to work on, not a dozen, which will only confuse you.
Thinking you could have done better also confuses your mind. What we really want is to get our mind clearer.
What is clear is that you prepared your scene and tried your best at that time, on that day.
Leaving the audition is as important as going in because it sets you up for the next one, so try to leave with a clear head.
Job done.
Go in, in character?
Don’t forget that casting directors have seen everything.
Enter the casting room how it best suits you: in character, or not.
Maybe you work best always “in character.” Then after the audition is finished, you break out of character and say “Thanks for bringing me in” and leave.
Fine.
Maybe you need to go in as “you,” say hello, suss out the room, hear what casting has to say, and then do the audition.
It depends on two parts. You, the subjective factor, and on the role, show, day, casting, etc.—the objective factor. You need to take both into account.
There aren’t any rules in acting, but there are lots of guidelines that you, in your practice, can use on any given day.
Which of your techniques or tricks will best serve you upon entering the room?
Today.
The audition room is your working space. It harkens back to the great amphitheatres in Greece. When in front of the camera, you are in your place of work. It’s where you act.
Enter it in character or out of character.
Either way, it won’t determine whether you get cast or not.
Without hope.
You have an audition and decide not to wear your glasses.
Then you think, “I’ll wear them during part of my slate.” OK, so far.
Now the key question is whether you are hoping they will see the glasses and think that’s the look they want and you’ll get booked.
Or you’ll wear them thinking it’s a bit cheeky and you like it and are happy to wear them and show you have glasses and are just content and happy to do it.
Without any desperate hope.
It’s best if your work develops on your own terms. That you take your position. With clarity and with lightness. Without reaching so far that you’re overextended.
Doing instead of hoping.
“If only I knew what they wanted.”
They don’t know what they want. That’s the TV rule.
Episodic television is very much about making it up as they go along. Searching for what works under time and money pressure.
The character description in the breakdowns is merely the first sketch of what — maybe — the showrunner would like. It’s in the ballpark, but it ain’t written in stone.
And sometimes it isn’t even in the ballpark. They get to a certain point and say, “No, we don’t need that character” or “We want the character to go in the opposite direction.”
You have to devise a plan, so you do your audition clear-headed and not confused.
If the character breakdown could lead you two different ways, it’s smart to prep both ways. You could say “I’ve got two choices here and I’d like to show them both to you,” or you could present one and then casting might redirect you to the other, but you won’t be caught off guard as you already took that choice into consideration.
You can send in both choices from a self-tape.
Try not to get distracted by trying to figure out exactly what they want.
Breakdowns are written either by the showrunner, a writer from the writers’ room, a junior writer, or casting. They can divert you in two ways:
- Adjectives. A list of adjectives that is impossible to fulfill.
- Activity. Telling what your character does. “The grandfather tells his daughter to follow her dreams.”
Neither assist you to figure out what your character wants and how they get it. Plus, it’s clear in the script that is what the grandfather is doing, so why write it in the breakdown?
What you can do — and are already doing — is learning what TV is, learning the icons, learning where you fit, learning how to suss out the genre and what your character’s job is.
That’s the main work — analyzing the scene. Then playing the situation as you.
The clues are there and you need to get better and better at recognizing them and recognizing them at speed. It’s like learning to see the clues Shakespeare put in his text that help guide the actors.
Tread carefully in using the character breakdowns as your only guide.
Crying over the injustice of you not being fully informed of exactly what the producers want is distracting, humiliating, and a waste of your time.
Although it is an injustice.
Kiss, kick, kill.
Your audition sides may call for you to kiss, kick, or kill.
What’s the best question to pose? Is it “How can I show that?” or is it “How can I use that?”
You never have to show the producers that you know what is written in a scene. You won’t get cast for doing that. If a tiger appears before you in the scene, you don’t have to make sure the producers know that you know it’s a tiger.
They want to see you afraid of the tiger.
What will assist your acting is finding out what happens to you before, during, and after the kiss, kick, or kill. How does it change your breathing? How you feel?
Don’t give up the opportunity to play those moments because they seem difficult to do.
