Last time I titled a post like this it was about scheduling. This time I want to talk about some specific auditions.
Actors actually have it pretty good, all things considered, when it comes to auditions. My girlfriend is a dancer and those calls are brutal. First of all, they last ALL DAY (unless you get cut early, which doesn’t exactly boost your self-esteem). Second, they are often conducted in spaces that do not exactly lend themselves to the work– crowded, no privacy despite the skimpy outfit you have to wear, lack of proper waiting facility or warm-up space, floor surfaces that are often downright dangerous. Sounds like fun!
Very different from what we do, which is usually about three to five minutes in the room. If it’s an open call we might have to wait around a while before our time comes up, but it still doesn’t come close to an eight-hour dance call!
However…
We can get spoiled, folks. I’ve learned this the hard way. We can sometimes get into a mind-set that prevents us from fully engaging with a unique audition that goes beyond the three-to-five minutes to which we have grown so accustomed. Example:
1.) An indie film audition I attended on a Sunday lacked a reader. After I auditioned (with another actor) the director asked if I could stick around and help her out. I sensed she was asking because she liked my work, so I said sure– knowing full well that many women were coming in for the part opposite mine, and each one would basically give me another chance to strut my stuff. I ended up staying for about two hours (not too bad in hindsight), and guess what? I booked it.
2.) A theatrical audition I attended had my three minutes ending with an invitation to come back later in the day for a callback. “I can’t, I’m supposed to be at work,” came my (foolish) reply. Oh, well, they said.
I had honestly thought that my audition was so strong that my inability to make the callback didn’t matter. RRRRGH!!! Nope. It only showed them that I wasn’t commited. Somebody else, possibly not as talented as me but either smarter or luckier, attended the callback and booked that role. Had my brain been functioning I would have said YOU BETCHA and found a way to get my shift covered.
My agent recommends this general rule: if you are asked to a callback at a specific time, you should almost always say yes and deal with the consequences later. Good rule of thumb.
3.) Another indie film situation, this time a callback. I was smart enough to ask the director if he would be “mixing and matching” at the callback (that is, auditioning me in the same scene with several different potential actors as the other characters). He told me yes and that I should plan to be there about an hour. As it turned out one of the other actors up for my role either couldn’t make it or was otherwise out of the running, and he asked if I could stick around. I did, and spent another hour with him. This made me late for a class, but hey– I take classes so I can be great at auditions, right?
This time it didn’t work out for me, but at least I know I made a good impression on that director. Hopefully, the next time he works, he’ll remember that helpful actor that was really good but just not as spot-on for a particular role in his last project as some other guy….