Tag Archives: audition

General Meeting (or Hanging Out With A Casting Director For Free)

This week, I had a general meeting with a casting director.

For those of you who aren’t actors, a general meeting is when a casting director takes some time to meet with you even though they might not be casting something in particular then. They get to know you a little and sometimes you read a scene from an old script.

While this sounds like a great concept and it used to happen more often, sadly this is a rarity for actors to find these days. More often you will have to pay to meet a casting director.

Paying to meet a casting director is technically illegal, but they still happen. They are called workshops and companies promote them by saying that this particular casting director is coming in because they have to cast a certain role.

And to meet them, you have to pay a fee (and in turn the casting director who attends gets paid to be there).

I’ve always found this to be a bit sketchy. If the casting director’s job is to find talent to fill a role, why do we have to pay to be considered? And being at a workshop is not an audition for a particular role. It’s more like an audition to get an audition.

For non-acting jobs, it would be like paying to apply for a job posting that you found. Not paying a monthly (or yearly) fee for a site and you can apply to all the jobs you want. But paying $20-80 (that’s typically what it costs for each workshop) for each resume you send out.

That’s why I find it a little ridiculous. If you disagree with me, I first ask you to check out these two webpages. And if you still disagree with me, that is your opinion and I’m not going to stop anyone from spending their money how they want to spend it. I just want to speak out for anyone who is on the fence if they should be spending their money on workshops.

Those two webpages have information from Billy DaMota. He is the biggest anti-workshop advocate in my opinion and he is always happy to tell actors about free workshops around town (sadly there are very few). He seems to be looking out for actors as much as he can.

And Billy DaMota was the casting director who did the general with me this week. He took me out to lunch (he paid but because I was going to workout right after I only had a juice) and we had a nice chat. We discussed my background and a recent audition that I did for a project that he cast. We also discussed the podcast I work for (he was a guest on it in the past) and some guests that he has in mind for us.

While I didn’t audition for him for any parts, to me this industry is about building real relationships with people. I know that if Billy sees that my agents have submitted me for a part that he agrees I’m right for, he will bring me in. He wants to see me succeed as an actor.

And while I have plenty of friends who do workshops and have said that that is the reason that they booked a particular role, for me that is not a priority for spending my money. I need to focus on paying down my debt (it’s still not as low as I’d like it to be but it’s moving in the right direction) and getting into another acting class. And while there are many casting directors who claim that they will not bring you in unless you are well-known or attend one of their workshops (I’ve had 3 casting directors tell me this in the past year), I have actually gone into all of their offices without ever having to spend a cent. While technically I have not booked anything, attending a workshop doesn’t guarantee a booking either.

Basically what I want you all to know after reading this post today is if you are an actor, you don’t have to spend money to meet casting directors if you don’t want to. And if you need any advice from a casting director, I highly recommend contacting Billy DaMota and asking him. He’s more than happy to answer questions.

At least reasonable questions. Don’t ask him if he can cast you in something. šŸ˜‰

Audition Fairy (or The Tale Of Two Auditions)

Even though my auditions have seemed to hit a slump recently, this week I had 2 auditions! One was for a music video (which I know I didn’t book because it would have shot yesterday) and one for a short film (which I won’t know if I booked for at least another week or so).

In the room for both auditions, I felt great about the work I did. In fact, in the short film audition the casting director and her team were laughing so hard at my audition and said that I did exactly what they wanted. Even if I don’t book this job, I know that they will remember that I do good work in the room.

At the music video audition, they were bringing people back in groups of 5. I think that was because they were getting backed up and wanted to try to get through everyone as quickly as possible. After I signed in, I stood off to the side (it was very crowded in the waiting room plus I was so sore from my workout that I was scared that I would sit down and not be able to get back up). There was another woman standing right next to me so we started to chat.