For a kiss, you can close your eyes, you can move your mouth, you can put your arms around yourself — anything — if you want to.
Or you can do nothing, live through it truthfully and breathe.
Point is kiss, kick, and kill are great transitions to play.
Ask those good questions — Is it the first kiss, the last one, the kiss of death, kissing a baby, kissing a loved one goodbye, a mother’s kiss, etc.?
These activities don’t have to be mimed.
Holding a gun. No one will notice if you’re just pointing your finger as the gun.
Do it — point your finger. Hold your hand up to your ear as a phone.
All good.
You won’t look stupid because they will be watching you behave and the gun-hand will be peripheral.
If they’re looking at your gun-hand . . . well.
Learn to let these iconic activities serve you.
Knowing your lines.
No actor ever got cast in a movie because they recited their lines correctly.
You get cast in a movie if your acting is good enough and if you look and sound the way the producers and director want.
All actors learn their lines. It’s kind of the first thing we set out to do.
In an audition, the key is to show yourself doing something. Don’t get diverted by trying to remember lines during the audition.
You won’t be reprimanded for not knowing your lines; this isn’t school — it’s the movie business. The casting people will know you’re prepared by how you play the scene.
Carry your sides or don’t carry them; it doesn’t matter. You need to find what works for you. Don’t pay attention to any gossip you hear about casting directors “hating it” when an actor holds their sides.
Nonsense.
This isn’t a job interview; it’s an audition. Big difference.
If you have a large chunk of dialogue and are overwhelmed with “How am I ever going to learn this speech?” then flip it and say to yourself, “I’ll stay in the situation with the lines I know, play the scene, and when I come to the long speech, I’ll still stay in, but I’ll read it.” Bingo!
Weight off your mind, leaving your preparation to move ahead more freely.
If the idea and practice of memorizing a scene exactly allows you to play truthfully — then fine, do it.
Be smart in these auditions and set yourself up for success.
Someone you know, love, and trust.
Use this “like” when needed.
Playing to the lens in a commercial extolling a product, the question can come up: “Who am I talking to?” Picking a real person you know, love, and trust can assist you to make the pitch intimate.
Giving a speech in a crowded banquet scene gets more difficult when they come in for the close-up. Who are you talking to?
Pretending you love your scene partner can work — substituting a real loved one might make it more real.
The phrase also describes intimates.
Many movie characters who are intimate don’t have sex. Cops are intimate — they have each other’s backs; any partners on TV such as lawyers and doctors follow that dictum; U.S. Marines say they never leave a man behind; firefighters fulfill the phrase.
These TV procedural characters all know, love, and trust each other. It’s a key element of the trope.
Could be a useful phrase.
“Me or Character?”
It’s a question you may have asked.
It’s a complex question, much discussed and thought about.
A dialectical one.
The internet writes that a dialectical relationship is:
a relationship in which two phenomena or ideas mutually impact each other, leading to development and negation. Development refers to the change and motion of phenomena and ideas from less advanced to more advanced or from less complete to more complete.
You probably start referring to a new character in second person — “He does this,” “She does that.” Most actors start that way. You probably use I and me when talking about your work on the new character. “I’m struggling with this line.” Most actors do.
Then dialectics kicks in and a new — a third — develops from the two she and me into a new I. You, the actor and the written role, developed into this new I. A changed and more advanced identity.
Every role you play is a character. Every character you play is you.
The interrelation between those two aspects is complicated and depends on the project and your role. And how you like to work.
It’s constantly changing and developing.
Some TV shows are asking to see you, how you look, how you behave — fine. It’s still acting. You aren’t at home sitting on your couch; you’re on set in front of a camera. You’re a character in a story.
And some roles require limps, accents, wigs, coloured contact lenses, and lizard feet. We call these Character parts. But it’s still you playing the role, limping and sporting the wig.
Learn the genres to be a better actor, but don’t get bogged down trying to answer diverting questions.
How a question is posed is everything.
Slate this!
Many breakdowns today have complicated slate instructions.
