Why An Acting Audition Is The Real Job - Michael Laskin

the audition is the job that is the job let's say you get a call right now from your agent and you have a big audition tomorrow what's the call like what happens I'm not sure what's the well first of all I don't get a call I get an email oh okay so it's not it's not ring ring no there's none of that anymore it's all impersonal I'm afraid um interesting because now you have to self-tape everything so it's not like oh I have this audition I'm going to go to Warner Brothers at four o'clock to this building to this room that doesn't happen anymore I don't know if that'll ever happen again so you have to not only think okay I have to look at this I also in my case and I don't know if everyone's like this I go do I want to do this is this something everybody want to do because I don't care anymore and I'm in a different place in my life if I don't want to do it or if it doesn't feel right I'll go I'm going to pass on that and they seem to be okay with that but the first thing I do is that I freak out a little bit because I know there's a timeline and I know that oh I have to drop everything and I have to get this done I don't tape at home because I'm not good at it and I hire that out I have a guy I go to I pay him whatever it is 40 50 bucks he does it it's great and I don't have to worry about that because that would drive me crazy I'm not really good at that so then I just really have to think about uh what is this how do I do this how do I get off book for this the timelines as I said earlier are very short so I really have to decide whether I want to do it when I was producing um the pilot I produced this summer I'm on set we're out in San Dimas it's like 105 degrees so hot and I get an email with a 14 page audition that was due the next day I just said two things I said first of all thank you second of all can't be done because I'm producing this thing and I'm on set and lastly I'm not sure if 14 pages can be done in 24 hours anyway but it won't be a problem because I can't do this one so it's it's different everybody's um the audition is the job that is the job and that's the way I try to teach actors to look at it you have a job it's this audition you have to get it filmed you have to turn it in that's the job now you made that job may continue you may get a call and say oh we want then you may get a chance to earn some money doing that job but the audition is the job and and it's um there's not a lot of room for error I'm afraid I mean it's just it's so I think because now they're I think I I don't know if casting directors will get angry with me but it's the only people who's not tired of Zoom are the casting people so they they if if they were going to have see 30 people in their office on a Wednesday well they don't need that extra room they might not need that extra assistance because they're going to see more than 30 people because they just send out these tapes and I don't know if they watch all of them I don't know some of them say they do and I believe that but some probably don't do you think in some ways though the self-taping is easier in that you don't have to get in your car or take the bus or Uber or Lyft it's easier in that respect it's also easier it's not easier for me because I'm old and I'm set in my ways and I don't like it but that's immaterial it's easier for the the the digital natives the young people who never knew a life without a phone or a camera um and are really skilled at it many of them very skilled it's kind of easier for them because they can do the audition until they get it the way they want it in the old days you'd walk into the room and you might not your first take might not be good and that may be all you get thank you thank you for coming in and you walk out and you do the you do your best job in the car on the way home so yes that aspect of it is in some ways an improvement but what's missing is the human element you don't meet people you don't it's all on that little box then you're also not dealing with a sea of agendas and energies around you true yeah I mean I think it's generational people my age uh I don't particularly like it I'll I do it and I do a good job with it and I understand that how it has to be done and um but you also like you send it off into the ether and you generally hear nothing nothing and so you don't even get an attaboy or a good you know not that we all need a pat on the back but um sometimes you know like when you go in and you meet someone in person and you do a really good job with your audition you may not get that role but you may get something from that office because they liked you if they didn't even see the I mean they may watch all the tapes but they maybe only watch 30 seconds and go no that no wrong wrong person wrong whatever so I don't know I mean I'd actually like to know I'd like to be a fly on the wall some of those offices and see what they do and so I know because we hired a very good casting director for the pilot we did and they did an incredible job but they're also one of the better they're been around a long time and they're one of the better uh casting offices so I think it's like anything there's there's the cream and then there's everything else what do you think of people posting their audition tape online as part of their social media I don't like it do you think it breaks sort of a code that's interesting question um well first of all sometimes there are shows that are non-disclosures so they're they haven't even aired yet or sometimes they will send you what we call dummy sides do you know what that is I don't but so dummy sides would be like you're auditioning for this character and they'll say these this isn't really the script but it's it's sides that are like that character and you you have no choice but to just play what you're given you know but I know I posting people post way too much online about everything but I I I don't know that's a really good question everyone you know a lot of people just want to be seen and want to present their best life in that way and I don't know I don't think it's a good I don't probably think it's a good idea you know particularly if uh I know people who do that a lot actually now that I think of it I would never do that yeah I was just wondering how casting directors think about it if it's not embargoed or whatever yeah well if it's embargo obviously you should never do that but um there's a guy that I know who's a very good actor he's working quite a bit he also as a as a side gig does taping for people and I've actually taped with him and he's great and he did this thing I thought was