In a callback situation, there is often little separating the handful of actors in the session. If they’ve received a callback, they all understand the scene and what it needs, and they all have something unique to offer and the skill level to deliver. So who gets the job?
It is often the actor who has the most compelling moment(s).
Casting is looking for the actor who can hold the interest of the audience by delivering moments that are surprising and fresh.
This is one of the biggest differences between an audition and a finished performance: A seamlessly played scene won’t give the people in the room enough information about you and your ability to move an audience. There is no editing—no help in making the scene “pop.” It’s up to you to create moments that grab the people in the room, all while standing still, with a reader, in a room full of strangers. That’s auditioning for you!
To be clear, we’re not talking about choreography here. You need to have discovered the piece in your body and found the strongest and most honest intersection between you and the words on the page.
Once you’ve done that and the piece is living in you and resonating with your life, the moments that speak to you and represent you in the most compelling way will find you. They are the parts of the scene that will catch in your throat, deepen or shorten your breath, tighten your stomach, or open your chest.
The moments that will get you the job live in your body and heart; they do not live in your mind.
Actors are always looking for the opportunity to break out of the pack, to put their definitive stamp on a role. Some actors, in an effort to be different, go so far as to manufacture moments that have nothing to do with the piece or who they are as actors or people. The key word there is effort, because that’s all the people in the room see: desperate actors trying too hard.
But the actor who has explored the piece and him or herself in that piece knows that, because he/she is the only one living in his/her body. That actor will have moments that no one else can have. He/she is different. This knowledge brings with it an ease and strength that stands in stark contrast to the neurotic attempts at individuality made by the actor trying to act different.
Now it’s a question of honoring the moments by committing to them in the room so that they have a strong impact on the people in the room. This usually means putting a bit of time and space round the moment. Remember, you can’t have a job-getting moment without taking a moment! Again, this isn’t choreography. You are just giving the moment a chance to breathe and then happen the way it will in that particular moment.
I was coaching an actor on a piece recently that required her to be embarrassed for a good part of it. She was quite busy acting embarrassed, and while it wasn’t “wrong,” there was nothing unique about what she was offering. I had her do an exercise to find the specific feelings of embarrassment in her body and breath. She started to laugh and turn red. We did the scene again and when the embarrassed beats came up, she put her head down and started giggling. This made the piece totally hers. Instead of acting embarrassed and perfectly playing the beats, she stopped and gave a pure moment that showed her unique way of being embarrassed in the situation. This became a true job-getting moment, as she booked the role!
The confidence to deliver a job-getting moment comes from the fact that the moment represents you in a way that is so honest and true, your body and heart actually need to take the time to deliver it.
So, the next time you’re preparing, find the truth in your body and heart and honor the moments that affect you in ways that are yours and yours alone. Take the moments that will tell them, without a doubt, who you are and what you have to add to the role.
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and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Backstage or its staff.
