As an actor, you audition a lot for ‘the girlfriend’ or the ‘hot girl.’
There’s no substitute to actually being in the room and having people in the room feel the force of your audition. It’s very hard to beat that.
If I had even the tiniest scrap of advice to give to a young actor who was figuring out how to audition, I would say don’t memorize the script… The reality about auditions is that 98 percent of the results has to do with what you are, not with what you did in the audition.
My job is to go into that audition and be good enough of an Asian actor – or an actor in general – to land that role so they don’t have to go out and hire a white guy. My job is to make sure I capitalize on these opportunities that other people created.
The stressful thing about being an actor is, like, you have to kind of audition again and again and again, you know? You go in one time, and you go in again for a director and then again for producers and then again and again and again.
If you go for an audition, you have a character description, and for the women, it’s always about being beautiful, sexy. And for the men it’s more about the character than how he appears physically. That annoys me.
I’ve been a fan of ‘Survivor’ for a long time. I even applied for a season. I made a really stupid audition tape. For some reason, I thought if I spoke in a German accent, whoever was casting would think it was funny and put me on the show. But that didn’t work!
With WWE, I got this audition and thought there was no way that I was going to actually get the job. They were doing the WWE Diva Search at the time, and I didn’t think I would get the job because I wasn’t a wrestler.
I used to be a wonderful auditioner. When I was living in New York, I’d audition every day. And I like to audition. But then it got to a point where I didn’t like it anymore.
Auditioning is a skill. There are actors who are not very talented but know how to audition and know how to be really confident in the room and are confident enough to be able to charm the pants off anybody.
My first audition was for a commercial for the lottery. I didn’t get it, so I hate the lottery.
My first audition was an open call and I had no picture and no resume – that’s how clueless I was. I just thought I could show up.
My first audition as a little girl was ‘Interview with the Vampire’ for Kirsten Dunst’s part. Back then, they were meeting all different kinds of girls, and I was one of them. There’s got to be an audition tape somewhere on VHS. Who would have known that many years later I would be on a vampire show?
I was asked to audition for the second season of ‘Stranger Things.’ I didn’t want that level of exposure. I don’t want to be TV famous.
I got dared to audition for a play by my best friend Paul. He got cast in ‘Hamlet,’ and I got cast in ‘Prelude to a Kiss,’ and that changed everything.
The only thing that’s required of an actor for an audition is to memorize your sides with confident choices, and then the rest is not up to you. You’re either right for a part or you’re not.
Donny Hathaway’s ‘For All We Know’ is the song that I’ve sung the longest. It is a beautiful song about living in the moment and appreciating this very second. That is the song I did for my ‘Rent’ audition.
When I first started out, I absolutely begged my agent to get me a Poirot audition, and my wish came true – I did a Poirot! I need to do a Marple to round it off.
My first audition happened to be for ‘Kindergarten Cop,’ and I took that role. I was only starting to learn English at that point. Spanish is my first language, so they made me a speaking character in the movie. I didn’t really know I was shooting a movie. I was just having a lot of fun with 30 kids my own age.
I have found that so many directors and producers in the room say nothing, and this can be deadly. It’s very difficult to audition for comedy in the vacuum of a small room, but it’s the only way most do it.
People forget, most of the times we audition with people who aren’t necessarily actors. So it doesn’t matter who or what’s in front of you: you still have to have the same realism and invested emotions.
Being a filmmaker in the digital platform has given me complete creative control. I can make what I want, when I want. I don’t have to wait to book an audition.
When I was five, I went on my first audition. It was for a Pizza Hut commercial.
‘Dawson’s Creek’ was my introduction to the industry. It put some money in my pocket and it put me in the position I wanted to be in, where I could audition for projects that I wanted to be a part of. I didn’t find it creatively fulfilling in any way though.
I remember I went to audition for the first Daniel Craig Bond film, ‘Casino Royale.’ I was there in this Versace dress, and I remember looking in the mirror, and I couldn’t have felt less like a Bond girl if I tried.
