Regardless of the size of the budget or the name of the director, if the story is really interesting, then I can get on board with it. If it’s not, then they’re not gonna cast me anyway, because I’ll just give a terrible audition.
My very first audition was for ‘Hot Girl #1’ in some movie.
I have to audition for everything; there is no Mrs. Robbie Williams free pass, and because I’m working with British actors everyone is so polite – no one mentions Robbie.
There was no entertainment industry at all in Spokane, Washington, where I was raised. When I was 12, this movie came to town randomly, and I begged my parents to let me audition.
I flew into New York for the Raising Arizona audition, and we just started joking around.
I took my pants off in my ‘SNL’ audition. It was to do a character called Out of Breath Jogger from 1982. I had short shorts on underneath. It eventually aired, so it was worth it!
For me anyway, until I was exposed to doing improvisation and walking onto a stage without any script, I would have never felt comfortable enough to walk into a room with someone like Larry David and audition.
It was a complete no-brainer. Literally, the call came through: Andrew Lloyd Webber wanting to offer you, with no audition, The Wicked Witch of the West at the London Palladium – I’m in!
I know a lot of times you don’t even get the opportunity to audition for people you really want to work with because there is a business angle involved.
I think especially older people, and I count myself one, in the business – people get to know who you really are. So there comes a time when you can’t just go in and audition without everybody knowing exactly how you’ve brought up your kids, what you said at the meeting, what kind of food you cook.
I remember auditioning for something where the woman was supposed to be 42, and I was 33 or something, and they were like, ‘No women over 35 can audition.’ That was in the breakdown. I don’t think they would do that anymore – I would like to hope that they wouldn’t put that in writing – but it’s mind-boggling.
I bumped into Mike Epps in a barber shop. I was in the Warner Brothers studios trying to find my way for an audition and director Jordan Peele was just standing talking in a corner, so I had to introduce myself.
There were nights I was at home crying, thinking I’d never make it. I’d get up the next day and go to the audition, do my best, and try my hardest.
It happens in the West most of the time – the biggest of stars, they audition. That’s how it should happen.
I would always pick pop songs and would sing them even if they were not correct for the audition – which didn’t always get me a lot of jobs, but sometimes they did.
Actors often want to look like they’re comfortable. You want to go into an audition saying, ‘I’m your gal. I’m what you need.’ Yet you don’t want to push.
I got my Equity card from an audition out of Backstage. We did ‘Guys and Dolls’ and ‘Kismet.’
‘iCarly’ was one of my first major jobs, actually. I went into that audition and completely failed at it. I completely bombed… I forgot my lines. When I forget my lines, I kind of get angry. They had me do it again; I remembered them, and I booked it.
Going into an audition or putting yourself on tape, it’s not the easiest thing to do especially because an audition is usually a camera and one person and then you have to bring to life this character.
When you audition for shows in Hollywood, you go in, you do your scene, maybe you get an adjustment. It’s sort of easy, and a lot of times it just feels sort of rote and simple. Whereas when you go to New York and you audition for plays, you walk out sweaty and intimidated and nervous and doubting yourself as an actor.
Every time I completed an audition, I wanted to do even better.
A friend told me about the casting notice for ‘Queer Eye.’ I was in Chicago and I had a contract with ‘Esquire’ magazine, so had been coming to New York City regularly and thought I’d catch a cheap flight, crash on a friend’s sofa and do this hilarious audition that I had no chance of winning.
I started singing in my church choir, and then when I got to middle school, I had the coolest musical theatre director, and we actually did ‘The Wiz’ in seventh grade, and I was Addaperle, and my grandma was like, ‘Why didn’t you audition for Dorothy?’ But I was too nervous for that.
Some might not know that ‘What’s Happening’ was the television version of ‘Cooly High.’ When I went on the audition, it was an audition for exactly that: the TV version of the movie.
Even before my audition, there were several pages missing from my script because those bits were so unbelievably secret not even I was allowed to see them.