Some of the demands are difficult to fulfill at home — even impossible.
You don’t want to make waves with your agent who is telling you that casting director so-and-so is picky about the slates, but you also need to focus on your acting.
Casting and agents have the closest working relationship.
Often, the breakdowns, shooting and slate instructions for self-tapes can divert you. Something you don’t want to happen when you’re trying to do your best at what you do — act. And prepare it in a short time.
At the end of the day, if the producers like what you did in the audition, they will hire you and the slate won’t make a difference one way or the other.
But you have to deal with your agent and they have to deal with casting.
It’s dicey.
“Slate your name and height.”
Audie Murphy was a movie star in the 1950s, and he was 1.65 metres tall or 5 foot 4.
Kiefer Sutherland is 1.75 metres tall or 5 foot 7. Lucy Liu: 5 foot 2; Rachel McAdams: 5 foot 3; Catherine Deneuve: 5 foot 5; Reese Witherspoon: 5 foot 1; and Tom Cruise: 5 foot 5.
On the other hand, Yaphet Kotto: 6 foot 2; Denzel Washington: 6 foot; Nicole Kidman: 5 foot 10; and Uma Thurman 5 foot 11.
Why are you asked to give your height while auditioning for a role in a movie? Why not your weight or your shoe size? Ask around and see what you find out. See what your agent says. Maybe ask a director or producer on set.
It certainly isn’t because tall people will sell more Coke, or short people more cars.
No, it’s because Hollywood wants the casting to be “height perfect.” So the lead actors look just right. So the show fulfills the Hollywood icons. So the viewer is never confused by the height of the characters, who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.
Or who is going to get the girl, is funny, or is saving America,
The more perfect the show, the more Coke will be sold.
So much of casting is based on how you look.
Alan Ladd was short and they used to dig a hole beside him for the other actor to stand in so Ladd looked taller.
Technical dialogue.
Learning technical dialogue can be difficult.
Legal, medical, military, scientific.
Try separating it from the playing part of the scene. Usually most of the scene is playable — then there’s the technical language, so you could lift it out, learn it separately, and then put it back in.
The playing part of the scene you can learn and the technical part memorize. You won’t get cast because you pronounced the terminology correctly — you get cast based on your acting. You won’t be examined on your knowledge of the terms. You have to act them believably.
Looking up the definition of the terms helps put things in context and makes learning the words easier.
Breaking the words down into parts may help. How many syllables? What is the root of the word — Greek, Latin? The prefixes, the suffixes. Do the words have similar endings such as -isms, -otic, -tional, -acti, etc.?
Look for the music of the words and the phrases. You can learn to sing it.
Find the correct syllable to be stressed. Google an audio link for pronunciation.
In an audition, you can read the technical language portion from the sides.
You know the situation — you play and play and then when it comes to the difficult text you lift up the sides and read it — then go back to playing and playing. This prevents you from getting diverted by worrying about the technical language.
Don’t try to act as if you know the terms cold when you don’t because you’ll probably stumble, speak too fast, and embarrass yourself.
Speaking the terms slower and enunciating more can help. It’s a way of keeping your mind in control over the difficult words and stops you from capitulating.
Visualizing an image you associate with the word can assist as the brain sees the image easier and can retrieve the word. The mental images you create act as reminders for the words in your memory.
Even regulars on shows find it difficult. Michaela Conlin, playing Angela Montenegro on Bones, said, “By the end of the season, our brains start to turn to mush and it becomes harder to remember everything.”
Putting all your energy in your socks.
When you prepare your audition, put your energy into the acting.
Under pressure you can wish that by dressing perfectly, you’ll get the part. And that includes — both literally and figuratively — your socks.
How you dress, your hair — it’s all important. Make the decisions based on the show and the scene and make them quickly and decisively.
You don’t want to be second-guessing what you wore or how you did your hair or comparing any of that to how the other actors dressed.
That only causes doubt.
Let how you look support your audition. You should like what you choose. That’s very important.
Avoid wearing something that you can’t support. An actress once went to an audition wearing a see-through dress and was so self-conscious she was trying to hide the whole time.
