Thursday was what I call an Actor Day.
I had three auditions within 5 hours of each other, all over town. The first was in Burbank for Long Running Network Drama - a one-liner, and half of my line was in Hebrew. Needless to say, I enlisted some of my Chosen friends to help out with the translation. It went... all right. I was off my game. It wasn't horrible, it wasn't great, I was just... off. Still, it's a terrible feeling to walk out of an audition, knowing I could have done better. Since I had the two other auditions that day, I didn't have time to wallow in self-pity. Well, I had the time it took to drive from Burbank to Santa Monica. There I had a commercial audition - it went well, even though I waited over an hour as they were running very far behind. The delay was so bad it made another actor there late for work, so I let him go ahead of me. I guess I racked up a few karma points.
After that, I high-tailed it from Santa Monica to North Hollywood where I grabbed a very fast (but delicious) burrito and then made it for a callback for Quirky Indie Film (indeed, aren't they all?). While I sat in the waiting room, the film's production manager came in, introduced herself to the casting assistant outside and then went in to talk to the director. And then they had an impromptu meeting. That went on for about 40 minutes. This is why I always say to bring something to read or do while you wait. After the meeting was over, it was back to it. I went into the room, ready for my audition. The director had me read with his wife(?). There were many characters in the scene I was reading, so he had his wife stand up with me and then act out all the other parts. And she was all over the map -- sometimes she was reading from the script, sometimes she was making stuff up 'cause she kept losing her place. So, I ran with it - I started ad-libbing. You never know when you go in for an audition whether you can or not. For TV roles, the cardinal rule is you don't alter a syllable -- the writers are also the producers who are going to cast you. If they get the impression that you think you're funnier than they are, you're toast. So, once this odd audition started, I took it as carte blanche to run with things. The director was giving his wife far more direction than he was giving me, which is... well, whatever. It was what it was. After that, he had me read for another, smaller role, with the same set-up, so I ad-libbed more. And he laughed. A good deal.
Which apparently has paid off, 'cause I landed that smaller role in Quirky Indie Film. I shoot it next week.
w00t! congrats. and i am dying to hear more, now that i know who you were with. :)
Posted by: katie d | October 03, 2007 at 06:27 PM