10 Audition Mistakes Casting Directors HATE (And How to Fix Them)

In this video, you're going to be learning 10 common mistakes that actors make at auditions that casting directors absolutely hate. So watch this until the end and you are going to learn how to give a much better audition. And also, I have a great bonus for you. You'll find the link at the end as well. It's a video, 7 Really easy and powerful ways to prepare before your audition that will give you a much better performance. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center, where I share information with you, uh, based on my 38 years of working as a full-time actor. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button, the notification bell. That way you always know when I upload a new video, which I try to do every Tuesday depending on my schedule. And if you like the video, give it a thumbs up. That's helpful. And share it so this way we can all learn from each other. And if there are any mistakes that you know about, please leave them in the comment section, anything that you might have experienced, so that way we can learn from you as well. Number 1. Now, I've been really fortunate. I got a chance to do some casting, and I still do. These are primarily in-house videos, or they also might be for websites. A lot of it is economic-based, different kinds of financial programs, and I've probably cast about 25 different videos, and I just did one last week. And so some of the information I'm going to be giving you is not only from the actor's But also from a casting director's perspective, even though I don't really consider myself a casting director, but I do that a little bit on the side. So I recently sent out casting, sent out emails to a lot of people. The very first thing, you've got to make sure that you respond. I know that sounds crazy. Well, who would— Some people don't respond. Look, Even if you're not available, even if you don't want to do the project, whatever, at least have the common courtesy to send an email back just saying, thanks so much, not available. That's really helpful to know. And if you say that you're not interested in these kinds of videos, that's really helpful too. So that way I won't continue to send things out to you. The other thing too is make sure that they are sent back in a reasonable time. When I give you a date as to when I need them back by, make sure you get them to me by that time period. Now, you, you look, you want to get the auditions back as quickly as possible because— and look, I've, I've spoken with casting directors who have said, yeah, sometimes we found an audition, the person was phenomenal, showed them to the director, the director loved the person, they said, yeah, let's just cast this person. And so there might have been a lot of other Auditions that were sent in after that, they just never even got seen. So get them back as quickly as you can. But here's the thing, don't rush it. If it's not ready, don't do it, because you want to always send back a great audition. But I even got one person who sent me their audition after the project was shot. It was about 4 4 days after I said I needed the videos back. So respond either way and also make sure you get them back promptly. Number 2, look, as an actor, I get it. Sometimes we feel a little desperate. Sometimes we're just scrounging around trying to find any kind of job that's right for us. But please Don't submit for a role that is just not right for you. If you read the description of the character and it's just really far off base from you, don't submit. Sometimes people say, oh, what's the difference? I'm just going to submit because people change their minds. And you're right, sometimes casting directors will make a decision. It doesn't have to be A guy. It could be a woman, or it doesn't have to be a woman. It could be a guy. But that's the casting director's decision, not yours. When I sent out a casting recently, I said the person has to be— the character is between 30 and 40 years old. And I'm not exaggerating. There was a guy in his 70s who sent back an audition. And look, it's not in your best interest to do that. And Look, if somebody knows your work, they will be thinking of you. So anyhow, just make sure that it's right for you. If it's a couple of years off, 30 to 40 and you're 45, but you could play a 30 to 40-year-old, then of course submit. But not if you're double the age that's being requested. Number 3, Look, I made this mistake once. I will never make it again. You always have to have a reader when you are doing home auditions. Now, if you're going to a casting director's office, which who knows, maybe at some point that will become a regular thing again, I don't, I don't know. I know, like for instance, in LA I've been told that there are some commercials that are being done— the castings are being done at a casting director's office, but I haven't been in a casting director's office for like 4 years now. So like I said, it might change, but for right now, when you're doing home auditions, if there's somebody else in the scene, you have to have a reader. Now here's the mistake that I made. I thought— meanwhile, I didn't have a reader and I had to do this pretty quickly, so here's what I thought of. I recorded the other person's lines on my cell phone. I was actually very impressed with the audition because I timed it perfectly. So what would happen was I would hit play, and I had my cell phone on speaker, so my laptop, which is what I record on, was recording everything. And as soon as