Put your energy into the playing of the situation.
Leave your socks inside your shoes.
Wall-to-wall dialogue.
That’s what they called it in the old days.
Maybe they still do.
An on-camera role in a commercial with lots of dialogue — that’s wall-to-wall dialogue. Lots usually means six to eight lines, which, compared to a movie or a play, isn’t much at all, but in a commercial it is.
Yes, sometimes there are more than eight lines.
Usually the text is extremely well-written, precise, and makes all the key points that the client wants to make.
But because the speech isn’t natural dialogue, it could trip you up.
A good method to learn the dialogue is to ask a made-up question before each line and then answer it with the written one.
Let’s take a car commercial, for example. If the first line is “Everybody wants freedom,” your possible question could be “What’s one thing that all people want?”
Make up the questions so you like them and answer the questions as if you’re speaking to someone you know, love, and trust.
The next line might be “It’s a rare automobile that responds to nature,” which is a big jump in thought from the first line. The writers are expressing the ideas that the car company thinks will help sell cars. Often the lines don’t seem to connect.
Asking the questions allows you to make your own truthful connection. A flowing series of questions and answers.
The question could be “Can any car take all kinds of weather?” which provokes the bridge thought “No, it’s a rare automobile that responds to nature.”
Although the speeches in commercials might not flow naturally and logically, you can always answer fresh to each line by setting yourself up with an inner monologue question.
Try it.
See if it assists you in speaking wall-to-wall dialogue.
On hold.
Your agent tells you you’re on hold.
Or they put a pin in you, you’re on the short list, you’re first choice, checking avails.
If you’re on hold, you’re working. You have plans that could include other work, family, health, holiday, or study. But your future is up in the air until you find out if you’re cast or not.
That uncertainty of being on hold — which also means postpone, defer, shelve, suspend, delay, adjourn, mothball — can make you anxious. You’ll be making plans to see how you might juggle what is confirmed and what may change if you’re cast.
That’s work.
Unpaid work. Unrecognized and unspoken work. You and your colleagues all burn up energy preparing for a change — often on short notice — and living in uncertainty and worry.
Those close to you worry too.
You might be worrying if you’ll remember the lines, especially if you’re booked on short notice. Getting put on hold might make you think, “Oh good, I did a good job.” Putting you on a high, but then not booking puts you down into a low.
A roller-coaster ride that you didn’t ask for.
Studios, producers, showrunners, casting, and agents don’t go on that ride. You do.
You’ll hear if you do book, but not if you don’t. You can call your agent and ask, but that’s not considered proper protocol. That doesn’t earn your agent any money — taking the time to find out if someone else has booked the job.
Casting doesn’t want to be asked that question from agents.
Producers definitely don’t want to answer that question from casting.
And so it goes.
It’s left to you to try to figure out what’s happening. When normal returns.
Will you ever get paid for that work? Maybe add it to the fee of your next job.
Some may describe this process as “the actor’s life,” but it’s interesting to see what a thing actually is.
Keep going.
While auditioning, you can keep going even if you drop lines.
Especially when you’re in it.
The struggle in the moment to find words to make your point can be gold. Not sure what to say — speak your inner monologue. That keeps you in.
You’ll soon find the written text.
Main thing is to keep playing the situation and your character.
Vapours.
At the end of the scene, don’t be in a hurry to end. You’ve created something, changed the space, channelled the energy, so let that vapour float you on for a time.
Like a white streak trailing behind a jet.
What you created is worth something. It’s what you smell when you sniff a well-cooked dish. Inhaling that feeds you for the next take, scene, or future work.
Breath it in.
Casting directors don’t like . . .
Try not to get sidetracked by rumours in actors’ bars about what certain casting directors like or don’t like.
Ignore stories such as “Never bring props into an audition,” “Don’t wear stripes,” “Don’t shake hands,” and other tales from the dark that tend to sit heavy on your actor’s head.
Actors do, and the industry wants you to do, what you do — act.
Casting directors have tremendous power over actors, so they can demand whatever they want, but at the end of the day they are happy when you give good audition.
