Having just had a couple of good callbacks but no bookings, I find myself wondering what else I could have done. My question is: Do you need to try to sell yourself at the callback? Aside from your performance, are there things you should be saying or discussing? For example, would it help to say something like "Do you have any reservations in terms of casting me for this role?"? Or maybe "Is there anything else that you would like to see from me that you haven't seen?" How about "I can give you anything you need; I am the right person for this part"? Would having those conversations be beneficial or does it even matter?
—New to L.A.
DEAR NEW:
Selling yourself in the ways you describe sounds more desperate than professional. None of the comments you suggest is likely to help you, and they could actually hurt by giving the impression that you're needy or unprofessional.
Remember that it's the casting director's job to run the audition session, and saying something like "I am the right person for this part" implies that you know better than the CD what the producers and director are looking for. If a CD wants to see something else from you, he or she will ask. If you say something like "I can do anything," well, it just isn't true, and casting people know that. We all have our limitations. Sometimes the limitation may be our current skill level, but other times it could be, oh, that we're 5 feet 8 inches and the male lead is 5 feet 6 inches, or that we look like the producer's ex. Numerous actors audition for each role, and many times there is another actor who strikes the CD or director or producer as more "right"—for whatever reason. There's nothing you can do about that. No amount of self-confident swagger or sweet talk is going to change their minds.
That's not to say there isn't room for self-confidence, but such confidence should shine through in your overall demeanor, not in your comments. The truth is that you have a lot to be confident about. You got the callback, didn't you? You beat out most of the actors who submitted for that opportunity. Think it through: The CD put out a breakdown and weeded through many, many submissions before calling in a limited number of actors for that first audition. You made it through that. Then the CD narrowed that bunch down into a much smaller group for callbacks. You were still standing. At that point, the CD knew that all the actors still around were decent choices for the role. It came down to the "best" choice, and "best" in these cases is pretty subjective.
My advice is to think of callbacks as success. Do your best at your first audition, celebrate your callback, and then go in and do what you did the first time around. When you walk out of the casting director's office, forget about it. Bookings are a bonus.
DEAR JACKIE:
I'm sure actors have different ideas of what constitutes a bad audition, but every single one of us has had an audition where nerves got the best of us, we flubbed a couple of lines, our heart was pounding and we lost focus, etc. After those bad auditions, we do what any actor does: We forget about it. So when we get the callback for that "bad" audition, it's a surprise.
I recently had a callback for an episodic, and when I initially auditioned in the room, I didn't exactly flub my lines, but I mispronounced a character's name during the read, and my slate and performance were a little jittery (definitely due to nerves), though I don't know how obvious it was. Plus, it was super hot in there. But to my surprise, I still got a callback.
I just wanted to know if it's common to have a bad audition experience but still get that surprise callback.
—Pleasantly Surprised
via the BackStage.com
message boards
DEAR PLEASANTLY:
Getting a callback after a "bad" audition is not unusual. I think the key issue here is that we actors don't know what casting is looking for. Sure, we know when we stumble, but we can't predict when the production is looking for someone, well, clumsy.
Here's a case in point from actor Amy Prosser. "I went to an audition for a bank commercial in New York," she writes in an email. "There were about 15 of us in the same room, and they went down the line asking us how we felt about change (alteration, not pocket change). Everyone before me went on and on about how they loved change, thrived on it, sought it out. When they got to me, I said, 'Change terrifies me. My boyfriend and I just broke up, and I'm thinking of giving up acting and moving back to the West Coast.' I walked out of there feeling like an idiot for being so honest and vulnerable, but it turns out that the spot was about the bank merging with another bank and changing its name, and they were looking for people who seemed scared and unsure. They wanted to help their customers through an unsettling time by showing them people just like them. I booked it, needless to say, and had a great time filming it and probably made $6,000 on it. It was a great lesson in being yourself and not trying to be what you think will get you the job."
Another factor is that when we are "off," it may actually be a gift. Here's what I mean: Sometimes, when you have things down pat, it can come off as rehearsed and stale. A little flubbing can loosen things up enough for you to look fresh and natural, especially when you can stay in the scene and use the nerves or accident to enhance what you are doing. Human beings are messy, after all. What's more, if we are really in a scene, we shouldn't have much of an idea about how we're coming across. We shouldn't be watching ourselves, so our impression of how we did is bound to be off.
Casting professionals, as Amy points out, are looking for specific things—qualities, features, personalities, talents—that we may not expect. It's impossible for us to accurately judge our fitness for a role in a project we know next to nothing about. As I said above, the "best" choice for a role is subjective.
Casting is a complex, confusing process, and the less we try to psych ourselves into or out of a job, the better.
DEAR READERS:
Happy new year! On behalf of my co-columnist Michael Kostroff and myself, I want to thank you for reading The Working Actor in 2010. Acting's a tough business, but we're here to help. Email us anytime with questions, concerns, or comments at TheWorkingActor@gmail.com. Here's to a fantastic 2011!