As an actor, there are times you sit across the desk from a casting director thinking, “You have no idea what I’ve gone through to get to this audition.” Turns out, Melissa Martin does know. She made a career out of acting before becoming a casting director. She knows what it’s like, she feels for you, and she also has some pretty good advice, having been on both sides of that desk.
Advice for Actors
“I have a lot of advice! Your picture is the only thing – the only thing – you have to buy. Make it the best it possibly can be. This is where you should spend some money,” Martin explained. She added that you could spend all the money in the world on photos, but if she can’t call you, it’s money gone to waste. “Put your phone number all over everything. This guy brought his headshots by and dropped them in all the commercial casting director bins here [at Chelsea Studios] and everywhere else in town, and there was no contact information at all. What a waste!”
Martin recommends that you pay special attention to the detail you put in your resume. “Get very specific with your skills. The more specific you are, the more likely you are to get in front of me. Leave off the goofy, cutesy stuff.” Martin is also interested in the training section of your resume. “I look for people who are studying, and not just staying with the same instructor for five years. It gets cultish. I want to see you working with a bunch of different people. I want to see you doing improv. It makes you quick on your feet and that really pays off. If you don’t have credits, you’d better have a lot of training.”
Pet Peeves
“Actors who don’t look like their headshots. Men will use the same headshot for ten years and they’ve gone bald. Women will gain 20 or 30 pounds and not change their headshots. Eighty-five percent of the actors I see come in not looking like their headshots!” Martin continued, “You must do your hair and makeup the way it was done in your headshot. Clients cannot imagine what you might look like with your hair and makeup done if you show up sloppy.”
Best Way to Get Seen by Her
Martin accepts unsolicited submissions from non-union and non-represented actors, but she admits, she can’t possibly keep every headshot she receives. The best way in? “Have your agent submit you to me. There is a difference between the smaller agency and the larger one, where commercials are concerned. The smaller the agency, the later we get the submissions, sometimes even after the job is done. You have a better chance of getting in front of me when you’re with an agency that uses a messenger service and gets your headshots to me right away. If you’re with a smaller agency, you’d better be helping them with your marketing.”
How does an actor go about that? “I’m a proactive person from my acting days. It’s a numbers game. Make the rounds. Go to Westside Casting, go to Chelsea, go to all of the commercial casting facilities where more than a handful of casting directors work. Do not walk in the door and say hi. Just drop your stuff off and go! Do this once a week,” Martin advised.
Her Opinion on Alternative Submission Methods
“Online submissions are the future. It’s a good resource. I’ll go look for something in The Link, but I do not look at emailed submissions. Still, I do think online databases are coming around,” Martin explained.
“Oh, and I don’t have time for postcards, so save your money. I know some casting directors respond to them, but I do not. If you’ve only got so much money, spend it on your pictures, full-sized.”
Trends She Has Observed in the Casting Process
Diversity. “If you’re in an ethnic minority, your time is now. You’d better be ready. You’d better be properly trained and ready for the opportunity that’s here now. You may not be used to getting out frequently, but every breakdown is saying ‘submit all ethnicities’ and you’d better be ready to go! We’re ready to hire you. Be ready.”
Most Gratifying Part of Her Job
“I love the people. I love to help people make a lot of money. I don’t let anybody screw anybody, since I come from acting. I will negotiate a deal and try and get as much money as possible for my actors. To reward someone – who wants nothing more than to act – with that big job, that’s amazing. So much of it is timing and technical work and I’ll ask actors to take an extra beat somewhere or something. It’s all about getting people work, so if they just need their performance tweaked, I’m going to make a suggestion because I want to see them get the job.”
This interview was conducted on February 22, 2001, and it originally appeared in Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews by Bonnie Gillespie, available at Amazon.