Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'll audition for something and then the feedback has been, 'The director wants you, the creative people want you, but the studio is saying no.' It's depressing, but I understand. People are investing a lot of money and they want somewhat of a guarantee; they want someone who's been on the cover of magazines.
I remember being denied a protein bar that I went in to buy. I was so hungry, and it was before an audition, and I ran in and tried to buy this protein bar. And I checked my bank account, and it was negative 17 cents... And I remember getting on the phone with my mom and laughing that I have negative 17 cents.
I'll read, like, ten scripts, and then sometimes if I'm lucky, there will be two or three scripts that I like, and sometimes they'll all be dramas, or they'll all be comedies, or there will be two dramas and a comedy, and then I'll go for whatever. If I have to audition, I'll audition. If it's an offer, great.
I remember auditioning for something where the woman was supposed to be 42, and I was 33 or something, and they were like, 'No women over 35 can audition.' That was in the breakdown. I don't think they would do that anymore - I would like to hope that they wouldn't put that in writing - but it's mind-boggling.
My mom thought I might be good for voiceover. She thought I had a cute voice, so maybe I could do a cartoon or something. And while we were looking into that, we also thought I should get into theater acting, so I tried it and the first audition I went on, I booked it. And it kind of just snowballed from there.
My first audition happened to be for 'Kindergarten Cop,' and I took that role. I was only starting to learn English at that point. Spanish is my first language, so they made me a speaking character in the movie. I didn't really know I was shooting a movie. I was just having a lot of fun with 30 kids my own age.
I developed in my head that I'm never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it's like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it's more like concern. You're concerned about the people - like meeting your in-laws for the first time.
I have a large watch collection, and classic watches are especially important to me. I had a silver Rolex, and I actually gave it to my little brother. He wears it every day. He's an actor, so whenever he goes to an audition, he can look down, see it, and it gives him confidence. It was a great thing to pass on.
When I started, there were no Indians on television or films, except for Sir Ben Kingsley. I was an actor in high school, college, and I played leads. And when I graduated, I knew that I couldn't go to Hollywood and audition for shows or films. I could try, but where was the evidence that it was going to happen?
I was on my way to law school when a friend of mine at an extras agency said, 'Do you want to come to this movie set and get paid $100 bucks a day to pretend you're at a party?' And I was like, 'Yeah, summer holiday, let's do it.' So I went, and on lunch, the writer asked me to audition for a role, and I got it.
What's funny is my mom took me to the theater for the first time when I was six years old, and I was just amazed by it. I just said, 'Hey Mom, can I do this too?' And so she signed me up for little theater classes, and I remember my first audition for a play when I was seven years old was for 'The Thankful Elf.'
Toward the end of 11th grade, my acting teacher asked me if I was thinking about going to college. I said, 'Yeah, I think so.' He said, 'You should audition to Julliard.' I was like, 'What's that?' I'm accepted to Julliard, and I realize within the first couple of weeks just how lucky I was to be in the program.
I've had a couple opportunities where I've been on the other side of the audition process as a director, so it's really reassuring to me that it's just about who is right for that role and less about if you ace the audition. It's just about getting to know people, not about who's a better actor a lot of the time.
I initially got a job at Disneyland through a friend who was working there. He said, 'You would make a great princess there,' and that I should audition. So I just went on a whim to audition, and I wound up getting a job as Belle, from 'Beauty and the Beast,' at Disneyland. I did that for about a year and a half.
Getting on 'SNL' wasn't just about getting cast. I had written all this stuff in my audition, and I wrote several things that got on the air. But to me, I've never been interested in being picked. So when I do get sent things, most of the time I do pass on them because it doesn't feel like it would be fulfilling.
When I think about it, I was working very hard the summer before I applied to graduate school. I was going to the library every day in the summer. I read a play a day for about three months. I was taking audition classes, and I was reciting lines to myself and acting as my own scene partner. But I was having fun.
When I was a senior in high school, I worked at a theater where they hired New York actors. And they told me about 'Backstage,' and so I got my school in Pennsylvania to subscribe. And there was an audition for a tour of 'The Sound of Music,' and I got the job. Deferred my admission to college just to go on tour.
