Why Your Audition Was Not Memorable?

You go into the room, deliver what you think was the best acting in the history of the Universe… But you got interrupted and received a cold “Thanks for coming in.” What went wrong?

The answer is pretty simple, yet almost tragic — you were not special. You probably did what all the other candidates did — dramatic line delivery, a little crying, even the mandatory pause… But casting people have seen it all. Unfortunately.

They’ve seen many actors, but what they haven’t seen are many personalities. People, who light up the room, who give character to the character in the script. Let us just put it out there — in most cases it’s not the performance that is faulty; it’s the predictability.

Imagine you’re on a plane, ready for the takeoff. Cabin crew starts giving the safety routine, or one appears on the little screen in front of you. If this is your first flight, you’re nervous, terrified, and excited to see everything. But if this is your flight number two hundred twenty-seven, you’ve seen it all; you don’t even bother. Instead, you focus on your phone while it’s still on.

The same goes with casting directors. They’ve literally seen it all. So if you come in prepared to read for a role of a twenty-something blonde girl in ripped jeans, expect to see dozens of your duplicates in the waiting room, prepared to read the same lines, the same pauses, the same jokes.

If your version of the character is steadfastly (and alas, predictably) driven by the page, then you can rest assured they have already seen this version. Many times.

They move from actor to actor, just to find the one that makes them say “This is it! This is what we have been looking for!” Even if they mess up the lines, even if they don’t follow the commas and semicolons religiously, CD is looking for someone who is going to breathe the life into the character on the page. If you don’t deliver, they will move on to the next lady in the ripped jeans.

So, how do you prepare?

1. Ignore the punctuation. That comma was put there to separate thoughts; it does not necessarily indicate a pause. It tells you that there are different contemplations of the character.
2. When you have all your thoughts and moments in place, do the scene at double the speed. Guess what? The scene still works. You see, CD knows what the next moment is. You don’t need to give dramatic weight because they have already anticipated it.
3. Don’t indicate what the character is thinking or feeling because they know them.
4. Find the opposites. CD knows the path of the scene. They know the emotional arc of the character. Show an angle, a unique perspective that makes them pay attention.

Remember that a deeply moving, significantly emotional characterization will cut through the forest of other auditions. Maybe it really will. But you must also be prepared to know that in most cases, it won’t. That your audition will be passed over because in almost every case, CD is not looking for the best performance. They are looking for the best, the most interesting version of the character.

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