In an audition, the people in the room are responsible for bringing forward only the actors who appear “set-ready.” This means, of course, investing the words on the page with the qualities of yours that bring them to dynamic, three-dimensional life, listening, and reacting in a way that creates moments of strong personal connection, and using a technique that shows that you know how to work clearly and effectively in front of the camera.
And most of all, you need to put it all across in a way that is confident and grounded.
Sometimes the people in the room may see “good work,” meaning they’ll appreciate your take on the piece, but if that work isn’t delivered with the freedom and ease of the true professional, there will be no job.
One way to bring the weight of the professional to your work is to make sure that the decisions of the piece live in your body and are not just thoughts in your mind.
A decision made from the mind, that is not taken into the body and heart for exploration and expansion, won’t carry the weight of a true human quality.
This makes it essential when you’re preparing that you don’t just make decisions in your head, but from the way the words effect you in your body and heart. It’s important not just to notice those feelings, but to map those feelings in your body. Where do they affect you? Did you tighten your stomach, clench your fist, expand your chest, hunch your shoulders? All of these physical cues are telling you how you’re really feeling. And when you think you’ve stayed long enough in these sensations, stay 30 seconds longer. This staying imprints true emotions into the body with the strength it takes to give your work the strong set readiness of the professional.
The same for listening. When you’re reading the other person’s lines, don’t stop at just making sense of them. Take them into your body and your heart and explore the sensations of the feelings that they generate. What do the words do to your breathing? Is it deep from your stomach or shallow from your chest? Your brain and emotional circuitry gather much of their instruction from the information they get from the breath.
Stay with all of these feelings and sensations as you read the other persons words – and then stay 30 seconds longer. This provides such a strong intensity to your listening and reacting. You’ll connect like no other in the room and almost pop off the tape. There are only a few actors in a casting session that carry this grounded strength into their listening, and they’re the ones competing for the job.
The actor who has prepared only from the brain will be trying to keep track of all of their work in their heads when they get to the room. They will appear jumpy and neurotic and will create doubt in the mind of the casting director; their set-readiness in question.
The actor who has grounded their work in the body, breath and heart will be a strong, confident presence in the room—one they can easily see staying grounded and stable amidst the chaos of the set.
So, when you begin to prepare an audition, calm the fractured, wild mind and release down to where all of your answers lie. Those feelings and emotions that you want so badly to express are in the body. It’s where greatness lives, and the longer you stay, the greater you can be.
Like this advice? Check out more from our Backstage Experts!
The views expressed in this article are solely that of the individual(s) providing them,
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Backstage or its staff.
