Act Together

Part of what is easy about auditioning for acting roles is that everything which follows the audition process is academic. Whatever it is that you do during the auditions, the odds are against your ever doing them on a set. The relaxation that comes from that actually makes it more likely that you will get to play the role on a set, but mostly you don't. When I do get the gig, I feel like Robert Redford at the end of "The Candidate", when he asks "Now what?"

The sorts of things I have gotten so far happen fast. You audition for a thing and forget about it. It occupies your attention for a matter of hours, and maybe as much as a day. It's remarkable how quickly it's out of your mind once it's over. You beat yourself up for a few minutes, then you purge it from your system. You get the callback and audition again a week or so later. You go through that same process again, except a little more anxious because more people are watching.


A week or so after that, you find out you got it, and then it really ramps up. A day or two later, you settle wardrobe. A day or two after that, you do the thing, and then it's over. The thing seems so huge and momentous beforehand, and it gets reduced down to a few minutes trying on clothes and a day of waiting around for the few hours of doing a very simple scene. It amounts to an eventful day and a half of time invested that passes very quickly.

That's my conception so far, and I'll say that my accrued experience is very minimal. In fact, it's been limited strictly to commercials, small short films and the like. What I have to say probably offers little insight for most people. I've been rather fortunate to get what I've gotten, so I doubt whether I can really say how to do that, and I certainly can't say how to get more than I've gotten or how to do what I haven't yet done. I'll let you know when I know more, but you'll probably just read mostly the same thing again.