Actors, do not make this post audition mistake. I see this happen a lot when I’m casting a part for one of the TV shows I’m working on. So 10 actors will read for the part and obviously only one person is going to get it. So it’s very natural for everyone to come in for a part, and after the audition, they’re like well, I didn’t get that. And they just crumple up the script and take off and that’s the end of that. And that may be healthy because then they can move on.
But the problem is, one actor will get booked and that person they’ll find out within, I don’t know, like a day or two, and then the part will play maybe in a week or so. Then they come to set and we do a read-through and they read the part in the same way when they got booked. And in that rehearsal process, their performance morphs, and it just turns into something else. And now they’re not doing the part the way they did in the audition, which is what we loved. And so sometimes I’ll say, Hey, uh, can you do it the way you did in the audition? And they’re like, oh, what did I do in the audition? And now like, there’s no time for me to work with them. They’re like, I don’t really have that kind of rehearsal time. And I don’t even know if I could, even if I had that rehearsal time. So it’s the job of the actor to lock in their performance after their audition. Like if you have notes, however, you want to do it, you keep notes. Hang on to your notes and refer to them more. If you want to have your cell phone and record yourself after the audition, just so you know, that’s great.
Someone who morphs their role too much after the audition isn’t someone I want to work with again because I paid for one thing and they’re giving me something else. And I can’t get that now. So actors, after your rehearsal, after your audition, lock it in. For more tips, follow me @MichaelJaminwriter.
