I Hate Auditions, but what can ya do?

Doc Bernard

Doc Bernard

Indie Arms Member
I have come to realize I hate auditions, but love acting. Maybe not so much the actual audition but the waiting afterwards to know if you got the part.

Take tonight. I auditioned for a Lead role in a very intriguing production for UCR. The production staff called me out of the blue and asked me to read for it. I didn't submit on it or anything.

So I read for the role three different ways, at the directors request (tough guy, mentor and bored).

Won't hear for a week if I got the part or not. (That's the part I hate!)
 
didn't know you are an actor as well Doc, thats cool! best of luck...and i agree 100%. as an analogy, i'm the type that'll pay 2x as much as the product to have it over-nighted to me, so i empathize haha.
 
Yeah Doc, that is the weird part isn't it? Funny thing - I auditioned for a sizable but not lead role (a detective) in a feature a while back and after not hearing anything for a couple of weeks, assumed I didn't get it. About a month later I got hired for a smaller role in the same film, to shoot a few days later. The casting description for that role (a priest) called for a "rotund" actor btw, and I'm quite slim. Go figure...
 
LOL, yep, Doc loves the camera. SAG/AFTRA eligible, loves independent film. I usually get cast because of my business or related to it (cop, SWAT, military, medical).

What happens is I get brought in to Tech advise a group of actors and train them for their roles, and the director will usually make me the "team leader" on screen. But recently I have been getting more prominent roles and not just associated with Indie-Arms.
 
Well on the flip side it's not easy for the directors too. I probably do casting calls through an agency probably 4-5 times a year. Sometimes I am blown away by the performance of 2-3 people out of 20. It becomes really hard to pick which comes down to the minute advantages one person might offer over the other but at the same time I feel bad because I have to turn down somebody who is very qualified to do the part (and I am sure they are aware of that).

Of course I always try to keep a portfolio of the people I liked and reccomend them to other people but I still know in the back of my head there is somebody sitting at home thinking about why they didnt get a call back or how they lost out on 10K for a week long job.

I always make up my mind within 24 hours and tell everybody that they would hear from the agency within that time frame.
 
emretufekci said:
I always make up my mind within 24 hours and tell everybody that they would hear from the agency within that time frame.
Click to expand...

Thank you, on behalf of those actors out there. I think that is a very professional way to do it. And, I daresay, even if they didn't get the part, many actors/actresses who have auditioned for you think the same way I do. Leaving an actor hanging, after the gave of themselves is really hard on them.
 
Doc

If it means anything...I turn the audition in to the gig in my head. That way I get excited about the audition and when it is over I pretend the booking is done. It does not always work mind you....lol...sometimes I go nuts waiting to hear back but...having been on the agent and casting side of the table in the past I know what they are up against to put the project together.

As long as you never take any of it personal...it's all good!

M
 
I know how hard it is...

But I have taken an an audtion workshop that have given me a different insight on this question because it is taught by a Producer/director who has been in the business for 33 years.

Most of the time they simply need time to audition everyone and to make up their mind...

BTW this class was really great and I have learned a lot of tricks that will help me!!
I have an audition coming and I think that if I was able to get the audition it is thanks to this class because Eric (the teacher) explains not only how to rock the audition itself but how to get in from writing the candidacy email, selecting your headshots...

Plus, he taught us how to follow up in this crazy time when we wait to know if we were selected. Because I know that sometimes I am too pushy and directors don't like it at all...

Here is the website if anyone is interested http://solarnyc.com/auditionworkshop
 
I once heard this quote "My job is auditioning. Every once in a while, someone let's me play."

I come from the voice-over side of the biz and if you really want to survive, you have to audition and forget it. Often, I am auditioning 10 - 15 times a day and have won jobs 7 months after I had auditioned. If I worried about every audition, I would have to be institutionalized. :)

Just play to win, be confident and enjoy the time during and in between auditions.
 
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