really cool because he booked some job on the show I don't know a guest star role of some sort and he took his audition tape and intercut it with the actual footage from the show to see show you this is what I did in this scene here's the scene as it was filmed and I thought that was actually very instructive and cool but that was also done the show was had already been aired he had access to that footage theoretically I guess and that was actually very teachable and instructive to see what he did that got that role and how it looked when it was filmed that's kind of interesting but yeah posting just in general people are crazy with that stuff when you do get this person to film your self tape um are you there reading lines off of them or they're just an eye line to you uh the place that I use he's an actor himself and he's very good and so he is the eye line I mean now now we're getting technical but that's good uh sometimes in a in an audition you might have three people you're talking to and the eye lines get a little crazy like so I often say just like pick two have two uh have two eye lines other or unless somebody's in the back and you can talk to someone back there that's different but yeah no that guy would read with me and uh he's actually quite good and he will Coach a little bit I mean which I appreciate he doesn't overstep but I think that's smart most people don't do that they just they just you know set up the camera and go but uh yeah no he'll read with me he's a very he's very good at it so I think it's Tech you know the technical stuff is really important the eye lines and all that stuff it's just key and props they always tell you don't bring props I said bring a prop if it helps you I I worked with somebody yesterday she's playing a bartender and so she had glasses and she had a rag she threw over her shoulder so that all helps there's nothing wrong with that they used to say no he can't do that all these rules are very fluid now right what does it mean for an actor to make bold choices with their character I mean that that is a cliche let's say make a bold Choice make a strong choice but with every cliche there generally is a grain of Truth or wouldn't have become a cliche um I think that it's like um if you're at the top of a mountain and you pour some water down the mountain it's going to go it's going to find its way down that's the obvious way that is the way down the water is going to find a little rivulets and it's going to flow a certain way and most scenes particularly if you don't have a lot of time you're just going to play it down the middle because you don't have time to really explore it and get deeper with it I I think trying to make the less obvious choice the choice that may not be actually on the page you have to understand who the end user is the end user is the casting director and they're looking at lots of tapes and they're looking at lots of versions of the same scene over and over and over again and most people because of either lack of imagination or lack of time are going to kind of play it the same way so if you can find a way that's Justified that's earned where you can play something a little bit off to the side of the page not down the middle of the page that's what I would call a bold choice and a smart choice you don't want to do that just to be different it has to be earned and it has to feel like it has some Fidelity to the character and the story but I think that's um that's how I would Define what a bold choice is something that does not go down the middle because most of the time as I said lack of time lack of imagination and they're watching all these tapes they're all we did that when I cast the pilot I mean a lot of the tapes were like they're all kind of played the same way and the the one person who may play it a little differently jumps out for whatever reason maybe it's not smart maybe it's not right but it's different and so it's a little like um I like sports analogies um like in baseball the great Warren spawn the winning winning is left-hander in the history of baseball said that the pitcher's job is to upset the hitter's timing and the hitter's job is to upset the pitcher's timing so I think that our job is to sort of break open the timing of that scene a little bit change the rhythm of it a little bit if you can find a way to do that because they're going to hear it a certain way every time over and over again if you can find a way to creatively and smartly break up the Rhythm I'm I've words and Rhythm very important to me in my own work and and when I when I teach them when I coach so that's what I would say would be a bold choice let's say you've already booked a job now you're on set how bold you get or no that breaks that that disturbs the other actor in the scene and you're upstaging someone that's really case-by-case basis it depends on the set if you have a really loose improvisational set you can do that you can try that I I worked on Curb Your Enthusiasm where there's no script basically there's a story there's there are scenes and so uh everyone's you know a lot of funny people Larry David Ed Bagley Richard Lewis Jeff Garland you know they're also going to try out stuff that's funny and some of it will hit and some of it won't hit that's an extreme example of where you can be bold and try something else that's great I don't think we're going to use that uh but it just is different on a on a show that is a well-oiled machine a weekly kind of what I call Factory television those those shows that just go week to week they have a template a visual template and a tone template that is is established that's what they do they play to that they have like a few watch uh SWAT every seven minutes someone's going down a hallway with a gun in the dark I mean that's part of the template I'm exaggerating but not that much so you have to understand that and you can't on a show that has a really strong uh template you kind of can't do that it just depends on the circumstance but it's fun to play and it's fun to do stuff that's different and out there but you just have to kind of know your audience and know what world you're in

Channel: Film Courage

Views: 6,558

Keywords: Authentic actor, Directing actors, how to direct, how to act, directing 101, acting 101, Acting tips, acting advice, Michael Laskin, directors, actors, acting, working with actors, filmmaking, interview, film courage, filmcourage, story, screenplay, authentic performance, directing, confidence, acting teacher, acting audition, creating a character

Id: odHE-HdtieQ

Length: 14min 25sec (865 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 27 2023