Did you watch Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. in “Captain America: Civil War” this summer and think, “I could do that”? Well now you can! “Marvel Universe Live!” is holding auditions July 11 in Los Angeles and July 29 in Chicago, and Backstage has the inside scoop on how to land the superheroic role of your dreams.
Every night of the “Marvel Universe Live!” North American tour, dozens of Marvel’s fan-favorite superheroes and villains ignite an arena stage with awe-inspiring stunts and flare.
“This is a very grand, live, stunt spectacular,” the touring production’s head casting director, Jessica Ferris, tells Backstage. “We see the Avengers taking on the villains who are trying to take over the world and trying to take over the population. They are saving the world, essentially, from start to finish through all sorts of action-based stunt [work].”
In other words, if you’re a stunt performer or actor with impressive specialty skills—and better yet, if you’re a Marvel fan—this may be the perfect job for you. But the audition process is far from easy.
APPLY: “Marvel Universe Live!”
“We keep people for up to six hours doing very, very physical work,” Ferris says. The day begins with a 20- to 30-minute orientation in which prospective performers are told what the touring process entails and what physical regimens will be available and expected of them while on the road. “It’s not for everyone, and we’re looking for people who will thrive in our environment rather than suffer in it,” Ferris says. From there, talent will be put through a general warm-up routine of rolls, kicks, punches, and calisthenics exercises to get the blood flowing and to test performers’ initial stamina and strength levels. Then comes what Ferris calls the pair fight.
“Each person is given a specific Marvel character that they need to embody, and the pair learns the fight choreography for the very first time on site. No one comes in with any sort of advantage in that regard,” she explains. “After the pair fights, we’ll keep the appropriate people to stay behind and demonstrate their solo specialty skill, which may not have been highlighted or noticeable within the choreographed pair fight.”
Next is a group fight audition between actors who the casting team is particularly interested in moving forward, and the day wraps from there. In the past, auditions have attracted as many as 125 performers, so the day can get rather long. The production’s casting team requests talent come ready in fitted athletic attire and any additional equipment or weaponry they may need to showcase their specialty. Furthermore, men and women with long hair should have it pulled back, and all jewelry, piercings, and other accessories should be removed prior to the audition. And while this is a stunt-heavy show, performers with their acting chops tuned will especially rise to the top.
“We really put them through their paces as far as requiring them to do all of these specialty things and then asking them to try and layer in characterization [through] the delivery of lines and [building] character relationships to the other members of their character family. There’s a whole lot to it,” Ferris admits. “Guests are coming in to see stories being told by their favorite characters, and the believability factor has to be alive and well onstage at all times. Most of [the performers] don’t have this kind of [acting] background, so we do extensive training with them in how to portray the character specifically that they are cast for...to make that super fan feel like they are seeing the genuine article.”
Each show requires a minimum of 53 performers to run smoothly, and no one plays only one role from start to finish. As far as the kind of silhouettes the casting team looks for in roles like Captain America and Iron Man, they adhere to the characters created in the original comic book and animated series to maintain believability.
“We are not trying to hire performers who are lookalikes to the Hollywood actors. But those folks were cast based off of what the comic books were dictating, as well,” Ferris concedes. “There is a close relationship between the two.”
But even if you don’t physically match the characteristics of Marvel’s leading heroes, that shouldn’t deter you from coming out to audition, especially with such a wide variety of roles at play. Plus, these upcoming auditions are not being conducted with any single character in mind, but rather in an effort to expand the show’s talent base when openings become available for its 2016–2017 touring season.
“We are reactive in the casting process,” says Ferris. “We are always trying to build up our talent pool so we know exactly what we want right when the opening occurs.”
READ: “Don’t Underestimate ‘Captain America’ Star Sebastian Stan”
Are you an actor or stunt performer interested in “Marvel Universe Live!” who’s unable to attend these in-person auditions? Video submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, although it’s unlikely talent will be cast directly from that submission alone.
“We will accept video submissions and we love to monitor interested people that way if they are unable to make it to the audition; however, we prioritize any person who has actually come into our physical audition,” Ferris says. “When we receive video submissions, the ones that we feel are really great candidates for our audition process, we communicate with them and let them know that we’d really like to see them. We keep them informed on what auditions are coming up, and we try to get them into an audition so that we can work with them live.”
For more information on “Marvel Universe Live!” visit marveluniverselive.com. Visit feldentertainment.com for more information on the upcoming audition dates. And for a firsthand look at what this thrilling, live experience is all about, watch below.
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