If the audition requires a lot of lines, I’m usually not chatty in the waiting room. I spend that time working on my lines. But for this audition, we had to lip-sync to a song. I practiced the night before as well as in my car driving over so I felt comfortable not working on it while waiting. The woman I was talking with ended up being super cool. She and I chatted about random stuff and she told me how she only found out about the audition about an hour before (I on the other hand found out the afternoon before). I told her that if she wanted to look at my printout of the lyrics she could borrow them.

We waited about 30 minutes and then I was called into a group. The woman I was talking with ended up being in the same group as me. We all went into the audition room and I went first. We only had to lip-sync to the first verse and chorus and then my audition was over. I was dismissed but before I left I gave my new buddy my print out of the lyrics so she could practice before it was her turn (there were 3 people in our group ahead of her). And when I walked through the waiting room, I let other women know that they didn’t have to worry about the entire song, just the first verse and chorus.

Everyone thanked me and I headed back to my car. I felt like the audition fairy for helping out. I like to help out my fellow actors. I don’t feel like my chances are any worse if I help someone else out. Either they want me or they don’t want me.

After that audition I posted on social media that I felt good for being able to help people and some friends said that it will come back around to me soon since that’s how karma works.

At my second audition this week I ended up standing up again in the waiting room (for the same reasons again) and there was a woman standing next to me. She asked me if I was part of a particular actor group and I told her I wasn’t. Then she realized that she knew me through my friend Ace. More specifically, she saw the blog post that Ace had shared on Facebook and twitter.

We both laughed about how it was such a small world that we had a mutual friend. And we also thought it was funny that we hadn’t met before because she and I are very similar types.

This audition ran long. There must have been too many actors scheduled too close together plus the casting assistant was letting people who crashed the audition cut the wait and go in before people who had audition appointments and had been waiting. The wait ended up being a little over 45 minutes, but that’s ok. I had a new friend to talk with in the waiting area.

Her audition was before mine and when she was done, she walked over to me to give me a heads up about what happened in the room. When we signed in, we were all told that there were no sides for us to read. We didn’t have to worry about any lines. But in the room, she was handed a page of the script and had a few lines to read.

I’m so grateful that I was given a heads up about this! While I wished I had time to feel comfortable with the lines before going in the room, at least I walked into the room knowing that I was going to have to read the page and memorize the lines super quickly.

It turns out that my friends were right about karma coming back to me. On Tuesday I was the audition fairy for someone and on Thursday someone was the audition fairy for me.

This just reminds me that doing good things for other people is important. It doesn’t matter that technically I’m helping my competition because I know that if I’m who they want, it won’t matter what anyone else does in the room.

Taking More Chances (or Maybe I’ll Get Picked This Time)

I continue to take more and more chances with my acting career these days. I had previously sent in an audition for the NBC Diversity Showcase. I didn’t make it past the first round for that showcase, but it’s ok. I got some practice with self-taping an audition and while reviewing my takes for the one I wanted to send it, I definitely learned a lot about how I’m appearing on camera. I’ve been practicing more and more at home and I’m hoping to use sides that I can find online and do at least one self-taping audition at home a week. I won’t be able to send those self-taped auditioned in unless casting requests them, but practice is practice.

I’m also looking into learning some accents. My agents recently contacted me asking if I could do a Boston accent. I can’t, but I told them that I could try to learn one quickly if they wanted me to. Right now, I don’t have any accents that I feel like I could whip out at any moment. I’ve never been asked to do an accent in an audition before my agents texted me about the Boston accent, so it’s never seemed too important to me. But now that I know that I might have lost out on an audition because of it, I’m going to see if there are some online videos (or even podcasts) for me to start picking up some accents.

I also just submitted myself for another diversity showcase. This time it was for ABC (and there’s still time to submit for it as the due date isn’t until June 6th).

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This time, all I had to do was submit my headshot and resume. That’s a lot easier than self-taping and makes this seem more like a regular audition (even though self-taping for auditions is becoming more common, it isn’t done too often for union jobs). Hopefully my headshot and resume will impress the people at ABC and I will be invited to audition!

