The Process of Auditioning
Before I started auditioning, I believed that a good actor could get any role. I believed myself to be a good actress so I foolishly thought it would be easy for me once I got my foot in the door. Turns out auditions consist of way more than just acting.
The first obstacle is the greeting. This can make or break you. You have to appear confident without being cocky. You have to be polite without kissing ass. You have to be interesting, appealing. Basically you’re selling yourself. You need the board to want you. It’s similar to the process of buying new clothes. When you’re shopping and something catches your eye, what’s being sold to you isn’t a piece of clothing, it’s the idea behind it. How you’re gonna feel when you wear it, where you’ll be, what people will think of you. In this scenario, you are the garment and the casting board is the shopper. To be all those things, you have to dress the part.
Which brings me to the second obstacle. When you’re portraying a character, if you want to be believable, it helps to be fully immersed in their world. Would Leighton Meester look like Blair Waldorf without the fancy clothes, flawless makeup and immaculate hair? And let’s not forget the headband. Let’s say you were auditioning for Blair Waldorf, wearing a headband as well as putting on some classier looking clothes might be what differentiates you from all the other candidates who might be just as good as you, but dont look the part as much as you. This exemple is very niche as no one will ever have to audition for the role of Blair Waldorf again but if we take a more realistic exemple, let’s say a character from the 1950s, an easy way to elevate your portrayal would be to get a hairdo before the big day and maybe wear something more modest than the usual 21st century style. By doing so, you’re selling the idea of you to the casting director as someone who looks like they are from the 1950s. You’re making it easier for them to imagine you in their movie / tv show, because trust me, they know what they want.
The next obstacle is doing the scene. You want to make sure you’ve done your work beforehand and that you understand what the scene is about, who the character is and what changes in the scene because there is always some sort of evolution. Now that you understand the lines you’re supposed to deliver, you have to do it in a way that’s different from everybody else. Most actors will play the same scene in the exact same way with the same intonation because it just feels right. So whatever choices you make the first couple of times you read that scene, most other actors in the room have thought about it too. Make sure you’re unique. Make sure they remember you.
If you’re lucky, the casting director will want more from you and probably give you directions. This is the fourth obstacle. As an actor, you are a puppet and the director is the puppet master. You are there to help her or him put their creation to life. It is their project, their decision. Do not argue with the director and do not tell them you saw the character differently. Become who they want you to be. After all, it’s the character they’re after, not the actor. Follow the directions they give you to the best of your ability, do not be stuck in your ways and in order to be malleable, do not set your choices about the scene in stone. Make sure you can still do the scene in different ways, with different intonations and motives. This is work you should do before the big day.
