Looking for a new industry savvy podcast to tune in to? This week’s episode of Matt Enlow and Oren Kaplan‘s “Just Shoot It” is just the thing for you. The series is geared towards the working film, TV, and commercial director, but this recent episode, “How To Act in an Audition,” is chock full of insider advice for the auditioning actor.
In this episode, the podcast’s 26th, Enlow and Kaplan bring in film editor Eric Kissack (“Daddy’s Home”), and directors Liz Manashil (“Bread and Butter”) and Matt Pollock (College Humor) for a roundtable discussion on how they go about casting and what they look for in the audition room.
While the 80-minute chat covers a bunch of bases, from offering the role to someone without an audition—Manashil, for instance, takes prospective actors out for coffee Ridley Scott style—to navigating industry relationships, the point of particular interest to Backstage readers comes in around the 42-minute mark. The three filmmakers are asked point blank what they look for from actors in the audition room. While they disagree on some of the basics—Pollock likes an air of confidence and “bit of not caring” while Manashil jokes that she likes “needy men”—one thing they all agree on is that actors should bring a bit of themselves to the room.
“The first time you read it, for most people when it comes to acting, the other 50 people have read it that way. So what is the one thing you could add to it or change slightly? Not to the point where it’s a completely different thing, but just enough to set you apart from everybody else,” Pollock says. “At least try that first and see what happens. Otherwise, you’re doing the same thing the other 50 people have done, and then you just have to be the best. And then by the time the director has seen you, they might be tired and you’re all the same to them anyways.”
Listen to the full roundtable chat below.
Then once you nail that audition, check out New York acting coach and Backstage Expert Matt Newton’s tips below on what you should do after every audition!
Inspired by this post? Check out our audition listings!