Casting director Jeanie Bacharach on what makes an audition work, how she watches self-tapes and Zoom callbacks, and the casting stories behind The Dropout, Station Eleven and Dying for Sex.
Drawn from what is actually said on camera, so you can decide whether to spend the 31:16 watching it.
Her first question watching any audition, in person or on tape, is whether she believes the words coming out of your mouth. Beyond good lighting and good sound, she does not care how you framed the tape. She wants to see you drop yourself into the character and make the words your own.
Small co-star roles are the hardest because there is nothing to dig into. Sending two takes with different choices is fine. The main thing is to stay present and not make too much out of a handful of lines.
Bacharach would rather see a bold wrong choice than a safe reading with no choices in it. But different for its own sake does not work either. You can stretch the role and come at it a new way, as long as you still play the reality of the scene and the relationship between the characters.
If you got called back, people responded to what you did. Trust it and do not change it all up. Ask questions, through your reps or directly, because the character often shifts during casting before the writing catches up, and scripts are being shared less and less.
Some writers want every word and every comma exactly as written. Others are open to improvising. That is research you should do and a question you can ask at the audition or callback, but come prepared for either answer.
Tapes leveled the playing field, but she admits to what she calls a swipe left mentality: with so many tapes there is always someone else to look at. On a pre-screen for a small role there is no time for notes. Being in a room together lets her see you take an adjustment and trust you on a set.
For a Zoom callback, check with casting first, but if you can have your reader physically next to you, do it. Zoom lag kills comedy timing. A good reader gives you what the scene needs without drawing attention to themselves.
You cannot walk into a room with a bag of props, but on tape you can set yourself in the scene. Give yourself business to do and props if they help. If the character leaves, leave frame. Just do not let the production design outshine the work.
For chemistry reads, do all the usual prep and be specific, but do not be married to your reading. If you know the beats of the scene cold, you have a roadmap, so when your partner gives you something unexpected you can follow it and play the detour.
Jenny Slate pushed to get in the room for Dying for Sex and won it in a chemistry read. Reps often protect established actors from reading, but offers are rarer now. Bacharach says that if somebody will not read, producers move on to somebody who will.
She kept turning down Naveen Andrews for Sunny Balwani in The Dropout because she thought he was too good looking. His reps kept pushing, he came in and crushed it. Rachel Brosnahan was her first thought for Mrs. Maisel, which was a battle because Brosnahan had not done comedy.
Without representation it is hard to get seen, so do theater and student film so there is something to look at. She refuses to scout on TikTok and follower counts have not mattered on her projects. She cast Matilda Lawler in Station Eleven after watching her listen, fully alive, to a monologue she had heard for months.
Acting Craft is built by Web For Actors, who also wrote the 85 things casting directors and coaches say about auditions, which draws on videos like this one.
0 comments