It seems so simple: Get an audition and if you’re right for the role, you’ll get a callback. Nice theory, but we all know that in reality, it may be much more complicated than that. In fact, casting directors are both eager to find the right actor for the role AND eliminate actors who don’t quite cut it using any criteria we can. I’ve often said that anything that can be used as an excuse for taking you out of the running will be used, and North Carolina casting director/producer Catrine McGregor has provided us with a lovely list of DOs and DON’Ts for scoring that callback.
How to Get a Callback
If this very intangible topic could be condensed into a precious paragraph, some wise Trump-ish casting director would have bottled that wisdom, sold it to WalMart and retired in the Bahamas.
So, although I don’t have a surefire guarantee for a callback, I can certainly give you an insider’s tips on what can keep you from getting a callback. Before I list all of the DON’Ts, know that every single casting director you read for is rooting for you to be terrific. We are paid to cast the film, not per person that we audition. Come in and see us as your peers. When all is said and done, all we are is the Human Resources Department of the project. We don’t hire, we screen. Have fun, don’t give us too much power, and stay grounded!
And Now the Tips
- Don’t make us ASK you for your headshot and resume — just give it to us. The audition that doesn’t require a headshot and resume will be one in a million. Will it mean that you won’t get a callback if I have to ask for a headshot and resume? No, of course not. But if I put it in a different context, you may see a bit more clearly what I’m referring to. When you go into a pancake house for breakfast, you expect to be given a menu when you’re seated. It won’t ruin your breakfast, but the flow will not be natural. That’s because I know the job description of the server. You also need to know your job description as an auditioning actor. (And when you do hand your headshot and resume to me, don’t say, “Here’s my headshot and resume.” It’s a prerequisite to casting to be able to identify those.
- Make sure your resume is on the back of your headshot in some way: stapled, glued, or printed. (Don’t print many at a time — all you need is one new job, class, or special skill for that resume to be outdated.)
- HAVE your sides, know your sides, know your character. Many actors don’t know that a casting director can’t actually demand that you be off-book, because that’s actually called a screen test and I have to pay you for that. Just know that your better competition will be off-book, and therefore….
- Don’t ask me what I’m looking for before you read. You’re the actor — you bring the character to me. If I knew exactly what I want in this day and age, production would digitize you. If you have brought a fabulous character to the table, but it needs to be tweaked, I will take the time to adjust you.
- Don’t be drunk, stoned, late, obnoxious, or any combination of the above.
- Don’t question why I ask you to read a different role than the one given to you by your agent.
- Unless I tell you on the spot that you will have a callback, don’t ask when callbacks are while at the audition. Tacky, tacky, tacky. If you hit a casting director on a bad day, our response may be: “And why would you need to know?”
- Don’t dress in costume. If reading for a doctor, please don’t show up in scrubs and a stethoscope. If you get the role, we have a wardrobe and props department. The best rule of thumb is to dress the way the character would dress for a job interview. In other words, a doctor would probably wear a suit to a job interview — not scrubs.
- If you read with another actor, don’t give him or her direction. Who says that your take on the scene is better than your scene partner’s?
- Make eye contact with your reader unless you’re directed to read right to camera.
- If you screw up the lines, don’t break character. Settle down. Keep going. We trip over words all the time in real life. But we don’t stop and ask to start over. Keep it real.
- If you really screw up your audition, think twice about asking to do it again. If I see you do something poorly once, it will quickly be deleted from my memory. If you ask to do it a second time and don’t do a lot better, I will now have your bad audition indelibly engrained in my brain.
- Leave gracefully. A wonderful acting coach once said that when you leave an audition, everyone in the room should want to go with you to where you’re going.
There are so many more things that you need to know. Keep studying, work hard, make the audition your job. I hope to be able to read each and every one of you some time in the future!
If you keep in mind that the numbers are overwhelming, you’ll understand that casting directors are forced to use any “good reason” to eliminate you from the process. That doesn’t mean that we don’t adore you and want you to do well! It’s simply a matter of thinning the herd, so to speak. And if YOU can remove obstacles that stand between you and the role, you should do so. Actors don’t have an awful lot of control in this process. All the more reason to do everything you can to get out of your own way. Sure, you still may not win the role, but you’ll stay on the CD’s radar as a pro, and in the long run, that’s far more valuable anyway.
About Catrine McGregor
Catrine McGregor spent much of her childhood in France and Germany, but landed in Los Angeles as a teenager who earned a BA in French at Loyola-Marymount University at the age of 19. She taught students such as Laura Dern at Beverly Hills Catholic School while earning dual Master’s Degrees in Film/TV and Education. Her first producing gig was for Disney (doing the first training videos for Disneyland’s walking characters). Her freelance producing life led her to Utah, where she became VP of Development for Osmond Studios and cast Promised Land for Robert Redford (starring Meg Ryan, Kiefer Sutherland, and Tracy Pollan). An IMAX film set in the Ozarks relocated her to Missouri, but Catrine continued to visit Los Angeles to cast, produce, and provide resources to actors. A CSA Artios Award nominee (for the pilot Firestarter 2: Rekindled), Catrine relocated to North Carolina to be with her aging parents, but she continues to cast in LA and NC, all while developing “My Spotlight,” a regional actors’ resource.
This contribution originally ran at Bonnie Gillespie’s online column on February 1, 2007.