Finally, I’m starting to get a bit more pushy about projects. I have a lot of friends who are producing webseries or films and I’m telling people when I think their project is interesting and would like to be a part of it. I can’t wait for a friend to ask me. There’s not always a part for me, but it never hurts to ask (as long as it’s done in a polite way).

Hopefully something will come of all these efforts soon!

Craziness Of Auditioning (or How I Spent A Day Getting Ready For A Minute)

This week I had my first audition in a long time. I know my agents aren’t to blame. There just isn’t much out there right now. And not just for my type, lots of my friends are in slumps right now. Plus, it’s a weird time for auditioning for tv. The new pilots have already been cast and shot and most shows already airing on tv have wrapped up for the end of the season already.

But I lucked out into auditioning for a cable show that airs in the summer (so they are just starting to film their season). I can’t say much about the show I auditioned for (that’s super frowned upon), Ā but I can say that I had a great time in the audition room!

The part was a co-star, which means that it wasn’t a big part of the episode. In fact, my audition only had about 10 words.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t do my prep work! I found out about the audition the day before so I had plenty of time to do some research on the show. Normally for a show that hasn’t aired yet, there isn’t much you can research or find out about the tone of the show. But for this show, I lucked out because I had a small connection to it. I know someone related to the real-life person the show is based on. And she had been sharing information on Facebook about the new show.

So I went back through Facebook and found everything I could. I also made sure that even though there were only 10 words, I knew those words. When there aren’t a ton of words on the page it really stinks to not have them all memorized. I didn’t go over everything too much (it can sound stale and rehearsed sometimes), but I definitely spent time with my research and memorization.

The audition was at CBS Radford (where I was for 4th of July last year) and while I walked up the gate, I noticed a sign for Sarah Jones.

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If you aren’t familiar with the Slates for Sarah movement, take some time to check it out. The short story is a young crew member died on set because of some careless (or lazy depending on how you look at it) choices in cast and crew safety. Nobody should have to die while working in a preventable accident. I’ve seen these signs at a couple of different studios around town and I’m glad they are there so people who don’t know what happened go to look it up and get educated.

I had some time to kill once I signed in at my audition, so I ran though my lines again and tried to relax. I try to think of each audition as not an audition, but the chance to perform and do what I love. If I happen to get the job, that’s a bonus.

I think the audition went well. It’s hard to tell with so few lines. I know that I did the best I could and I made an impression on this casting director. Plus, it was the first time I got to see this particular casting director so that’s awesome too! It’s another industry person who knows who I am and has seen a bit of what I can do.

If I get the job, of course I will share everything on here. But for now, I’m just super happy that I got to spend even a small part of my day doing something I love so much.

Self-Taping At Home (or Auditioning In Yoga Pants)

I’m continuing to try to find new ways to push my acting career to the next step. Auditions have been slow for me (and the other girls in my type) lately. My agent recently checked in with me and she said that there just isn’t much out there for me. I trust what she’s saying, and it’s a bit frustrating. I know that if I lost all the weight, I would be in more categories (but I’d also be going up against more people).

I am still working on the weight loss, but I’m trying to do things now too. I saw the casting notice for the NBC Diversity Showcase recently and decided to apply for it. Most, if not all, the major tv networks do these showcases to discover new talent. And more specifically more diverse talent. Even though I’m not a minority as far as my ethnicity, being a woman makes me a minority (being overweight does too).

The first step of the application process was very simple. There is a service called Breakdown Services which is one of the main online casting services. The actors version of it is called Actors Access. The audition notice was posted on Actors Access and to apply, you just had to submit your headshot and reel online. The day after I applied, I got an invitation to submit an audition video through Actors Access (I think everyone who applies gets this so I’m pretty sure that I haven’t made any cuts yet).

I was given the chose of a dozen different scenes and had to tape my audition to upload to the service. There are a lot of ways to self-tape (and many places that charge for it), but I figured that I could easily do this at home.

First, I found a friend to be a reader for the other character. My friend Robert was able to do it, and I was very happy about that because he’s a great actor and I trust him to make sure I do my best.

