Never open with a disclaimer
Saying you are bad at auditions, or that you are wrong for the part, hands the room the only thing the director will remember about you. You have described yourself as the wrong choice and then asked them to disagree.
What NOT to do on an audition - Filmnut
A casting director on the ways well trained actors lose the room before they have read a line.
6 Things Actors Should Know About What Not to Do in the Audition Room
Drawn from what is actually said on camera, so you can decide whether to spend the 2:29 watching it.
You can lose it before you read a word
Energy that arrives frazzled or strange has already done the damage by the time you sit down. Strong fundamentals do not survive it, because the audition is a different event from acting and is judged as one.
Apply the job interview test
Before you say or ask anything, check whether you would do it at any other job interview. Asking to borrow a stapler, or which resume they want, fails that test and lands exactly as it would anywhere else.
Be off book
Turning up not knowing the sides and reading off the page is one of the more baffling things casting sees, and it happens constantly. It is not a small excusable thing; it says you did not prepare.
One line still means reading the whole script
If the script is made available to you, read it. You cannot tell the tone of a piece from a single line, and the tone is what tells you how to play it. There is also nothing else you are supposed to be doing with the time.
Research who is making it
Who is producing, who is directing, what they have made before, and what that suggests they want. This is basic preparation for every audition, it shapes what you actually do in the room, and doing it visibly marks you as a professional.
Acting Craft is built by what casting looks for on an actor website.
Full transcript (506 words)
[Music] my guest tonight Mary LOF is one of the top casting directors in the business with credits that include ET Poltergeist Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom Foot Loose freaky Fridays Mean Girls The Spiderwick Chronicles the ghost of girlfriend's past Mr Popper's Penguins Hardball A Christmas Story and many more I see lots of actors that are very well trained and they're very good in the fundamentals of acting but the audition is such a different process and they can come in and just blow it by the time they sit down because their energy is so off or weird or frazzled or you know I've seen actors that come in and they sit down they go oh I'm so bad at auditions or they'll come in they sit down they go H I'm so wrong for this part and I'm sitting there cringing and that's all the director cane remember is that they don't think they're right for it you know we're artists and it's a different mindset and we want to get kind of a hit of who you are but yes it is unprofessional if you start throwing off all of these defense you know uh what's disclaimers basically well and I'm also talking about things like you know you wouldn't go into a job interview and and say I'm not good at this I say I'm not good at this say you know which resume should I give to you or could I can I use your stapler there's some stuff there's some things that happen that are just so mindboggling to me that that people do like coming in and not reading the script or coming in and not being off book not not knowing your sides and reading off the page I'm glad you brought that up because so those are the professional things I would say ask if you would do them at another job that's kind of what I meant but I heard you in one of your videos talk about even if you have one line in a project that you should if if I'm making the script available you should come in and read it absolutely because I don't believe that you can tell from one line what the tone of this piece is and if you're given this opportunity and a script is available to you by gosh you better read it I mean what else are you doing this is your job people but there's so many times people come in and they don't they haven't done the research of who is producing this who is directing this what have they done before what what are their expectations and that's the basic stuff that you have to do on every on every audition and that's going to tell you what you should be doing in your audition all of those things and it'll also represent you as a professional of course film nut live Wednesday nights only on the stream.tv
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