AT THE AUDITION

In The Waiting Room:

A lot of actors think the preparation is over once they arrive at the audition. They’ve worked out everything they plan on doing with the scene, so they just sit in the waiting room, letting their brain do what it will.

A lot of negative thoughts come up while waiting for your turn to audition. If you don’t deal with these thoughts, you will bring them into the room with you, and they will screw up your audition.

While you’re in the waiting room, be keenly aware of your thoughts. What is your vulture saying to you? Then disarm the vulture’s thought with an affirmation.

Everything I think before an audition is carefully placed there by me. My number one task in the waiting room is to disarm my squawking vulture. This is most important in the moment just prior to entering the audition room.

In the waiting room, I like to keep to myself for the most part. This is out of respect for the other actors and myself. If an actor is putting out an energy that you find disruptive, just find another place to sit.

Refrain from comparing yourself to the other actors. Just wish them all “white light”. Do not try to cast the role in your head. None of you may get it. Just be yourself and have fun.

At this point a lot of actor’s go into a kind of “last minute panic” mode. You can see them quietly, and sometimes frantically, running through their performance. They repeatedly speak the lines over and over to themselves. I believe this is a last ditch effort to “control” the outcome of the scene.

You should fight your desire to do this. Besides, it is an illusion to think you can control how the scene will go.

Feel free to continue studying the scene. I find that my best discoveries concerning a scene happen right before I go in. I ask myself, “What’s really happening in this scene”. I’m not looking for some deep, metaphysical definition of the scene. I’m simply looking for the obvious things that many actors overlook, such as what true-life activities are taking place, which will be fun to play. For instance talking on the phone, which is such a simple reflexive act in real life, but a joy to play in an audition. I look forward to something like that. I think, ”Oh good, I get to answer a phone. I know what that is. That’s easy. I look forward to experiencing a phone call in this scene.”

Why not give yourself a little massage? It will relax you, and you are your tool for the art you are about to create.

Before every audition I like to do a simple exercise. It’s a classic one that every actor has learned. Drop down from your waist; take slow, deep, relaxing breaths, and roll back up slowly, one vertebrate at a time. Michael Caine says he often does this before he films a scene.

What are your routines before an audition? Are they all needed? Is there anything you feel you need to do, that maybe you don’t?

I used to smoke a cigarette before each audition. I didn’t like the fact that it had become a habit, but I was scared to stop.

Elaine Stricht, a fabulous performer and an admitted recovered alcoholic, says that she never performed without drinking first. She said the reason why she drank before performing onstage was that she didn’t want to “go out there alone”. She didn’t trust herself. Because she didn’t have a relationship with her higher power, she was under the illusion that she was alone. But we’re not alone when we perform. If we allow it, our higher power is there guiding us.

I’m so glad I broke that habit, and now I see not smoking as a way to acknowledge my trust in a higher power’s presence in my audition.

If you’re having a difficult time releasing your negative thoughts, try the following visualization:

Imagine yourself as being incredibly NEEDY as you enter the audition room. See a frenzied look in your eyes as you forcefully shake hands with the casting people, desperately trying to get them to like you. Then, visualize the stunted, awkward and tense performance that you’d give under those circumstances.

This image will be so repulsive, that it’ll make you say to yourself, ”Ugh! I’d rather do anything but that! Screw it, I’ll just be myself and not care what they think.”

In The Audition Room:

When you enter the audition room it’s a good idea to notice a few specific things about your surroundings. I like to look at whatever’s hanging on the walls, and REALLY see it.

This gets me out of my head, and into the room.

Again, let me reiterate, an audition is not the same as the finished/filmed/edited product.

A lot of actors make the mistake of trying to perform the scene as they envision it will look in the finished film or TV show.

THIS IS A MISTAKE.

All this will do is kick up your need to get all the words right, keep it moving, and make it look good. In other words, it’s a completely result-oriented direction to come from.

The casting people know that a performance in a finished film is made up of many “takes” of each line (usually 5 to 10). The editor chooses which “take” of each line they want to print in the movie. That’s how they build a performance.

The casting people need to see that you are an actor who will give the editor plenty of different “takes” or “choices” to pick from and edit with. They need to see that you are coming not from a place of “control”, but a place of “playing”!

They’re looking for those electrical, magical moments of “spontaneity”, NOT someone who is going to freeze their performance and do it the same way each time.

Don’t strive to give the performance as you envision it will be seen in the movie. What this does is create a need for “perfection”, which stifles spontaneity.

You mustn’t want your audition to be perfect! Your ego knows it is an impossible feat, and trying will only create tension and fear. You want to be loose in the room, so “electric” and “magical” choices can SURPRISE you. After all, a great movie is made of many lucky accidents caught on film.

You should approach your auditions this way from the outset, but certainly, if you audition and are given a chance to do the scene again, make sure to allow the scene to be different. You do this by being “in the moment”, which only means that you are relaxed, not “controlling”, and reacting spontaneously not only to what the other character is doing but to your own thoughts and feelings. This is the “jumping out into darkness, and trusting the net will catch you”, that makes great acting.

A lot of actors are able to risk and take chances while rehearsing, but come to the audition they freeze the scene up, play it safe and control it.

One way to combat this impulse is to say to yourself right before the audition, “This isn’t not how I’m really going to do it.” Or, as the well known actor/teacher, Jeffrey Tambour, suggests, “Do it badly.”

These suggestions can really help you to let go of your need to control.

The following is an important note I give, to a surprisingly large number of people who come to my workshop:

If you are sitting during your audition, make sure that your “home base” is leaning back in the chair.

Too many actors fall into the trap of leaning forward throughout a scene. The problem is that once you’re in that position, there’s very little new that can happen. You’re stuck.

For some reason that forward-leaning position stifles physical and emotional freedom. It cuts you off emotionally at your waist so it’s more difficult to deeply feel something.

Remember some of the bad acting you saw in high school? How when a young actor wanted to show that she was really mad, she would bend at the waist and yell? She was cutting herself off, emotionally, at the waist.

The act of leaning forward is often an outcome of wanting to please the audience. It’s a very weak position to be in. When you lean forward, it very often feels like you are subconsciously saying, “Please like me!”

Remember, this should be a “selfish” experience.

In love scenes actors tend to want to lean forward towards the person they are attracted to. As if getting closer to the person will show you are attracted to them. In truth, leaning forward physically closes you off, while leaning back opens up your body, making you more available and vulnerable. It’s sexier.

Time and time again, I have found that if an actor who is leaning forward is given the adjustment to “lean back” and the opportunity to do the scene again, the second time will always be more connected, freer, and new choices will come pouring out.

Please feel free to lean forward in a scene, as much as you like, but just make sure it’s a choice, and that your “home base” is leaning back.