That’s it.
Shaking hands or not shaking hands won’t get you a role in a TV series.
Meaning what you say, playing simply and truly, fulfilling the job that your role requires, looking and sounding right will.
You’re already a nice person; you’ll be on time; you’ll bring a pic and résumé (not even needed now); you’re prepared; and you’ll be gracious and professional.
Good enough.
Once they say “Rolling,” all they want to see is good acting.
From negative to positive.
Before the audition, an actor whispers, “Watch out, the casting director is in a bad mood.”
She might be. And if so, why?
It’s probably got nothing to do with you and everything to do with the high pressure of the movie business.
There are a hundred reasons why she might be in a bad mood — session’s running late, clients aren’t happy, she just lost a casting job, actors can’t grasp the genre, etc.
When you have the energy and have sussed out the room, sometimes you can change the tense atmosphere to a more relaxed one. You can ease the casting person’s anxiety by being sympathetic, understanding, and professional.
It’s as if you’re asking, “Can I help you?” Or as if you’re giving them a hug. You might say something like, “Boy, this movie business is tough on all of us, isn’t it?” You’ll feel a sigh of relief when the casting director says, “Geez, you’re right.”
You’ve now changed the energy in the room from negative to positive. The new atmosphere allows you to do better work.
This isn’t about sucking up so you get more auditions.
Locking horns with casting because they’re in a bad mood will get you nowhere. And it won’t help your acting. But you can’t ignore it, so some days you just have to take it — knowing it isn’t about you.
But on your best days, you can flip it — negative to positive — creating a better working atmosphere for everyone in the room.
It takes thought, practice, skill, and genuine empathy.
An actor writes . . .
Stumbled upon a thought — an insight, for me.
I’ve heard the phrase “approach an audition” many times before, i.e., “how do you approach an audition.”
Over the last year, I’ve been taking an easier approach to auditions, not really forcing anything. Just observing it, approaching it quietly, talking to it, letting it come to me.
Some are more skittish; some are friendly and just run up to say hi.
It’s been working for me, so I’ve continued doing it this way, and now I feel almost like a wrangler, or a hunter, or perhaps an animal preservationist.
Notably, each audition is different, so requires a different approach.
But none of them can be rushed.
Though for all, I do feel a distance closing and a need to observe it a bit from a distance, study it, before getting close enough to put it in the net.
An actor’s story.
Taking actions to protect yourself so you can do your work is good.
Being dogmatic usually not.
My recent audition experience as an actor shone a bright light on that.
I don’t read breakdowns as they divert me and the three unplayable adjectives bore in my mind like a buzzing bee. Fine. That’s part of my process and I stand behind it.
It’s specific and mine, and I like it.
I can suss out the genre, the point of the scene, and the job of my character by reading the text. But this time I didn’t let that be my guide.
I peeked at the breakdown and read two adjectives. The text was warm and eloquent, but my two adjectives were cold and ruthless. I jammed the scenes against the writing and jammed my playing against the writing.
But dogmatically, I wasn’t going to go back and read the whole breakdown. I knew better.
As soon as I got home, I did read the whole description, and the first three adjectives were warm, eloquent, charismatic. Further in the description it says “a ruthless side.”
That’s the bit I peeked at.
Then, and this makes it a real actor’s story, casting sent my agent a note saying John did a good job and could he redo the audition but make the character warmer.
I guess if I get cast, it will be a happy ending. I may get cast — I might not.
What lesson is here?
My colleague said, “If you peek at a breakdown, you have to read all the breakdown.” That’s funny and apt, but probably not the lesson.
I didn’t let what I know — text and its guide to playing — be my guide. And I didn’t stick to my guns by not reading the breakdown. My approach.
It felt like I followed an old negative pattern in my brain. Hard to describe what that pattern is, but I know it like an old friend. An old friend I don’t need to see.
Also, seems like I was dogmatic. Me insisting I’m right — trying to force the text against its will — despite the quality of the text in front of me.
It’s a difficult life being an actor, and auditions are the most difficult.
