The Other Side of the Table

The casting process. For an actor, it's where our hopes of being given the chance to shine lay in other peoples hands. We practice, prepare, and perform for Casting Directors, Directors, Producers, product clients, etc.  and when we leave the room, our minds go bonkers in wondering if we nailed it.  Did I hit that mark?  Did I make the right choices?  I made them laugh, so they must like it, right?  I should have looked up instead of down. They didn't give me any other directions or feedback, so I must have totally sucked!  So, much rubbish clouds our minds when we leave the audition room because we don't know what the people sitting on the other side of the table are thinking.  Typically you get little feedback or they say "thank you" and send you on your way and even though we try not to, we continue to think about the whole event long after it's done.  Then you realize, after the shoot dates have past, you didn't get picked, and you wonder why.  It's not a self pity thing, it's just natural and hard not to do.

I wrote and produced a short film. I highly recommend doing this because you get a totally different perspective on the process and production as a whole.  One of the best things I ever got to do was hold auditions and help cast the roles. I was on the other side of the table. 

The start of the audition/casting process was with the submissions.  I posted my project breakdowns on LACasting.com and ActorsAccess.com. It's was very exciting and scary because you don't know if anyone will submit to your project or not or, for that matter, the right looking people for the part.  I gotta tell you, I got a lot of bikini, sexy-glamored "headshots" for the role of a professional couples counselor.  You were also able to tell who probably didn't read the breakdown and just submitted because they were probably mass submitting to everything and anything on the site.  We had a role for a 5 year old girl, and for her submission we got a family photo that looked like those early 90's family portraits where everyone is wearing the same knitted sweater.  This particular family also submitted themselves for the role of our thug, doctor, councilor, street vendor, and homeless man.  In their "notes to the director", they said they they are a family of performers and are all versatile actors who can play anything.  Wow.  On the positive end, I remember picking a guy to audition for me; he looked, at best, basic for the character, but he had a clever note that reminded me of Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters (one of my top 5 movies of all time). I'm not saying that everyone should have a clever note. It's just he happened to hit a note with me at the moment and I liked it.  For our thug, we had a very specific idea of what type of look we wanted; very approachable, but a hint of crazy.  It was even in the breakdown.  We got a lot of typical gangster looking to mafia types, all with very strong harsh looks.  Nothing approachable. Only one guy fit the bill perfectly.  He was the perfect candidate because his headshot, resume, demo reel, and look were all perfect (including his audition).  All these factors have made me, as an actor, aware of what I am putting forth in my submission and paying attention to what they are asking in the breakdowns.  KNOW YOURSELF, KNOW THE ROLES, AND WHAT THEY ARE ASKING FOR.

The team was the Director, the producer ( who happened to be my wife) and myself ( writer and producer), filtering out who we wanted to audition for us based on a picture, resume, and a demo reel if we were lucky.  We argued on some and agreed on others,  but the bottom line is, it was three different people with three different opinions on the actors that submitted.  This essentially played a factor on who was coming in or not for the audition.  So you see, there is already a filter before you even get called in to audition.  You not getting the audition that you thought you were perfect for, may have been for A NUMBER OF REASONS.  It may be in the hands of one person or many.  

Then the fun part; the auditions.  I was particularly excited for this because I would get a chance to see other actors work and how they prepared (or didn't) for the roles that I created.  The audition starts first and foremost with BEING ON TIME!  The playwright, David Mamet, said something like "Being early is being on time.  On time is late.  Late is unforgivable."  The majority of our actors were early or right on the dot, but we had some that were late and they called to inform us that they were.  Only one said he would be late, but never showed up and one that was scheduled and never notified us that he would not be auditioning.  

The sign in sheet was interesting as well.  Most wrote all the info we were asking for.  Others wrote just their name.  Two people just wrote a first name and nothing else.  And a few scribbled and had unreadable penmanship.  I felt that those that didn't write all the info or scribbled their stuff didn't seem to care much.  You may think, they have my info on the website or my email,  but would if we don't, for whatever reason?  The sign-in info is there for a reason.  Fill it out.  

It was impressive to see the work some of the actors put towards my little ol' short film.  I felt honored that they had their scene prepared and made choices.  It wasn't so much about having the scene memorized, but more of having done the homework.  They asked questions if needed and I wasn't offended if they did.  When I first started auditioning, I was already scared to audition, let alone ask a question.  I thought I would offend the writer or whomever, thinking that they thought I didn't get the material.  Ask any Casting Director, and they will tell you that its ok to ask about the material.  Don't be afraid to do so.  