I’m good at cold reading; I’ve made a living doing this, and most of the time I do audition, but it’s very tough. It’s a very uncomfortable, awkward process. You never get used to it, really.
People will go into an audition and a casting situation, and they’ll see someone across the room that’s perhaps slightly famous, or famous, and they think, ‘Oh God, I’m not gonna get the part.’
My 20s was a sea of worry. I worried about benefit forms, about being thrown out of my flat. I never went on holiday because I thought: ‘What if an audition comes up?’ I was a nervous wreck.
The best piece of life advice I’ve ever been given is to not take every no to heart – especially with my Little Fires Everywhere audition story.
I come from theatre and I like the audition process.
I’m not good at Disney acting. I’m really not. I never was on that audition list, which I don’t mind. I don’t know. I look back, and I’m kind of wiping my forehead at the thought of, ‘What if I had gone that route?’
I actually hated dancing. My mum used to have to bribe me to go by buying me things. A year before I stopped going, I was going to go for an audition with the Royal Ballet. It turned out I was a year too young. Because I was tall, they thought I was older. But before I had the chance to go back, I quit.
The first audition I did was for ‘Trapper John, M.D.’ I was surprised to get the part, and then to have it last for seven years was a bonus.
The audition process is always grueling. You always hope to just get offered things, and sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t.
I don’t have any ego, and I will go and audition for parts if I’m offered an interesting script.
I literally remember when I made my audition tape for ‘Buffy’. I went to the Arsenal Mall. I got my outfit at Contempo Casuals in the Arsenal Mall and put some safety pins in my jeans. I remember telling whoever the clerk was that I was making a tape for ‘Buffy’, and they were so excited.
The Professional Children’s School, it’s for professional kids, so if you wanted to ditch, you could just write, Audition on a note and leave. I didn’t really like school all that much.
I’m not one of those people who can cry on cue. If I have to cry in an audition, I’m like, ‘Okay, let me see what I can do.’
My family moved from Massachusetts to Maryland after my sophomore year of high school, and that’s when I got the audition for ‘Uncle Buck.’ I took the train into New York, and I think I did the test with John Candy. Then I got the part, and it was my first movie and my first screen anything.
They warned me, ‘you’re going to be doing the screen test with Daniel Radcliffe a week after the audition.’ And then in the hair and make up department, he walked up behind and scared me. But you get used to him quickly because he tries to make you feel very welcome and at home.
I got an agent when I needed one, when I had a contract negotiation for the first time. I was doing the Second City E.T.C., and I got invited to audition for the last season, it turns out, of ‘In Living Color.’
I live in Surrey, but up until the age of eight I lived in London. And the way I heard about this ‘Peter Pan’ film was there was an open-call audition that I’d heard about, or read about, and I just thought, ‘Oh, I’ll go along for the fun.’ Because I never dreamed in a million years I’d ever get it.
And after every audition I booked, my parents would buy me a Barbie, so that was it for me: You got a Barbie, and you got to hang out with friends. And I thought it was just the best thing ever.
When my first play was produced, I had this sudden feeling that I feel powerful. Like, the next time I go into an audition room, and it’s me and the same eight girls as always, I will have this thing that no one can take away from me. They can see us all as interchangeable. But I am not interchangeable.
Meeting with the director is an audition.
Trans talent is not even making it into the audition room, and we’re not even being afforded the opportunity to tell our own stories. I feel that is problematic.
When I was in casting, we would bring somebody in, have them read their lines, maybe give them a few pointers, and hire them, and then once they go to the set and you have a director who’s directing them, that performance may not be anywhere near what you had in the audition, either good or bad.
I couldn’t believe it! I mean, I’d always dreamed of acting on the screen – my previous background was all theater – but I wasn’t sure if the opportunity would ever present itself. Not only was this acting for the screen, this was acting in ‘The Hunger Games!’ I knew that I had to give this audition my all.
