Congratulations! Your agent has put you forward for the audition and they said yes!
They want to see you. And they want you to do well. Their jobs depend in it! This is a very important thing to remember, the Casting Director is ON YOUR SIDE.
In the long run, casting people look to have a core group of actors they can rely on for producing quality work and being available for jobs and auditions. Every audition is a chance for you to prove that to them.
Casting Directors love to champion good work. They love discovering new talent. Let them have the chance to fall in love with your work.
Casting Directors understand sometimes it doesn’t hit the mark but they love people to engage with the process when asked and give it their all.
Okay, so you got an Audition. Now What?!
Most of the time you’ll receive a notification from your agent that you have an audition. Sometimes it will comes from a Casting Database or as an email. There will be information attached to the audition. Read it carefully.
Check to see if it’s a project you’d like to be involved with. You can discuss this with your agent. It’s rare you’ll have an objection to the project but check it is something you want to do.
Check to see if you are, or can make yourself, available for the dates mentioned in the audition. If there are fixed dates at this stage, you should treat the dates as set. If you can not make yourself available for the dates, let your agent know as soon as possible to see if there is something they can do.
Next you need to accept or decline the Audition Request. From a casting director’s perspective accepting or declining an audition is important. A situation that occurs very often is that we put out audition requests but very few people accept or decline. It’s is a terrible situation for a casting person to have potentially no people audition! Imagine that!
Many actors will not decline because they think it might reflect badly on them. It’s fine to decline an audition. We can’t be available for everything. What is worse for an actors reputation is ignoring an offer from a Casting Director or Agent – they will assume you no longer want to audition for projects.
Also, actors often don’t check if they can do the audition quickly enough. Every casting director understands you do have to rearrange your life every time there is an audition. It’s not easy. However, the sooner you can let the casting person know the better. It stops them freaking out and they’ll love you for it!
Once you are committed to the Audition:
The most important part is for your mental health.
Once you have decided you’ll do the audition, plan to do something lovely after the audition that has nothing to do with acting.
For instance: Catch up with a dear friend. Go for a walk somewhere beautiful, purchase a delicious baked good, buy a small but meaningful gift for someone you love, read a book, finish a level on a computer game, hug someone, sleep. (You could try and do all those things simultaneously but generally it’s best to enjoy things one at a time.)
You must remind yourself that while auditions are exciting, creative and stressful, they are not your life. Auditions are something you do in your life. The result doesn’t matter because you have no control over it. You can only arrive, do your best then walk away.
Prepare your audition.
Use your time well. Make a plan to best use the time from now to when you must send the self-tape or arrival at the audition.
Organise to film it.
Organise to get feedback on it (agent or a trusted friend)
Upload it. Don’t forget to compress your file so it’s not too large.
If it is in person:
Prepare the audition.
Practise it in front of another person.
Plan to get to the audition room early. (Organise transport, parking, location). Arrange to arrive early but don’t enter too early and interrupt anyone else’s audition. 15 minutes early is fine, arrive quietly and look for any forms that need to be filled out if there is no one present to greet you. Keep in mind that other actors in the waiting room might be focusing, so it’s not always the best time to try to make friends.
After the audition:
Do not look for signs in the audition room about whether or not you have been successful. Even if they say, “we love you, you have the job,” don’t believe it until you have talked to your agent. There are so many factors involve in the process, it’s best to give the gift of your work and walk away happily.
Don’t apologise or self-deprecate in the audition room. ‘I didn’t have enough time to spend much time on it so I can do better than this’ isn’t a cute attitude. This is your only chance to do your best. Sometimes things happen that prevent you from doing your best, but the reason why is not relevant to your audition, and making your life sound unmanageable won’t increase your chances of booking the job.
After you leave quickly take note of any lessons you might have learned or noticed about yourself or your performance.
Go do the fun thing you organised for yourself and forget about it.
If you would like to work on your Audition or Self-Test skills with me, check out my current courses.
