Acting

Auditions/Casting/Things

Okay so like I can't remember if I've put this somewhere else or not or if I've just had generally long convos about it with friends or if I've just dreamed I've had convos about it butttttttt auditions are kinda weird. Auditions, castings they're all kinda the same word for the same thing - which is your agent (or yourself) sends a headshot of you, a demo reel or clips of what youve done, a resume (yeah actors have resumes/cv's) to a casting agent. The casting agent, depending on the size of the project and what it is, may end up getting literally 100's if not a few thousand of these submissions. Then they skim through all the headshots and pick ones that look like the "type" they're after. They tell your agent and boom you have a casting/audition. Well that's baso how it works for film and tv at least. There are other rules like if you're union affiliated or not but that's all complicated stuff and not interesting so f that. For theater it's kinda the same. Might not be the same volume of people applying because typically when you're doing a show you're in the same city for 1-2 months prior to the show starting for rehearsals and so it's usually limited to people that live close to that city or don't mind/can live where the rehearsals and play will be. But it's still baso the same. So it's weird huh?? You get picked out from a photo. So yeah headshots are kinda important but it's also important that they represent you. Like for example your headshot can't be you with short hair and now you have long hair. So you always need to update your headshot.

But the reason why auditions are weird is that baso there's this weird moment at the end where you don't know how you did. Like you walk into a room with a group of people watching you, do your thing, answer any questions, say thank you and leave. Like, you know when you watch like talent shows on tv and stuff and like they'll be a judging panel and like I swear I know his name but I can think of it right now but he's English and kinda a cunt but yeah at the end the judges give the contestant feedback about what they thought? Yeah....no. In auditions you don't get feedback. You're actually kinda lucky if you get a smile, laugh or anything. It's really fucking weird and fucks with your head. At least it did for me at the beginning but now it doesn't as much.

So this chapter is to remind me (and you if you're reading this) that during an audition there is no real audience kinda. Like your job isn't to make someone laugh or cry or whatever. You're job is to do the very best you can do with what you have and if you can walk out of the audition knowing you did that then that's like your kinda goal I guess. Like your whole focus should be on what your character is doing, what they want, how they're going to get it, what they're fighting for and all those sorts of things and it shouldn't be about trying to get the approval of the casting people. Because if your whole goal is to try and win approval from someone else and that's your primary goal then you immediately begin to lose track of what you need to do.

So for the next chapter I'm gonna put down quotes, things I've heard, things I've thought of, things that have been told to me n all that stuff so that during those weird moments of wondering how you did you can instead begin to think more about the whole thing of "I just walked into a room with 2-7 strangers watching me, a camera recording me, and I feel good about what I wanted to do". Some of the quotes n stuff r kinda like just for acting but some of them are kinda chill for just feeling good about yourself generally in life.