Should I Improvise in an Audition?

[Music] hello welcome back to book from tape I am Jordan with Robinson empowering actors with the tools to book directly from their self taped auditions and a question that I often has have as an actor and that I get as a coach is when do you add improvisation to a scene in an audition right when and should you okay and I've thought a lot about this and I don't know I don't think there's a cookie cutter answer to this but there are times when improvising the beginning of a scene or or maybe a slightly different reaction in some parts the scene or or the ending to the scene the final beat of the scene can help serve the audition right they can help bring a little more light to your character and a little better understanding of your interpretation of the character and I personally welcome that if and when it serves the scene it serves what the writer has already put there for you it goes it doesn't contradict any of the clues or any of the things that they've laid out for you and it helps enhance the story alright and I actually have two as far as if it can help you or hurt you I have two examples of both actually a one example of each the first is I did an audition for a recurring character on a major show and and I sparkled sprinkled in a little improvised line in the middle of the scene which I thought enhanced the character and added more to the relationship between these two people in the scene and I booked it I booked it I show up on set and in my very first rehearsal I throw that little improvised scene in and right on the spot I'm acting opposite the number one on the show and the number one stops and she says don't do that don't do that that's not okay and I said okay I apologize I thought then and I kind of let it trail off and then we went through the rest the day and we filmed the entire day and everything was fine and we had a good working relationship and and the scene played off and then a couple months later I watched the episode and I find out that that scene had been rewritten to not include my character and some of that dialogue had been given to someone else on the show and now there are this happens all the time there are a million reasons why this could happen but in this particular instance I strongly feel that did happen because of my choice to improvise part of the scene and and that particular crew not necessarily wanting to a comedy accommodate that which is totally fine everybody works totally you know it works a little bit differently right each set to set it's gonna have slightly different rules around the script and around how that works out the second example is I booked another show a great show recurring and show up on set and we do our first rehearsal and immediately the number one turns to the director and says I don't like this and I had that same feeling I went back to my trailer and I called my agent and I said I I screwed it up something happened it's not gonna it's not gonna work it's not gonna happen I think I'm about to get sent out and I get called back to set and they made us a small script rewrite but then they asked me during the recording of it and during the talking through of it to just feel it out a little bit more to add some lines to feel more organic with it and not necessarily stick to exactly what's on the page right and lo and behold I come to find out that that is how this set works they have their rehearsal and they go through and after that then they have a group conversation with the writer with the director with all of the actors in order to say this isn't quite jiving for me I want to be able to I want to be able to comment on this I want to be able to talk about that I want to be able to feel more natural here and that is how they go about writing the scene it's actually you know I don't have to be a comedic actor to have the improv skills to be able to exist within the scene as my character and that is what was crucial then and I went through and I filmed my multi-episode arc with each time we showed up on set knowing that the rehearsal was going to go one way as it is on the page and then we would then we would continue to to work it out using our own words until we found the way that really said well so from from those two examples you can see how improv can and should be there for you the ability to put this scene in your own words the ability to understand this scene not just from the words that are on the page but also from the characters mindset and if you have times to use those throughout your audition process to enhance the audition process and not distract in order to further the story or further your character or to offer a slight glimpse into what would happen if the camera didn't stop rolling right then I think that is fine and I don't think personally I don't think that anybody as long as it follows those guidelines would have any issue with that okay so that's it that's it for improv do it sparingly it's not gonna happen on everyone but if if it truly serves the scene if it truly helps the audition and makes for a stronger audition 100% use that it is a tool and it is there for you thank you so much if you want to listen to this series on the go you can check me out on iTunes you can subscribe to the channel here right here and you can also check out another video here and I will talk to in the next video thank you