I put a lot of pressure to keep working. And when I’m not working, my agent books three auditions a day. I’d rather go to the set and work.
I don’t try and be competitive with auditions. When I go on one, I kind of just forget about it.
I often feel that my days in New York City, that I was here for five years, didn’t get one job, went on a thousands of auditions and literally did not get a job on a soap, not a movie, not TV, not nothing, although I did do some commercials thank God.
Auditions are an opportunity to play and go in there and bring the character to life. The writers have it stuck in their head and haven’t seen it jump off the page.
I’m good at forgetting auditions, and then there is a surprise to getting something.
In auditions, you’re not up against anyone else; you’re both going in for the role, and it’s like, whoever’s right for it will get it. It’s simple. It’s not like, ‘Oh I won!’ There’s never that element. It is very supportive.
Drama at Bristol was an academic course: you were judged on your A-levels, and there were no auditions. I did a BA General degree.
I like to wear my dad’s shoes to auditions as sort of a lucky thing. I feel like I’m on solid ground.
I realized that the actors that I liked and admired all went to drama school and got an agent that way. So I started when I was about 16 in drama school, and then I knew I had to wait until I was 18 so I could go on auditions, and I tried to get into one of the ones that I liked and then go from there.
Talking about auditions, you never know what anyone else is thinking.
And then I saw this article in ‘Time Out’ magazine for TV presenters, so I went along with my sisters and we did this audition. It was open auditions, it was just a fun day out, but there were maybe 600 people there or something. It was just crazy.
If you read the script, and the character’s got something in it that you relate to, then I am keen. But I really think, a lot of the time, my successful auditions are those where I really care about the characters.
Arsene Wenger asked me to have a trial with Arsenal when I was 17. I turned it down. Zlatan doesn’t do auditions.
My auditions for drama school were miserable, but one thing I had on my side, although I had no experience or skill or training, was that I wanted to learn everything.
I got a film fairly quickly and felt like I was on a roll. I would walk into auditions sounding like Crocodile Dundee, thinking, ‘This is going to be a novelty for them.’ Then I realised that there are a million other Australians here, and I should just shut up.
It is unfortunate that in every industry, there are people who take advantage of needy people, but I would like to tell all the budding actors not to be vulnerable and always have a backup plan because rejection in auditions and films is not the end of the world.
You aren’t allowed to ask at auditions, legally, a person’s race.
I hate auditions – when I’m doing them, I can’t wait to get out the bleeding door.
I don’t really get nervous for auditions, because I just see them as mini acting classes. There’s no need to have an attachment to the outcome because it’s out of your hands after that.
I grew up in a house where my father went on auditions, and he got some and he lost some, and there were good years and lean years. I didn’t expect anything from the business, and that’s often a danger in Hollywood, the notion that if you’re pretty and have white teeth and just show up for the game then you’ll win.
After college, I was an intern at the New York Theater Workshop. In the mornings, I would build sets and hang lights, and in the afternoon, I would be the reader for auditions.
I would have gone to law school, or gotten a psychology degree. I wasn’t interested in sleeping on a futon forever. And what happened is I walked into auditions, and I had nothing to lose, because I had a backup plan.
There were definitely auditions and even bookings and jobs where I played your typical Asian model minority: an IT tech guy or something of that nature. It’s tough sometimes, especially when you’re starting out, because they make these roles sound as if they won’t be a typical nerd.
I fell into acting because I was really shy, and so at night after work, I took public speaking and improv classes, and I started going to auditions sort of as a dare. That was my version of ‘Fear Factor.’
When you are an actor or trying to be a working actor in L.A., most people have commercial agents, and then they have legitimate agents, and you just end up going on a thousand auditions.
I went to school to be an actor in Canada and realized I hated auditions once I left, which is a huge problem if you want to get a part.
My father would take me to auditions and put me in the room right in the corner because he was watching me; he couldn’t get a babysitter. He’d be at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the LES until four in the morning, trying to tell his story and using his craft, but because he had a kid that didn’t let him stop.
I have friends that are much better actors than I am that had to quit the business because they couldn’t survive the auditions or the rejections, or people just didn’t realize how good they were.
I think because there is the constant looming threat of nepotism and judgment, I really tried to separate what I was doing at MTV, my auditions, anything I was doing creatively, from my family.
After that I got an agent and went on like a million auditions. You win some, you lose some.
Little by little, when I was doing auditions in New York, I discovered I was good. People there were enthusiastic.
Have I done more business-related things to help my career grow? Yeah. I took the business end more seriously, hooked up with a manager, got some help, because at a certain point, you get frustrated when you go do auditions, and people say you did a great job, and then you don’t get he part.
There were times when I’d go to lawyer auditions, and everyone’s in a suit, and I’m covered in concrete and paint.
One of the first auditions I had in New York was for a commercial where I had to go in and audition to be a snake charmer… It was either some bank commercial or something where they wanted a guy charming a snake… I remember they wanted to know if I actually knew how to snake charm.
It’s true; I have a skill and it’s… it has not related to acting, it’s not related to auditions, it’s not related to studios, not related to public whim. It’s whether I’m funny or not and whether I can entertain people.
My mom would drive me from Cleveland to New York City and use my dad’s hotel points for auditions. They were the most supportive parents that I could have. Without them, I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.
People get TV deals by doing something in their grandmother’s basement. It is definitely the wave. Everybody is trying to do all that stuff. I mean, the Internet is the only reason that I’ve gotten work is because I’ve somehow created a line and people have seen it. And then I’ve been asked to auditions.
Before acting took off, I was a professional kiteboarder training for the world circuit; with a sporting activity, you have to be determined, and it taught me to have a thick skin, which came in use after going to so many auditions and being told ‘no.’
Pilot season tends to be grueling, because you can be thrown all of these auditions at once – last-minute, always – and you’re going on three a day, especially back in the day.
At a certain point, I had to be like, ‘I will not do any more auditions with a Middle Eastern accent.’
I went for endless auditions for tiny parts in obscure plays, and never got one job until I was in ‘Four Weddings’.
I started off as a recording engineer and a beatmaker. I was this skater kid that would skateboard to auditions, and then I would use the money I’d make and buy a bunch of equipment and make a bunch of beats. I still am that kid, just with a little more money.
What’s so kind of beautiful about the whole thing was that everything that made me not right for all of those hundreds of commercial auditions that I went on and no one ever wanted me for is what made me perfectly right for ‘Real Women Have Curves’.
I was bartending for a long time and going on auditions and was constantly being rebuffed.
Just getting auditions was rough. But also just learning how to act – when I did my first role, in a film I did which was a favour to a friend, I realised I was really bad at it.
This business – the auditions, the anxiety – it’s all so, aaah, crazy! But I can always call my mom in Cuba to be reminded of what real life is.
I’ve been in the industry from the age of 9, so I have an agent. That’s how you get auditions.
When I moved out to L.A., I went on 156 auditions before I booked a single thing.
I’ve had some rank auditions where I embarrassed myself to new heights, which is hard for me to do. I was never good at auditioning. There are a number of actors over the years come up the ranks who are horrific at auditioning.
Well, the hard part about doing auditions is that the person reading you the lines, they’re not really into it. They’re just going, ‘Oh really, so why do you think that?’ And they’re just looking at a piece of paper.
I was modeling with an agency in New York and a manager with the agency introduced himself to me one day and he said he had auditions for someone my age. He asked if I would be interested in doing some.
