Today’s question is brought to us by Ally, a wonderful student who has been with this studio for a very long time. Ally asks, “Christinna, you once mentioned in class 'Auditioning the human being as opposed to auditioning the role' – can you please explore that more?"
Alright, I’m going to shoot straight with you….
Alright, I’m going to shoot straight with you….
When I worked in casting, you could basically put all auditions into 2 piles. In one pile you have actors auditioning the role, and in the other pile you could put actors who were auditioning a human being. Huge, huge difference! Anyone can pick up a script, read lines aloud, give it some emotional intent, give it some drive – but if it doesn’t feel like a human being complete with all the messiness and behavior and nuances that go along with being human – then it’s a static audition.
Write this down: this is one of the best phrases you can write down on a piece of paper, tape it to your refrigerator and read it before every audition and that is simply: Life is Messy.
Only actors attempt to live life perfectly in an audition – but that’s not life! In life we’re messy, in life we have a moment, we have a thought, we look away, we use our hands, etc., but it’s not conjured, it’s not contrived – we’re just living in our very messy shells of humanity. The actors who know who they are in their own skin and can bring their own nuances to the character – nuances that the writer’s not going to include on the page – this is our job as actors – to explore the meat and visceral juices that surround the bones of the character. The writer is going to lay out the script, and lay out the bones of the character but it’s our job to fill in the juices, and to bring oxygen.
If your audition is too safe, if it’s too on the nose, it’ll probably go into the pile of auditions where yeah, ok, you did a good job, you auditioned the character, you auditioned the role, you said the words correctly...(meh!). You want your audition to go into the pile where it felt like it wasn’t an audition – it felt like we’re right there with this person thru the lens living their life, and it doesn’t feel scripted, and it doesn’t feel like an audition – it’s simply you understanding the story, understanding what drives the story, understanding why your character’s there and then driving forward and letting life happen.
I encourage you to embrace messiness. Yes, you want to get the dialogue down correctly – we have to always honor the writer and the writer’s words – but when it comes to the life surrounding those words? That’s up to you, my friend.
So don’t be afraid to messy. Messy is a wonderful thing!
Write this down: this is one of the best phrases you can write down on a piece of paper, tape it to your refrigerator and read it before every audition and that is simply: Life is Messy.
Only actors attempt to live life perfectly in an audition – but that’s not life! In life we’re messy, in life we have a moment, we have a thought, we look away, we use our hands, etc., but it’s not conjured, it’s not contrived – we’re just living in our very messy shells of humanity. The actors who know who they are in their own skin and can bring their own nuances to the character – nuances that the writer’s not going to include on the page – this is our job as actors – to explore the meat and visceral juices that surround the bones of the character. The writer is going to lay out the script, and lay out the bones of the character but it’s our job to fill in the juices, and to bring oxygen.
If your audition is too safe, if it’s too on the nose, it’ll probably go into the pile of auditions where yeah, ok, you did a good job, you auditioned the character, you auditioned the role, you said the words correctly...(meh!). You want your audition to go into the pile where it felt like it wasn’t an audition – it felt like we’re right there with this person thru the lens living their life, and it doesn’t feel scripted, and it doesn’t feel like an audition – it’s simply you understanding the story, understanding what drives the story, understanding why your character’s there and then driving forward and letting life happen.
I encourage you to embrace messiness. Yes, you want to get the dialogue down correctly – we have to always honor the writer and the writer’s words – but when it comes to the life surrounding those words? That’s up to you, my friend.
So don’t be afraid to messy. Messy is a wonderful thing!