I actually did an Agatha Christie monologue for my audition showcase at Guildhall, and that's how I got my agent. Some people said 'ooh it's old hat' and 'too risky'. Some people think she's all about the narrative and thriller aspect at the expense of character and I disagree. I did it anyway and it worked well.
There've been times where, like when I auditioned for 'Akeelah,' I think in the first audition I was a little bit afraid because it was, you know, I had seen girls in there that I had seen on TV before, and I was like, 'Man, I might as well just walk out of here now because I'm just a newcomer,' and this and that.
There couldn't possibly be a more label-driven industry than acting, seeing as every audition comes with a character breakdown: 'Beautiful, sassy, Latina, 20s'; 'African American, urban, pretty, early 30s'; 'Caucasian, blonde, modern girl next door'. Every role has a label; every casting is for something specific.
My big break was really Liz Meriwether saw me in a movie called 'Paper Heart' and really liked it, and then saw me in a movie called 'Ceremony' because she knew Max Winkler and said, 'I want you to be in 'No Strings Attached,' but you gotta audition for it.' From that it was easier for her to get me in 'New Girl.'
I went to public school my whole life, graduated high school with my class. Growing up, I'd go to an audition, my friends would go to soccer practice and we'd all reconvene and hang out in our neighborhood. When I would book something, I would never tell my friends. Acting was just fun. I was a kid, I wasn't jaded.
I think professionally I admire people and the way they've handled their careers and being in the media. But the people that I used to inspire me and keep me going were my peers in Toronto - I would see the same girls going to audition after audition, and their resilience to do it again, and I found that inspiring.
When I was 20 years old, my mom flew me for my first Broadway audition for 'The Color Purple,' and I only found out about it because I knew that Fantasia was in it, and so I went online to ActorsEquity.com. I was not a part of the union, but I flew there for the audition, and the next week I made my Broadway debut!
I can go to my premiere at the Chinese Theatre, and everyone will know me, and everyone will cater to me. And then I'll go to an audition and get rejected left, right and centre. They don't watch my videos, and they don't really know who I am. It is like starting from scratch when it comes to traditional Hollywood.
When I was about ten years old, I was brought to London to watch a production of 'The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.' I think it was at Sadler's Wells in maybe 2000. I watched it because my school was putting on a production of it, and it was the first school play that I was able to audition for a speaking part.
I believe this: If an actor wants a role or wants to work with somebody, then you do everything within reason to try to get that role. If they want you to audition, you audition. If they want you to screen-test, you screen-test. If they want you to come and tap-dance in their hallway, you tap-dance in their hallway.
I was horribly shy all through grade school and high school. But somehow I got up the nerve to audition for one play in high school - 'Auntie Mame.' I got a small part as the fiancee who comes on in the end. I got laughs. I wasn't shy at all doing the part. I can do anything on stage and write it off as a character.
I was going to move to New York after college and had no interest in pilot season. I'd seen what happened on TV shows because of my dad, and I didn't want to open myself up to that. But 'Pretty Little Liars' had a very early audition, and my agents encouraged me to go even though I didn't think it would be my thing.
It's tempting to think, 'This is silly. I'm an artist. I care about my work, my work is first. I don't care about what kind of dress I wear... That's so secondary to me.' But if you care about your work... then you need to take this part of it just as seriously as you would going into an audition and going into work.
For every successful actor or actress, there are countless numbers who don't make it. The name of the game is rejection. You go to an audition and you're told you're too tall or you're too Irish or your nose is not quite right. You're rejected for your education, you're rejected for this or that and it's really tough.
I give myself homework when I have an audition. I give myself goals, and that's how I check how I'm doing. It can be something simple like 'listen,' or 'find your feet.' And then afterward it's an assessment, so in a way it's not about booking the job or not. It's about what I learned as an actor about that character.
Acting for me was hard enough without having to think of the accent. And also, when I was auditioning for stuff I would walk into the room with an Australian accent, and I would do the audition in an American accent, and they would invariably say, 'Yeah, it's that good, but I can still hear the oddity coming through.'
There were times when I thought I had to be completely off-book and ready to give my opening night performance at the audition, but then I swung back to a more relaxed view of it. Certainly you've looked at the material and prepared it, but there's no reason to be off-book. You're not getting points for being off-book.
