How To Break Down Your Audition - So You OWN The Character

Today we are talking about trust. Trust in you. And not for someone else to trust you. But for you to trust you. With me so far?

To develop trust, you must have belief. And where do you need to focus this trust and belief? Stick with me.

Did you see Beast Games this week? Anyone? No spoilers if you haven’t but there was a team that was eliminated after they chose one guy to rep them and he failed. But the guy who was the second choice, he had regrets. He didn’t push hard enough to be selected. Even though his instincts told him he was the right guy. That he should have been the chosen one.

So he had loser regret. He rued the fact he took no action.

That is what today is about. That is what all our training is about. What you need to do for every audition is to Carpe diem.

We spoke last week of reverse engineering your audition. Like all our training here at TAT, we focus on changing your thinking.

We seldom tell you what to do, because we believe if we pull back the curtain, showing you what happens after you leave the room, or what happens after we look at your self-tape, then you will be able to join the dots. And draw your own conclusions about what the best steps are.

Or tragically, what the best steps ….. were.

For you. The performing arts should be different for each person. Otherwise, you are the artist who paints by numbers. The singer who sings karaoke, the band that sings covers.

When you are faced with an audition performance it is, let’s assume, a performance created from the sides alone. You seldom get the full screenplay. So, you are not in a position to make character choices that are evidence based. Let me just repeat that because it is an important concept and goes against everything script analysis tells you.

By the way, as an actor do you put full faith in script analysis? Finding the key ingredients to you character? Have faith mate. Trust in you.

You do not need evidence, you do not need justification for your character choices. To which the purists among us would decry, ‘So what, you can just do anything?!”

And the answer to that is yes. You can do anything. But it hs to move the character forward.

To achieve this you need instinct. It has to be driven by instinct. Not analysis. That is what today is about.

Many actors see this as a problem. The whole idea that you are all alone in a sea of options. OMG what do I choose?!

Anything you want. I see that as a bonus.

But, most actors fear, that with no screenplay to inform you, you are left with only two options. Your first option is that can do a fully committed version of the pages. Absorbing every comma, full-stop and scene direction on the page.

If there are the obligatory dot-dot-dots in the middle of a speech, then you time your pause to be in synch with the number of dots. T

hree dots means a small pause, four dots a bit more and five dots? You give the performance of a person waiting for a Sydney train – while they are on strike. The pause is eternal.

You reason that the writer is so in tune with this character, that what is on the page is gospel. He/she purposely chose four dots to communicate to the performer how to deliver the line.

The writer’s guide is sacrosanct. It makes the ten commandments look like an Ikea furniture construction guide.

Oh yes, to an auditioning actor, the sides are perhaps one level above the bible, in terms sanctity.

Or the Koran?

Your second option is that you absorb the character breakdown. The notes from the casting director – especially the notes on how to audition, where to look, where not to look, frame size, what to wear, what not to wear,

Phew you say. Hard and fast and unbreakable rules and guidelines. Now I know EXACTLY what they want.

You are locked in.

And me the casting director sees about 15 seconds of your audition before moving on because you have delivered predictability. Every other actor is doing the same.

Imagine me walking into an ice cream shop with 103 flavours and you have delivered vanilla to me.

OK, that is an exaggeration. We don’t see anything like 15 seconds. More like 6 or 7.

But if you remember from last week’s workshop, about reverse engineering, your approach to auditioning is no longer to do a deep dive into script analysis.

In my opinion, script analysis is a crutch for actors who cannot deliver instinct. You seek substantiated proof before you can make any creative decision.

But with instinct, it is the opposite. You can be pro active about making a character choice. You are free to choose. Oops, proviso. But you MUST choose.

You no longer need verification and justification for your characters thoughts and actions. You are letting the character decide what happens, and not the page, not the writer, not the copious notes.

So with this frame of mind in mind, how do you tackle this exercise in instinct?

Just before we go on, please jot down in the comments where you are tuning in from. I am curious. I saw our list of actors on our mailing list and I was somewhat surprised to find that more than half our followers are not from Australia.

So please, even if you are listening to a recording, jot down in the comments the city or country you are tuning in from.

I saw an interview with Russel Crowe this week and he was very open in saying he had never trained as an actor. He started acting at 8 and he said his craft just evolved.

I would suggest actors that have instinct, and trust instinct, are among life’s great observers. You will remember from last week I said go off and research similar screen characters. Or actors who deliver similar roles. Watch their work. Absorb their rhythms. Nay, consume their rhythms

So many …. too many actors …… use the punctuation as their guide to the rhythms of the page. And by doing so, you definitely look like everyone else. You have given me two scoops of vanilla.

How else do you exercise instinct? Every time you have an audition I want you to write on the page, I will book this job because of my suitability not my ability.

Suitability. What is that? It means that they choose you when the individual qualities you deliver – your unique individual qualities – are simpatico with the character. Remembering, we do not have a blueprint of the character. A concept set in stone.

Which many actors will say confirms their suspicion that ‘they don’t know what they are looking for’

Take from a casting director, we don’t have a locked in vision for what the character is. But we do have a firm visualisation of what the character is not.

So, picture the scene – the sides, this microcosm of the character – picture who this person is if you are doing the role. What is your attitude, how to do relate to the other character.

In drama classes, I am assuming if the scene is about two brothers, the teacher will cajole you into re creating your real life relationship. Using that as the foundation to your version. (Remember YOUR version not the writer’s)

But in my skewed approach to auditions, I compel you to make a choice about how much you love (or hate) your on screen brother. Or how angry you are with him.

Let’s assume anger. Who angers you in real life. The local car mechanic who overcharges you? The kid next door who plays music too loud.

That is the relationship you put on screen. Where does your instinct take you if that is who you are talking to in the scene?

Where? Wherever you like. The choice is yours.

Let your instinct ride rough shod over the sides. Sure, you must learn the lines. But don’t learn the punctuation. Don’t learn the writer’s notes and guidance.

Remember what I always ask actors: how good an actor is the writer? Lousy. That is why he is a writer.

When an actor writes a script, why is the character so multi dimensional and detailed? Because only an actor thinks in terms of character. Writers think about plot.

What it all boils down to is this one golden rule.

There are no rules.

And if you can embrace the fact that there are no rules, then you will have created the two thing you need to do a great audition. Belief in yourself. And trust that the choices you make will be right.

Carpe diem