Walking Into The Audition Room
By: Holly Powell
They call your name. The viewers are looking at you when you walk in the door to see if you are at all right for the part. First impressions are everything. If you walk in nervous or seem unprepared we can spot it a mile away and don’t want to take the 3 minutes to read you. If you do feel nervous or unprepared out in the audition lobby, I want you to think of something you do in your life that makes you feel confident. Are you great at singing, cooking, playing tennis? Watch how your body adjusts: your shoulders go back, your chest moves from caved-in to centered…and then walk into the room. Your body language has sent the “confidence” signal to your brain so that you now actually start to feel confident! So as your body “fakes confidence”, your thoughts become confident…”Fake It Till You Make It”!
You must treat walking into the audition room like the moment before you walk onstage from the wings when doing a play. You must be in your “zone” or your “bubble”, with the mental focus of an athlete. As you enter the audition room you need to be in a hybrid state: a focused actor ready to go, looking the Casting Director, Director or Producers in the eye and say “Hello”. Just by saying “Hi”, we get a taste of your personality. The “Hi” can let us know that you will show up on time to the set, know your lines, be courteous to your fellow actors and not complain about the size of your trailer. Or not!
When I talk about walking into the room with the mental focus of an athlete, I don’t mean that you should walk into the room in character. DON’T WALK INTO THE ROOM IN CHARACTER! There have been a few actors in my classes who have been told to walk into the room in character, and in doing so had disastrous results…or maybe confusing results. One walked in, in character, and the role was for a drug addict. Her Agent was called by the Casting Director and said that the actress was really on drugs. One actor auditioned for “an asshole bad guy” and walked into the room in character. After the audition was over, he continued to chat with the Casting Director in character…and of
course, the Casting Director thought he was a jerk and didn’t want him any where near the set. If the Casting Director or Producer or Director chat with you, they are trying to get to know YOU. Not who the character is. Your audition will show them who the character is.
So, walk into the audition room with confidence…a focused, prepared actor ready to go who has made specific choices. Just by saying “Hi” the viewers will get a taste of your personality. And the good news is, you are only in the audition room for 3 minutes! And, “You Can Do Anything For 3 Minutes”. (The title of Holly’s upcoming book on “Auditioning”).
