There is a lot of fear in Hollywood. I see many actors making decisions based on what they have been told to do opposed to what their instincts tell them to do. When one of my actors books I ask what they think made that happen. Not once has someone said, “I just got lucky,” or “I’m blessed.” We know how much hard work went into getting that job. The answer I get more than anything else is, “I stopped being afraid of being wrong and did what I wanted to do in the room. I brought myself to the role and stopped trying to be the breakdown. I made it work for me.“
Educate yourself. If you want to get into film and TV then you need to be watching both. I can’t tell you how many times I hear actors say, “I don’t watch TV. ” Why? If I am doing Shakespeare then I would not approach the material in the same way I would Ibsen. If I am auditioning for “Scandal” then I need to know the style and tone of the show. I would not approach a show on AMC the way I would a show on CBS. Know the show you are going in for.
Analyze the sides and pick them apart for any clues. Once you do, base your decisions off of what you know and then commit.
I had watched the entire season of “True Detective.” One of my actors who has been dropped by three managers and two agencies over the past seven years and had his ass kicked by the business came in last week with our third audition for a recurring role on “True Detective.” With every audition came completely different material and a seemingly different character. The final one came at 8 p.m. for the next day at 10 a.m. It was six pages of convoluted and insanely difficult material. By the time he got to me it was 11 p.m. and we were both tired. My only question was, “Do you want this or not?” He was understandably frustrated and at a loss about how to approach it. He was also sacred being so close to a dream job but worried that he wasn’t going to make the right choices. So we dove in. It took me over an hour to put the pieces together but I knew what he had to commit to based on what I found in the sides. Letting go of the guessing game and diving into what I had deducted from the lines, we had no time to second guess or doubt. He had to dive into the dark side. The next morning he did just that and booked the role….
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and do something different. “Rogue.” One of my female actors got the material late Friday night and was asked to put herself on tape and have it to casting by 11 a.m. on Monday. A three-page monologue and two scenes. She hadn’t seen the show but I had watched every episode. After a first go around with the monologue something wasn’t working. Her character was supposed to be on a stake-out and sitting in a chair in my studio wasn’t helping her. “Lets get in the car and shoot the monologue there” I said. She had trepidations and was worried that it would not be well received, but ultimately trusted me and we shot it in her car. After that her camera died, and due to the time constraint, I insisted that we use my Canon. Again her fear and worry surfaced that it would look weird to have the different cameras. At this point the clock was ticking and I stood by my thought that the different cameras didn’t matter, but what we could do with the character and our choices did. Just five hours later we got the news that the tape was being seen by the producers and it was down to her and another actor. An hour later it went to the other actor, but she sure made some huge fans. More importantly, I think that she learned that when doing a self-tape, we can have some fun and take it out of the audition style.
One of my favorite quotes is “A life lived in fear is a life half lived.” I hope you all take some educated script-based risks and allow yourselves to be fearless this week.
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