Why You Shouldn't Plan Exactly Where to Pause in an Audition
A well-placed pause can be incredibly effective in an audition. It can create tension, allow a difficult thought to land or make us wonder what the character is about to...
Acting Advice
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Why Your Audition May Improve When You Stop Showing the Character's Thoughts
That's useful advice, but it can produce a peculiar misunderstanding: if the camera can see thought, perhaps you need to make sure the thought is visible.
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Why Your Audition Can Feel Flat When Every Line Matters
That's obviously useful. The trouble begins when taking the text seriously turns into treating every sentence as equally important.
Acting Advice
Why You Shouldn't Copy the Performance You Think Casting Wants
Even without a named actor, you may recognise the type immediately. You've seen characters like this before and you have a fairly good idea how they're usually played.
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Why an Audition Can Improve When You Stop Trying to Get It Right
There is usually a moment during audition preparation when you begin searching for the correct version.
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Why Your First Reaction in an Audition May Be Too Fast
The response is clear, emotionally appropriate and perfectly timed. There's only one problem: it can sometimes feel as though you knew what they were going to say.
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Why Standing Still Can Make Your Audition More Powerful
You have a scene to perform, a camera pointing at you and perhaps only a minute or two to make an impression. Standing almost completely still can feel dangerously close...
Acting Advice
Why Your Audition Eyeline Can Change the Entire Performance
Where you look during an audition affects much more than whether your face is visible to the camera. It can alter intimacy, tension, authority and even how strongly we...
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Why Playing the Emotion Can Make an Audition Feel Less Emotional
So you prepare the sadness. You think about the weight of the moment, allow your voice to become fragile and perhaps imagine how devastated you would feel in the same...
Acting Advice
Why a Perfectly Memorised Audition Can Still Sound Rehearsed
Knowing your lines should make an audition freer. Sometimes it does exactly the opposite.
Acting Advice
Why Practising Your Audition in a Mirror Can Work Against You
You practise a scene, catch your reflection and immediately begin receiving information. That expression looks good. That one doesn't. Your head is tilted strangely....
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The Danger of Deciding Exactly Who Your Character Is Too Early
He sits a certain way. He rarely smiles. His movements are controlled. Perhaps you've even imagined the expensive watch.
Acting Advice
Why Your Audition Doesn't Need to Show Everything You Can Do
You've been given two pages, perhaps ninety seconds of screen time, and somewhere in the back of your mind is the knowledge that this may be your only opportunity to...
Acting Advice
Why the Reader Can Change Your Audition More Than You Expect
Suddenly the pauses were different. A line you expected to sound angry arrived almost casually. The reader interrupted you somewhere unexpected, and the carefully...
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Why Trying to Be Likeable Can Make an Audition Less Interesting
There is a subtle pressure in auditions that has almost nothing to do with the script.
Acting Advice
Why Your Best Audition Take Might Be the One You Nearly Deleted
And then, twenty minutes later, you watch them again and discover that take five is somehow the most interesting one.
Acting Advice
Why the First Few Seconds of a Self-Tape Matter More Than You Think
Before the confrontation, the joke, the confession or the beautifully prepared piece of dialogue, there are usually a few seconds where almost nothing appears to be...
Acting Advice
Why an Audition Can Feel Terrible and Still Be Good
One line came out differently from rehearsal. A pause disappeared. You weren't as emotional as you'd expected to be and there was a moment halfway through when you...
Acting Advice
Why You Should Sometimes Rehearse an Audition Badly on Purpose
There is a point in audition preparation where another careful rehearsal can actually make the scene worse.
Acting Advice
The Audition Note That Sounds Like Criticism but Usually Isn't
It's remarkably easy to hear a note like that and mentally translate it into: "That was wrong."
Acting Advice
Why Your Character Shouldn't Know What Happens Next
That sounds ridiculously obvious, yet it creates one of the easiest traps to fall into during an audition. Once you've rehearsed a scene repeatedly, you know that the...
Acting Advice
Why Playing the Emotion Can Make the Emotion Disappear
It's the sort of note that can send an actor straight towards the emotion. The next take gets quieter, the eyes become heavier, the pauses become longer and somewhere in...
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Why the Most Interesting Choice Is Sometimes Doing Nothing
There is a moment in some auditions when you can almost see the actor thinking, "I should probably do something here."
Acting Advice
The Tiny Physical Habit That Can Make a Character Feel Real
Sometimes an actor does something so small that you barely notice it, yet afterwards the character feels oddly complete.
Acting Advice
Why Trying to Look Confident Can Make an Audition Worse
There is a particular version of confidence that appears almost exclusively in auditions. The actor walks in with excellent posture, smiles brightly, speaks clearly,...