Acting is so much about waiting… waiting for an audition, waiting for the right part to come along. It’s nice to write your own thing, write about what you’re feeling and then go out and perform them. It’s a nice thing to have and not get bored.
I couldn’t even get an audition for network TV at home in Ireland.
It doesn’t matter how smart you are; to audition for ‘Jeopardy,’ you just have to luck out and know what they’re asking you that day.
My attitude goes back to my childhood. I used to audition for theatrical roles, and you can’t stand out in a room full of ambitious eight-year-old girls by acting the wallflower. I realised then that I couldn’t do things half-heartedly.
In a perfect world we’d want gay people to play gay people, but I think that’s a good rule of thumb: Whoever gives the best audition should get the part. My problem is getting anybody to hire me for anything other than queens.
I’ve been fortunate to get involved with ‘Short Term 12.’ I was just a young teenager on the Internet, clicking on anything that had the word ‘actor’ in it. One day, someone called me in for a movie audition.
I don’t have audition horror stories, I just have situations in which I was made to feel so small. That’s the worst of all, because it’s really hard to recover from.
I’ve never given a bad audition in my life.
I remember my very first audition for a film. I was in Seattle. They were taping the session, and I just went crazy. The director finally said, ‘Zoe, what are you doing? The camera’s right here. Just talk to me.’ And it took that director saying that to me to change everything.
I love my job and I know I am very lucky but still, if you audition and you don’t get it, it still affects you.
I auditioned for quite a lot of films. I do not wish to name the films I auditioned for. There were times when I knew I would not be fit for this film, or I would not get this film. Still, I used to audition for it just to get experience… to practice.
Most of stuff I audition for is stuff I think is socially relevant.
My first acting job happened by accident when I was really young. I was in fifth grade and my teacher saw an ad in the paper and took me to the audition after school and I got the part.
When I was younger, I found it incredibly intimidating to audition for anything. As I’ve gotten older and had more experience and gained more confidence in myself, I’m able to quiet some of those demons a little more successfully.
I took a plane from New York City to Los Angeles for an audition. I met all the people. After that, I was told to have another audition, but I didn’t want to go there again.
I wanted to act when I was young. When I was 12, I asked the head of English at my school, ‘Can I audition?’ and he said, ‘What would we want you for?’ And I remember going, ‘Oh yeah. Why would they want me?’
I joined Alcatrazz a month after I recorded ‘Steeler.’ The big difference between Steeler and Alcatrazz is that in Alcatrazz, I wrote the songs. When I went to the Alcatrazz audition, they had no songs and no direction. They also had a questionable drummer.
Notes are tricky in an audition, because I find, more often than not, my instinct is right.
Then I was actually meant to be going home but for some reason I decided to extend for a week. Then on the final day by extension, finally an audition came through, and it was ‘Into the Badlands’.
With acting, if you audition terribly, at least you know, ‘I messed that up. I was horrible. That’s why I didn’t get the job.’ With modeling, it’s like, ‘I’m not cool this year; therefore, I’m unemployed for a while.’ With modeling, it’s just, either you’re liked, or you’re not.
I was fired from an NBC sitcom called ‘Friends With Benefits.’ I was wrong for the part from the beginning, didn’t even want to audition, and kept thinking, ‘This isn’t funny at all.’
I try and get out there and audition as much as possible.
I didn’t want to do ‘Casino Royale’ when they told me to audition. I said no. Then they sent me the script, and I thought it was actually very interesting – and I had no other work at the time.
One of the things that I cannot fathom is young actors who will not audition and won’t read.
I fought my way into an audition on ‘Ghost.’
Athletes who take to the classroom naturally or are encouraged to focus on grades should be able to do well in the classroom. I believe the reason you go to college is to get your degree. It’s not a minor league or an audition for the pros.
Maybe six months out of drama school, I was working at the Dundee Rep Theatre, I worked there for about a year, and I had an audition for the National Theatre of Scotland. I went into the audition room and when I came out I realized my fly was undone. I did this whole dramatic speech with my fly hanging low.