Some actors obviously put little to no care into the material.  Sure, it was a no budget, non payed short film, but you agreed to audition for it then you should treat it like you were auditioning for the lead role in a network show.  If anything, it would be a good practice session, especially if you are just starting to audition.  One actress looked great for the part of the doctor based on her headshot and resume, but she came in looking like she had partied hard the night before, didn't know the script, apologized for not knowing the script, didn't even bother to try to do a good cold read, and basically gave up in the middle of the audition and we were done.  That was probably the worst audition of the day. 

One guy came in and was just naturally the personification of the character of the street vendor.  He was a little dry in the acting department but wasn't bad at all.  The thing that wasn't good was he wasn't keen to the audition routine.  His fault was that he positioned himself at a weird angle so we only got a profile of his acting on camera and he moved a lot and was distracting.  Moving around isn't bad, but you have to center it so everything stays within the camera's frame.  So there is another aspect of auditioning that a good Casting Director workshop or on camera auditioning class would help.  

The most eye opening of the whole experience was this: it came down to two actresses for the marriage counselor.  We will call the first one Dawn and the second one Tina.  The set up of the scene was the counselor was consoling the wife, but would feel a presence in the room that was neither of them.  Based on her headshot, Dawn was a shoe-in.  She had the perfect look, resume and demo reel.  She came in to the audition and was seemingly perfect.  Tina, on the other hand, was good, but didn't quite hit it out of the ballpark in the audition room.  She was more downplayed compared to Dawn, but very pleasant and had a good look for the part, but just didn't quite impress us in the room.  When we got home, I was excited to review the audition tape of everyone.  When we got to Dawn's, it played a lot different on the camera then we remembered in the audition room.  It seemed way over the top and cheesy.  In retrospect, we should have given her the note in the audition, but at the time it didn't seem like we needed any tweaking.  Maybe we should have gave here a note just for good measure, I don't know.  When we compared Dawn's performance to Tina, Tina played differently on camera too.  She was more natural and counselor-ish than Dawn.  The three of us debated for a while about it, but ultimately it came down to us choosing Tina, the one who we initially thought was good-not-great in the audition, because the tape showed us something totally different and better. 

Being on the other side of the table was an experience I hope that every actor can experience. It further affirmed my work ethic, promptness, and studies to be good at what I do at an audition.  I learned that there are so many factors that go into picking the right person for the job and even though you may have done a stellar job and initially impressed the audition room, there may be something else at play that may not land you the job and it was completely out of your hands.  Though I still at times ride that roller coaster of emotions and thoughts after an audition (I don't think any actor, no matter how experienced, can say they never do), I have a better understanding of the process and am more confident and better at the audition process because of this. More often than not, I can walk away feeling really good about my work and not thinking too deeply about it after.

The Audition is Running Late?

You arrive at your audition early as always.  Your appointment is 12pm and you figure you'll be there for about a half hour and you'll be able to meet the wife and son for lunch. Typically you walk in, find the closest restroom because you have been in the car for an hour or so, sign in, run your lines in the hall or at your seat, you may run in to an acquaintance and chat it up, then get called in, audition, and walk out by about 12:25pm.  Today, you walk in and you see a line of actors leading from the waiting area through the hall.  You hear whispers of "I've been here since 10am and still haven't been called in."  You can't find the sign in sheet, and the person who has it is not the assistant as there isn't one.  You sign your name under 25+ people ahead of you.  The group that is in now doesn't come out for about 15 min. Actors are ditching the audition because they can't stay any longer for whatever the reason. You find out that it is in groups of 4 for the audition.  Since there is no assistant, it's chaos as to who is to go next, thus, further slowing down the process and because people are leaving without notice, the order is getting mixed up and you have no idea when your turn is next. The Casting Director comes out once and looks stressed and the names he calls for up for next are either here or not, making the CD even more stressed, completely screwing up his process and wasting everyone's time.

I must admit, I wanted to leave too. I was already passed my typical half hour mark. At a certain point it was ridiculous and didn't seem worth it.  I assessed the situation and thought, "How will that look to my agent that I just ditched the audition."   How would that look to the Casting Director who I may audition for again?  What does that say about my work ethic?