I used my digital camera (not my phone) for the audition and set it up on a tripod. Since I needed the camera to be at eye level and my tripod is only a mini one, we used a step ladder as well.

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It was a pretty good system we got worked out for the camera. As far as where I sat, I sat in a chair in front of my entry closet and we hung a blanket up behind me so there was a basic blue background.

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I’m sure we could have made it look a lot nicer, but when you are asked to self-tape, the casting directors aren’t looking for something that looks like it was shot in a casting office. A clear and in focus video with good sound quality is most important.

We did a couple of different takes until we both felt like I got a really good cut. Then I uploaded it to the Actors Access website and submitted my audition.

I won’t know for a while if I made the next cut. Self-tape auditions are not due until next week, and then they have to go through them.

But even if I don’t make it to the next round of auditions, at least I tried. And I had a nice afternoon of acting in front of the camera and working on my craft.

I really should do this more often because it was so much fun!

False Start (or My Real Last Day of Unemployment)

So I was supposed to start back at work yesterday. I was all set to go back until Friday evening.

I was working the show shift at work and once the show started, I checked my phone. There was a text message from my agent letting me know that I had an audition for a recurring role on a tv show on Monday. The audition time was at 3pm, kind of in the middle of my shift at work. So I let my boss know that I would try to come in, but since the audition was in the valley and I work in Santa Monica it could be tough with traffic.

My audition went great. It’s hard to tell when you only have a few lines to say, but the people in the room smiled after my read and genuinely seemed to enjoy it. I was done and ready to deal with all the crazy traffic to get back to Santa Monica when my boss called.

I guess nobody else was able to work yesterday either. 2 of my co-workers had to work at another job, one had a doctor’s appointment, and the other showed up but he had to go home sick. So my boss let me know not to come in since he was leaving. And our first official day back was moved to today.

It was a relief not to have to rush back to the other side of town. I was able to take my time driving and run a few errands that I forgot to do over the weekend. I spent last night catching up on my reading and getting to bed at a decent hour so I would be nice and rested for work.

It was a nice surprise to have an extra day off. Even though I was prepared to go back to work, having the audition really made yesterday a more stressful day than I would have liked.

So now I’m off to work today. Of course, I could have another last-minute audition come in or something that prevents me from working the entire shift, but that’s how my life is.

I expect the unexpected.

Audition Friends (or The Kindness Of My Competition)

I had my commercial audition yesterday. It was pretty basic (I said my name and had to walk across the room). With these types of auditions it’s tough to know if you did a good job or not, but I left the audition happy which is the most I could hope for.

Before going to my audition and doing the last-minute shopping for the outfit I needed, I called my friend, Shey. Shey and I have been auditioning against each other for years. We became good friends when she and I both booked a music video. We are a pretty similar type so we jokingly call each other our evil twin. We still go in for a lot of the same parts, but I love having a friend in the waiting room.

I had called Shey first of all to see if she was also going to this audition (she wasn’t). I also wanted to see if she had any of the clothing or accessories this particular audition was asking for. She didn’t, but said that if she did she would have let me borrow any of it.

I love that someone who is technically my competition wants to see me succeed! And it goes both ways. I remember one audition where Shey’s agents had left the room number off of the directions they gave her. She texted me and of course I texted her right back to give her the information.

I figure that if a part is right for me, I’m going to get it even if I help my fellow actors.

So at yesterday’s audition, I was locking up my car when an actress wearing a very similar outfit to mine came up to me and asked me if I was going to the audition. I said yes, and she gave me the scoop on what to expect in the room.

That was so nice of her (and I hate that I forgot her name!)!

And while I was in the waiting room, one of the other actors had forgotten sunglasses (one of the accessories that the audition had asked for). I had a spare pair in my purse so I let her borrow one of mine.

I have to say that all the kindness in the audition really made my day. I don’t always meet such nice and kind people at auditions. I wish I did because I don’t see any reason to be catty or mean.