Acting Advice
The Line Before Your Line Is Often More Important Than Your Line
Actors spend a lot of time thinking about their lines. Where to pause, which word matters, whether a sentence should be funny, angry, vulnerable or casual. That's...
Acting Advice
Why Your Best Audition Choice Might Be the One You Nearly Threw Away
There is a peculiar moment during audition preparation when an actor has an instinct, immediately distrusts it and replaces it with something more sensible.
Acting Advice
The Audition Mistake That Happens Before You Say a Single Word
That sounds perfectly reasonable if the script says the character has just discovered a betrayal, lost their job or caught somebody lying. The problem is that the actor...
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Why Some Actors Get Better the Moment They Stop Trying to Look Like Actors
There is a peculiar thing that sometimes happens when somebody steps into an audition room: the person who was chatting naturally in the corridor disappears, and an...
Acting Advice
The Audition Skill Nobody Practises: Changing Your Performance Without Losing It
Imagine you've prepared an audition carefully. You know why your character says every line, you've found the emotional rhythm of the scene and your first read feels...
Acting Advice
The Audition Skill Nobody Practises: Changing Your Performance Without Losing It
Imagine you've prepared an audition carefully. You know why your character says every line, you've found the emotional rhythm of the scene and your first read feels...
Acting Advice
Why Casting Directors Sometimes Remember the Actor They Didn't Cast
Not getting a role can make an audition feel as though it vanished the moment you walked out of the room. Somebody else got the job, the production moved on and, from...
Acting Advice
The Audition You Thought You Blew Might Have Been Your Best One
There is a peculiar ritual actors perform after an audition. You leave the room, get halfway down the street and suddenly remember everything you did wrong. I rushed...
Acting Advice
The Actor Before You Looks Perfect for the Role — Ignore Them
Now you're conducting a detailed investigation into why this stranger is obviously going to get your job.
Audition Tips
"Do It Completely Differently" — What Does the Casting Director Want?
Being asked for a dramatically different take can feel as though your carefully prepared choices have just been removed.
Audition Tips
You Mess Up the First 10 Seconds of Your Audition — Now What?
The interesting part isn't whether you can create a completely flawless encounter.
Audition Tips
You Don't Look Like the Character — Should You Try to Change That?
Or perhaps you're auditioning for somebody glamorous and sophisticated while standing in your bedroom wearing the jumper you accidentally put through the wash at the...
Audition Tips
The Character Is Nothing Like You — Where Do You Even Start?
You once spent ten minutes wondering how to end a conversation with somebody at a bus stop.
Audition Tips
They Ask You to Improvise in the Audition — Don't Panic
You've even survived the part where everyone says hello and you briefly forget how normal human conversation works.
Audition Tips
Why Are There So Many People in My Audition?
And somebody at the far end of the table who hasn't looked up since you walked in.
Audition Tips
Your Audition Was Over in 3 Minutes — Is That a Bad Sign?
Now you're trying to interpret the speed of the audition as though somebody secretly handed you your result in code.
Audition Tips
Your Audition Reader Is Giving You Nothing — What Do You Do?
Now you're auditioning opposite a reader who appears to have all the emotional responsiveness of a parking meter.
Audition Tips
Your Audition Is Running an Hour Late — How Do You Stay Ready?
Actors occasionally face auditions that are running significantly behind schedule. Perhaps earlier sessions overran. A technical problem caused delays. The casting team...
Audition Tips
You Messed Up a Line in Your Audition — Keep Going or Stop?
You're listening. The scene feels natural. You're no longer thinking about the lines.
Audition Tips
The Casting Director's Note Makes No Sense — Now What?
You've spent three days preparing the scene on the basis that the character is furious and wants the other person to know it.
Audition Tips
"Let's Do It Again" — What Does That Actually Mean?
A second take isn't automatically a correction. Sometimes it's an opportunity to see more.
Audition Tips
You're 40 Minutes Early for Your Audition — What Now?
Being early sounds like the ideal problem to have. But those unexpected minutes can become surprisingly dangerous.
Audition Tips
They Changed the Script Just Before Your Audition
You know the lines. You've worked through the relationship. You've made choices you're happy with and finally reached that pleasant stage where you can stop thinking...
Audition Tips
You Recognise the Casting Director — Do You Say Something?
You walk into the audition room, look towards the table and immediately recognise someone.
Audition Tips
Your Audition Is Going Brilliantly — Don't Ruin It Now
You're listening rather than trying to remember what you rehearsed. The casting team seems engaged. A moment lands exactly as you'd hoped.
Audition Tips