Now, there are union rules for this type of situation where if the audition goes longer than a certain amount of time, they pay you.  It wasn't till after this particular situation that I looked up the rules.  I will post links at the bottom of 2 articles that address this issue.  The articles also give you things to consider before you make an issue of it but this is how I handled it.

So what should you do?  By all means, in my opinion, you have a right to leave and your agent would probably agree.  I definitely thought about it and almost did however, I just thought it would be the wrong thing, FOR ME, to do.  I stepped up to the plate and took charge of the situation. I knew that if someone would do something to help the process along, things would get moving and I wouldn't be too late for my lunch plans. 

I grabbed the sign in sheet and began calling out names as to who was still here and who had left the building. I began putting actors in groups of four accordingly. As people came in I would sign them up and tell them who they would be entering with. What about my lines?  I was prepared.  I did the homework as any actor should do before the audition, so it wasn't a worry to me.   The line of people began to move. The actors moods began to change. They began thanking me for stepping up. The tension in that room lifted. I also made sure that there was someone else willing to continue the work when I left and because I stepped up, there were others willing to do the same now. 

Things moved surprisingly fast after that and I got in the audition room 45-50 minutes of my arrival. Not bad considering the situation. The word got to him of what I was doing. He seemed less stressed about the day and things were moving along.  He thanked me for helping out.

I wasn't looking for praise from the CD and hoping he would hire me because of it.  I just wanted to leave on time and have lunch with my family.  I just felt that it was the right thing to do at the time.

At different audition, the same type of thing was happening but this time, actors were very vocal amongst themselves.  They started saying mean things about the CD, huffing and puffing in the halls, reciting union rules, etc.  How did that help the situation and how did that help their audition?  How does it help if you are not in the mind set for your audition.  I'm sure it threw off some of the actors and it affected their performance.  In this particular room I kept my calm and cool and went over my lines and what I was going to do.  I just figured it was extra time to work out my nerves and yes, I had things that needed to be done that it was holding me back on.  My choice was to stay and complete the audition.  The upset actors could have left if it was that bad for them and taken it up with their agent or union rep.  Some had real worries about who was going to pick their kids up from daycare or that they needed to get back to work.  I believe there is a way to present yourself in these types of situations and a time and place to voice your concerns.  I actually walked away from this audition very confident that I was at the top of my game despite the long wait and thick room and guess what?  I booked that role!  

A lot of times things aren't perfect. Sometimes the situation calls for someone to step up to the plate and lead in the name of professionalism. I don't think I would have been looked down at for leaving if I did, but it wouldn't have been professional of me. 

Here are the links to the articles I mentioned.

From Casting Director Bonnie Gillespie:
http://bonniegillespie.com/blog/sign-in-sign-out/

From Backstage.com:
http://www.backstage.com/advice-for-actors/commercials/signing-in-signing-out/

A Parallel Universe

Coming off the heals of the "Super Bowl" of wrestling, Wrestlemania 30 was touted as one of the best in years by many fans.  I was a fan of wrestling as a child, and a HUGE fanatic in my teens.  My dream was to become the WWE champion but in the last 10 years I became a casual fan and not really paying attention to what is going on.  Sunday's Wrestlemania and Monday's Raw shows being top notch, it got me fired up again and excited; hence my first acting blog post being about wrestling!

I see a parallel in the business of wrestling and the business of acting (I'm not comparing pro-wrestling as "fake" to acting as "fake"  I'm talking real business aspects here).  There is a stage, an audience, and a performance. I actually know a bit about the business of professional wrestling as I trained in it for about a year.  It was my original career choice but I learned a lot in that year even whilst never having a single match.  In some ways, I carry my wrestling knowledge with me in the audition room, stage, and sets.

Long story short, my wife saw my practice session and saw how the sessions were often stopped because I was selling my hurt so well.  On the way home, she asked "Have you ever thought about acting?"  and it snowballed from there.

The business of professional wrestling can be a very difficult one; challenging, depressing, glorious, fruitful, income-less, happy, creative, exciting, and then you hate it and then love it all at once  just like acting.

Wrestlers often start at a young age, some drop out of school to follow this path.  A wrestler's journey starts in a wrestling school or gym.  They practice, memorize, work muscles and body parts they never knew existed.  Before they work their actual practice of moves, they start by doing warm up drills.  This is they place where they discover their limitations and their strengths.  Learn how to fall and then get back up.  Sound like acting class?  Yeah, it does.  Acting class is our gym.  This is where we learn our move set, learn what we are capable of, we make mistakes and learn from them.  Before we delve into our scenes with our partners we start with theater games for warm-up.