I sincerely hope that all of the people who were nice to me are the ones that I will see if I get a callback. I know that people say “it’s show business not show friends”, but I still think that kindness matters above all.

First Weekend Of Freedom (or Looking Back Before Moving Forward)

I’ve officially had my first days of unemployment, and I really am keeping busy!

On Friday, as soon as my work shift was done, I raced home to file for unemployment online. The sooner I get it in, the sooner it can be accepted (and I can stress a little less about paying my bills).

After that, I headed over to my friend Kate’s house for dinner. She’s dating a guy who lives in Colorado and had a couple of people over to have dinner and meet him. It was a fun group of people and we stayed pretty late chatting about lots of random things.

On Saturday, I helped out my friend Jennifer with some computer stuff for a couple of hours. Then I headed to Hollywood and the Directors Guild of America for a SAG-AFTRA Film Society screening. The film that was showing that evening was “Rush”. It was a pretty good movie. I have no interest in race cars so the beginning was a bit slow for me, but I really enjoyed the second half.

That evening, I relaxed at home catching up on my DVR (it’s fall tv season after all!). I was up pretty late and at 12:44am, I got a text message from my agents that I had an audition for Monday! Yay! I love that I’m starting unemployment with an audition! I also love the fact that my agents work so incredibly hard for their actors even if it’s late or a weekend!

Sunday was another busy day. I started out going to the LMU Alumni BBQ. I’ve been going to this for the past few years and it’s always been fun. I don’t really have any friends from college that live in the LA area anymore, so I was solo for the event. But it didn’t stop me from having fun!

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It was a perfect day! With your admission you get food and drink tickets. I got a hot dog and a frozen margarita with a couple of my tickets. After eating, I decided to do a little walk around LMU.

This is my freshman dorm, Doheny. This was officially my first home when I moved to LA. When I lived there, it was all girls. Now it’s co-ed. My room was the last room on the left on the second floor, so I had an amazing view of the fountain from my room.

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I also stopped by Foley, the theater arts building. Most of the theater classes I took were in this building, so it was like a second home to me.

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I also stopped by the bookstore and got a hat that I wanted (no photo yet).

I left the BBQ a bit on the early side because I had to do a last-minute shopping trip for an outfit for my audition. The audition specifically requested a pink dress, and that’s something I don’t own. Fortunately, I was able to find something for about $20. It’s not something I’d wear normally, but it will be a good audition outfit for the future.

And finally on Sunday, I watched and live-tweeted the Emmys. There were several surprise winners which was nice to see. Overall, I didn’t love this particular awards show. There is such an expectation with Neil Patrick Harris hosting and I don’t think this lived up to any of the times he hosted the Tonys.

For a weekend, I sure got a lot of stuff done! And I have a lot of stuff planned for this week as well!

Audition Horror Stories (or Sometimes I Like Things To Be Boring)

I had an audition for a tv movie yesterday. Everything in the audition room happened the way it should happen. I said my lines, I got a smile from the casting director, and I left the room quickly. However when I was leaving the audition, I did almost get trapped in the hallway (there were two doors between the audition room and waiting area and when I closed one door it was so dark I couldn’t find the handle for the other door). I have no idea if I booked this job, but to me, it’s more important to impress the casting director so that they want me to come back again then to book every job I audition for.

But overall, this was a typical audition. But those few seconds of being stuck between the doors made me think of some of my bad auditions, and I figured I’d share some of them so you can all enjoy some of my not-so-graceful moments.

One of my absolute worst auditions ever happened when I was auditioning for a job in a theme park. We were all held outside the audition room and were only taken in one at a time. I probably had waited about an hour or two before it was my turn. I walked into the room, and right in front of the boss’s table, I fell banana peel style on the ground (and by banana peel style I mean I flew up into the air and landed hard on the ground). After trying to recover, we all noticed that there was a huge puddle of water on the floor. Someone who auditioned before me must have spilled it and I was the lucky one to walk right into it. After the audition, I was taken to the first-aid at the park to have my toes taped because they were looking pretty bad. I didn’t need first-aid, but I’m sure that they did it for their protection. I didn’t get that job.

