Earlier this week, I had an audition for a print shoot. It’s been a little while since I went on an audition myself, and it was fun. I love to meet great casting directors and I think what they do is amazing. Like any job, casting has its downsides, but to meet actors, and find somebody who is a perfect fit for a project is really rewarding.
Contrary to popular belief and the movie portrayals of casting directors, they are not all heartless, power greedy monsters who ignore you in the room, make you cry, and wield their considerable power over a young actor. Sure, there are those who do, and isn’t that the same in virtually every workplace, or community? For the most part, casting directors are contracted project by project, to do the job of sifting through all the possibilities to find the probabilities, show those to the director, and help the producers and director to narrow the field of actors down to the ONE person who will best fit the role and do the job.
It can be really hard on an actor to go to audition after audition and never book a job. It can feel like rejection, if you let it. Unlike practicing an instrument, or being an athlete, where you can see and hear progress, acting has no markers of progress. In fact, the better you are as an actor, the less people will see that you are acting. And unlike sitting an musical exam or performance, every audition is a new piece, where you can hit every mark, have every word and emotion absolutely flawless, and still not book the job, through no fault of your own.
I’ve seen plenty of super talented, but discouraged young people walk away from acting, because of two main things. The first is a comparison mentality. In its correct place, comparison is a good thing – like when you watch someone else’s performance and say “ I completely understand why she booked the role and I didn’t. I see these things in her that made her the perfect choice. I can definitely learn from that.” But too often, comparison is used negatively, as in “I’m just as good as him, I can do that better, I don’t get why I didn’t get that role. They’re booking more than me, and now I feel rejected and it’s unfair.” This kind of thinking just leads to bitterness, and a lack of confidence in your own work.
The second reason actors walk away, and perhaps the most significant, is that people without a healthy support system don’t have someone to turn to when they need a little mental helium. I can’t tell you how many times one of my kids has been on avail, gone to producers, and not actually booked the role. Is it soul-crushing for them? Yes, it is, for a moment! But they carry on, not because they are tough, but because in those moments when they are vulnerable and sad, they have friends and family they can turn to, who sit and listen there while they go through it, not judge them, don’t try to analyze what went wrong, and who encourage them and their work. It takes community.
Truthfully, you usually don’t find out why you didn’t get a role, so sometimes, the only feedback you get is when you watch the tv show or movie, and you see who did get it. Often, the reason you don’t book is beyond your control. Amy once went to an audition, and although she didn’t know it at the time she got the audition, she had already been chosen. She was reprising a character from a commercial she had already shot several months before. When she walked into the casting office, there were already a lot of other girls there waiting to audition, but the casting director brought her in first, along with her costar from the original commercial. Amy felt bad for the other girls auditioning, because she felt it was clear to the whole room that she was going to book it, and she did. Those other actors had to watch her, and the dynamic between her and the casting director, and then get up there and do their best job. The smart actors in the room would understand that although they were never going to book that job, they were being seen by a casting director, who will very likely remember them for another job, and call them in another day. Although there was no booking that day for them, it wasn’t a total waste of time.
Casting directors are always on the lookout for actors, because their jobs depend on their ability to bring great talent into the room for the director and producer of whatever project they’re currently on. Not booking doesn’t mean you’re losing – it means you’re working. You get to play that character for 5 minutes, so give it all you’ve got, and turn the casting director into your number one fan!