From here a wrestler will start having matches.  Usually their first matches are in front of a crowd of 10-15 fans in a hall or a high school gym and usually payed $0.  They are working for the guy who has the aspiration of having his promotion become the next WWE.  They get hurt, the ring is not in the best shape, they are nervous, they forget what they learned and miss a step. Things go wrong.  They do this in the hope that they made something watchable for those few fans in attendance. and continue to do so to, now, here is the the correlation,  build a resume and a name for themselves.  Actors do this with student films or web-series, etc.  I'm not discounting the quality of some of these things as I have been apart of some really good student films and some really horrible ones but its where you learn outside of school.  It's the start of your "real world" experience.  You build your resume as best you can so you have something to show an agent or casting director.

There are those that think they will be the star of the next big budget flick straight out of acting school or the next WWE Champion right out of wrestling school.  NOT LIKELY!  Over night success is not a tangible goal however there are some that are lucky.  I remember I was half way through my year of wrestling school.  I was actually one of the better wrestlers but by no means had the physic needed.  I was technically short for  the wrestler type.  I didn't have the wrestler "look."  A new guy walks in looking like he could be young Arnold Schwarzenegger's double.  He could barely keep up in class, didn't know many moves.  Nice guy and all, but just wasn't getting it.  Two weeks in, he was put in a professional match because he had "the look".  It was probably a 2 minute match of him running back and forth really He had "the look" but very little experience.  Me,  I hadn't even been considered for a high school gym match yet.  We as actors often here about the  "look" or "it-factor."  That's why, unfortunately, you see bad actors on T.V. before you, the experienced and well learned one, is.  It's the nature of the two business but that doesn't mean for a second you should stop and drop your schooling and learning to concentrate on your "look".  That is the probably the second or third thing you should worry about if you want to be taken as a serious and talented actor.   Yes, a look does help and eventually you will need to figure out your look but the profession is looking for talent and ultimately talent and training will oversee "look".

The man pictured above is named Daniel Bryan.  At Wrestlemania 30, he became the WWE Champion facing the odds stack against him.  The storyline was that he was being held down by the authority of the company, no matter how talented or loved by the fans he was.  The company didn't see him as championship material.  That was the storyline, but mirrored the real life going-ons of that business.  A lot of talented wrestlers are held down for someone who the company thinks should be champion, no matter the amount of talent.  They see who can make them the most money.  Daniel Bryan, in real life, persevered by his individuality, character, talent, and showing in every match that he was better than anyone they put him up against despite his lack of a wrestler's "look".  It took him years of people telling him "no"but he continued to say "YES!"  In fact, that has now become his in ring chant and has caught on world wide with fans.  He said "YES!" to himself and to what he knew he could do in his career.  After being told "no", there he stood as the WWE Champion and number one guy in that business and it wasn't overnight.  It took him about 15 years of a long hard road of ups and downs, just like in acting.

Say "YES!" to yourself.  Say "YES!" to your career.  "YES!"  In both businesses, it is proven that talent, individuality, persistence, and perseverance, ultimately, wins!

The Workingman's Actor?

Hello!  Thank you for visiting The Workingman's Actor blog. 

The term "working actor" is usually used to define an actor who, while he/she may never achieve stardom, has a long and productive career, earns a better than decent living, and has the admiration of his/hers peers.  

So why the "workingman's actor"?  A workingman is defined as "a man who works for wages, especially in manual or industrial work."  I feel that this stage of an acting career is not often explained or viewed or there isn't a lot of dissecting of the struggles or the actor goes through to get to the next level. When researching "how to become an actor", you get the typical "Step 1: go to acting class and move to Hollywood and get an agent."  Then you get articles or interviews that jump right into a persons burgeoning career after they just happened to meet "so and so" and they got a part on this show and, now, here they are, a working actor!  But what about the in between?  I have an agent, gone to acting classes, have my head shots, have a decent resume, but, haven't gotten that coveted guest spot, haven't got a residual check, haven't built a relationship with casting directors. I'm still working for my wages doing extra work, industrials, and local spots. 

I am inviting you to see my perspective and thoughts in my journey in the trenches of attaining my goals. I will share what may or may not worked for me, my observations, thoughts, tips, etc. on this level of an acting career. 

Join me and hopefully we can figure this out together. I hope that, if anything, I can help one person on their journey in becoming a working actor.