Time to talk about your favorite thing that you do as actors…auditioning! Oh, wait… that’s not your favorite thing? In fact, it’s the thing most actors dislike most. Why, oh why, do you hate auditioning?
Auditioning is my favorite “game.” Why do so many actors hate auditioning? I love auditioning. It’s everything I love about acting: being creative, using my imagination and trying to fool someone into believing I am real. Time to turn around your whole concept of what you do at an audition.
Don’t try to “win” the audition. Don’t go into an audition quaking in your boots, thinking, Oh my gosh, what if they throw something at me I didn’t expect? That will just make you stiff and uptight and totally freeze you out of your creative state. You’ll be trying too hard. You will smell like you are desperate for the job. That’s the worst thing you can do!
So instead, change your whole concept of auditioning. Don't go there to win the audition; go there to play!
Go there to play a “game.” Come on! This is why you do this. You love surprises! You like to create! Change your thinking to: Oh boy! I can’t wait to see what they throw at me! You love to act and someone gets to watch you.
The game you play is a wonderful game of pretend. The game is trying to convince yourself that you are really the character and that you really exist in your fantasy world. You love to play this game or you wouldn’t be actors. So time to get your acting game on!
The “game” is to make your fantasy world come alive. Pretending is a game you all did naturally as kids. You didn’t have to be taught to pretend. You just did it. It was fun. You loved your fantasy world. And it was easy to block out the boring world of reality and to believe that you were really in your fantasy world.
That is exactly what you do as actors! It’s all just a great big, wonderful game of pretend. And they pay you to do it! How great is that?
Don’t care if they like you, just amuse yourself. Go in there ready to have the best time. Get lost in your fantasy world and try to make them go there with you. And trust me, if you get lost in it, they’ll get lost in it with you!
Don’t go in there to try to suck up or to please someone. Don’t even care if they like you. Go in there to amuse yourself. Once you are just enjoying trying to play and discover and create, you will have set yourself up for the best thing you can do as an actor: to be spontaneous! That is what wins auditions.
The game is pretend. Set yourself free to amuse yourself. Just as you did as a kid. Just play!
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