I also remember an audition years ago for an employee training video for the fitness industry. In the audition notice, it was written in bold and in all caps thatĀ ALL ACTORS MUST READ THE SCRIPT EXACTLY AS WRITTEN. NO IMPROVISATION ALLOWED.Ā I took this very seriously so I worked very hard at getting all the lines exactly as they were on the paper. I was partnered up with another actor in the audition and we got started. I read my lines as written but the other actor was making everything up as he went. I still said my next lines as written even though it made absolutely no sense. I wish that I had the courage to have asked the casting directors if I could try that scene again (hopefully with a new scene partner), but I didn’t.

Another audition for a commercial was a little crazy. I don’t remember what type of commercial it was, but I remember that the premise was that the character I was auditioning for was caught in bed with another character by my character’s husband. In the audition notice, they asked us to wear skimpy clothing to help imply a state of undress. I wore a tank top and shorts (with a sweatshirt to wear over the outfit when I was walking to and from my car). Once in the audition room, the guy I was paired with stripped down to a speedo. It was pretty funny, but I wish the other actor had given me a heads up.

The final story to leave you with today was another commercial audition. All I had to do in the audition was climb into a duffel bag and zip myself inside. I might not be the skinniest girl out there, but I am pretty flexible (I can do the splits and bend down and touch my toes with little effort). So in the room, I got in the bag and got it zipped up. The only problem came when I was trying to get out of the bag. I got a little tripped up in the bag and straps and had to get out of the bag while sitting and pulling it off of my feet.

So there are some highlights of some of the crazy auditions that I’ve been on. Most of the crazy stories happened years ago, before I knew how to stand up for myself (and before I had union protection). There are so many more stories that I could tell, and I know that there will be more stories to share that happen in the future. But I wanted to give you all a glimpse inside my sometimes crazy life.

No Guarantees (or A Lesson From “2 Broke Girls”)

The episode of “2 Broke Girls” that aired this Monday was the episode that my mom, my aunt, and I saw being filmed at the taping we went to. And it reminded me of a truth in the entertainment industry: even if you book the job, you never know if your work will ever be seen.

There are always little cuts made to a TV show after they are done taping. Some things need to be cut for time, some things need to be cut due to Standards and Practices, and some things are cut out because they just don’t work in the storyline any more. I’ve always known this reality. TV shows don’t try to hide it. In fact, you can normally see deleted scenes on the DVD extras of a TV show or movie.

But for this particular episode of “2 Broke Girls”, 2 guest star actors had their parts completely cut out. They were both extremely funny, and one of them had an eating gag, which I can related to due to my experience with pizza on the set of this show (yup, that’s me at the end).

But there must have been some reason that that scene had to be cut out of the final product. After watching the episode, I’m not sure what they could have cut in other scenes to include it.

But I can only imagine how sad it was for those actors to see the episode and find out that they were not in it. I’m sure they told their friends and family to watch it. And I know that if it was me, my friends and family would all be watching to see me (they’ve done that sometimes when I’ve done background).

But this is the way that things are in this industry. There are no certainties for anything. You are never guaranteed the audition, the callback, the job, making the cut. I’m still nervous that I might get cut out of the music video that I shot recently. Until that video is released, I’m going to be worried about it.

But those actors who were cut out of the episode were still able to spend a week doing what they loved (and they still got paid in case you were worried about that). And I’m sure after the initial disappointment they were still happy that they got to be chosen to be a part of the show and work a dream job for that week.

I guess part of having no guarantees on anything is making sure that you are grateful for every step that you are given. Be grateful for all the auditions and callbacks even if you didn’t get the job. There are a ton of people who would love to have been given “just” an audition.

I know that I still need to work on being grateful for all the steps that I get to take, Ā and this was a good reminder for me to stay in a gracious mindset.