Image via Pixabay
One of the most important aspects of auditions and screen-tests is often the most challenging to understand let alone put into action. It is the art of detachment. This distinction also doesn’t come from the craft of acting or any acting skills but from the art of living, yet it is fundamental to the actor’s outcome.
It’s ironical but if being attached to an outcome is present in the audition (consciously or unconsciously) then obligation is present and this breeds a kind of suffocation where possibility and potential drain away. Wanting to succeed, be approved of, be worthy, be impressive, be unique, be accepted spell needing the job and needing is the death knell to getting it.
We all know the actor wants the job but each actor has to walk in and do the job as if wanting had no place in the casting environment.
The actor needs to honou the character’s needs and wants, by giving the character (and themselves) full permission to share everything and to share it completely honestly with nothing in the way. The energy field of the actor must then be recalibrated by the electrical current coming from the character.
Whether Hugh Jackman is auditioning for Wolverine, Jean Valjean or Hamlet, Hugh’s needs and wishes do not belong in the casting room – only those of his character’s. The actor gives up any notion of what he needs and completely gives what the character requires of him. Because the audition isn’t about him he creates a detachment from the outcome thus releasing his (and his character’s) energy, spontaneity and courage.
It’s simple yet not easy. You hear so many actors talk about an audition they did where they didn’t really care and were completely freed as a result. That’s when they booked the job. It wasn’t that they didn’t care but that were carefree and that sense of separation from the character who needs the job was felt by the director.
It may be easier to relate to this issue if you translate it into a more desperate environment. Imagine your mother or grandmother is unconscious and you have called the paramedics. As they are coming up the stairs, the first paramedic turns to you and says, ‘Thank God you called. My husband and I are desperately saving to buy a new car and today is time and a half. It’s perfect timing for us.’
It might be true, but you don’t want to hear it. You don’t want the paramedic’s budget in the room.
The same is true in the casting room. Casting directors, directors, producers and clients have their own problems and you are not there to share yours, you are there to fix theirs.
When the actor’s energy is clean and clear, the character can shine through. When the actor has no expectations from the casting, the character’s truth can ‘breathe’ and make itself fully present in that room.
Ask three simple questions and know the answers: Where am I? Right here. What time is it? Right now. What does my character need? Me to serve them 100%.
Actors must be experts not just in acting but in how they approach an audition. You may be great for the part but it is not enough to be able to do the job if you get it. Careers are created in audition rooms.
It is these skills that I teach in my seminar on tips and tools to transform actors’ understanding of and application within each casting opportunity, which will be running in Melbourne, Gold Coast & Adelaide over the next six weeks.
If you would like to attend please follow through to the link https://au.patronbase.com/_ActorsCentre/Productions
Gold Coast – 16th Oct to 18th Oct
Adelaide – 23rd Oct to 25th Oct
Melbourne – 6th Nov to 8th Nov