When you audition for shows in Hollywood, you go in, you do your scene, maybe you get an adjustment. It's sort of easy, and a lot of times it just feels sort of rote and simple. Whereas when you go to New York and you audition for plays, you walk out sweaty and intimidated and nervous and doubting yourself as an actor.
It's a weird profession, as I don't really consider myself an actor. I did at one point, and I went and started doing auditions, and I was so useless at them and so demoralised by doing audition after audition and not getting them and also not being able to take it in my stride at all. I just felt crushed and worthless.
When I heard that 'Roots' was being remade, my first response was, 'Seriously?' I was a bit skeptical. Then I had an audition in early 2015. I didn't know how to feel about it. I was a little scared of the responsibility of telling the story again with the weight of the first one behind me - I was scared of comparisons.
I took theatre and stuff in college, then I took a bunch of different acting classes here in L.A. Sometimes when I have a hard audition, I'll call my acting coach and he'll come help me. I actually get more nervous in acting class than I do at an actual audition. It's actually a really great way to get over your nerves.
I was watching the Danish version of 'The Killing' when I got the audition for 'The Fall,' and I loved it; it was so original. I approached 'The Fall' with that in mind. I'd no problem with the violence - it was very clear from the script how horrifying the crimes were and that had to be shown, without going to extremes.
I did a 'Last Comic Standing' audition in 2006, where you're just performing for three people in a comedy club, in a big comedy club, and I remember them cutting me off, asking about my name in the middle of one of my jokes. Yeah, it's just real weird when you're doing stand-up in that type of sterile, unnatural setting.
I vividly remember my first interaction with Sir Richard Attenborough, I was in my final year at NSD (National School of Drama) in 1979, and casting director Dolly Thakore got in touch with me. We weren't supposed to work outside NSD but special permission was granted to the students who were shortlisted for the audition.
Bryan Cranston's advice to actors, it's my favorite thing, and it changed my life. He said: Don't go into an audition to get the job, go to share your work. That was so liberating. You read it, interpret it, embody it the way you want to play that person and embody them with your whole heart and soul for those 20 minutes.
We had this neighbor who was an actor, and he was going to an audition one day, driving by our house, and he asked if I wanted to tag along. He was reading for the part of the father, and they were reading for the part of the son the same day, and he told me to sneak in there and make it look like I knew what I was doing.
Your wardrobe can be your passport for success. What you wear to a new job interview or an audition can be of great impact and open doors for you. If you possess talent and faith in yourself, and wear clothing that enhances your personality, you have a 50 percent better chance of winning or gaining whatever you're seeking.
Auditioning and actually acting on a set are two different things. When you audition, you're in a room and you don't have anything to play with and you don't have anything physically in the room. Whereas on set, you have direction, you have costumes, and you have other actors to work with. It's a completely different thing.
I work with a group of actors, and whenever one of us has an audition, we all get together, and we all work together on it. I think it takes us back to our film school days, our drama school days, us just working together and figuring it out because somebody else is going to see something in the material that you won't see.
When I was younger, I did my first audition at 'Eurovision.' I was about 17. After my first audition, I blacked out; I was just like, 'I can't do this.' I'm not knocking it or anything - it's been around for years. I'm just very, very happy I made that decision myself. I think that's one of the best decisions I've ever made.
I was in my bed scrolling through Instagram. It had been about a month since my audition. And Marvel just posted a photo saying go to our website and find out who the next Spider-Man is. I went on the Marvel website on my computer, and there it was: The new Spider-Man is Tom Holland. I went ballistic - like, absolutely nuts.
I landed about one a year. Just enough to make me question the gas money and all the driving in rush hour. When you audition for commercials, it's a lot of driving. What I netted wasn't exactly matching the hours I was putting in. I figured I'm not a face that makes people want to buy Lysol. Then I auditioned for Progressive.
The 'Law & Order' audition was so last-minute. I was already in a shabby suit, the journey was a complete disaster, my train stopped early, it was raining, and I had to show the cabbie the way... I rushed in apologising, gave this terrible reading, and ended up telling my whole journey to them. I must have bored them to tears.