the other person's lines, you know, were done I said my lines and then the other person's lines came in which I recorded. It was perfect. I— it— like I said, I was pretty impressed. Submitted it and the casting director contacted my agent and said, did Aaron read the other lines? And the agent asked me, I said, yeah, yeah. And she told him, please ask him never to do that again. So, so— And don't try to just disguise your voice and stuff. Look, if you're in it, if you can get an actor to read with you, like, that's always the best situation, but that's not always the case. So here's the next best thing that you can do if you don't have easy access to someone to come into your home and read with you. And by the way, the reader should always be— never be on camera. The reader should be either camera left or camera right. And if you're not familiar with that terminology, that's always from the camera's perspective. So it's the Opposite of us. This is my right hand, but this is camera left. Like, like I'm looking camera, camera left right now. This is camera right. Have them stand camera left, camera right. I happen to like camera left. I don't know, that's just what I'm used to. And most readers at casting directors' offices typically were camera left. But if you can't get someone to come into your house, here's the next best thing. Send them the sides, the short portion of the script for TV or film project. And then have them call you on your cell phone. Put your cell phone on speaker, have it close to wherever you're recording, and that way they can hear you. You can respond. Look, if you want to set it up and do, you know, FaceTime or something like that, that's fine too. If you want to actually see the other person— I, I don't do that, but you can. You just have to make sure that your cell phone is lined up right by the camera, you know, either camera left or camera right. Otherwise, you know, it just gets recorded and it sounds like they're in your room, which is a great way to shoot something when you don't have anybody available to come in and shoot with you. The other thing too is just make sure that the reader's voice isn't too loud, isn't too soft. Do a test first before you actually record it. And the last thing I was just going to mention about a reader Look, if they're not an actor, just ask them not to try to act. There's nothing worse than for a casting director to hear somebody overacting, somebody who doesn't know what they're doing. You are the best, I like you so— instead of just talking to you. Just ask them to say the words dead. And what I do is I hear in my head how the other character would actually be saying the lines, and that's what I respond to, not necessarily the reader. So I just prefer having a dead read. And I can tell you, most of the time when I was going into casting directors' offices, their reader would read things dead, so I was kind of used to that. Number 4, hey, you've got to make sure that you've got a good lighting setup and their sound is good. Good lighting setup means— I know sometimes people say, look, I've got these beautiful windows, they're big, lots of sunlight, I look great in there. Okay, well, that's great if it's a sunny day, but what happens if you have to shoot this at night? What happens if you have to shoot it really early in the morning before the sun comes up? What happens if it's raining, it's cloudy that day? What are you going to do? So I like to control the lights in my room. And not even use the lights in my home office. I've got a pretty basic light setup. I have 2 soft boxes, I have 1 ring light, and I position it in a way so you don't get the crazy diamonds in your eyes. And, and there's, there's a— there are other videos you can see on the channel just about lighting and home auditions that you, you should watch. But it's not that expensive. I want to say it's like $70 for the softboxes. And you do need to also make sure that you don't have shadows behind you, you don't have shadows on your face, people can see your eye color, you don't have junk in the background, you don't have books and shelves with things. You want a plain background. Even with drapes, make sure they're not angled or patterned or ironed in a way so that it stands out. And for the sound, it's got to be really clear. Typically, most people's— if you're using a cell phone, that's going to sound okay. If you're using a computer, it's okay. You can buy good microphones if you want, probably for about $140, $130. I use a Yeti Blue for these kinds of auditions. I use a different microphone for voiceover work, but for those, you have to be right next to the microphone, and so you wouldn't be able to see me because I'd have a microphone planted in front of my nose, which isn't a good look for an audition. But I typically don't even use a microphone for auditions because my MacBook Pro sounds fine. So anyhow, just make sure you are seen well and that people can hear you. Number 5, we are at the halfway point. Always, always, always, always Always, and I mean always, shoot your auditions in a horizontal format. They don't want vertical format. It's like they're watching the movie on a big screen, they're watching the TV show on a rectangular television screen. So always make sure you shoot them horizontally. Number 6, look, I've— I'm laughing a little bit. It's not good. I've seen this happen when people have sent back auditions to me. You've got to be able to do basic editing for your auditions. You know, that might mean just cutting out the very beginning of the audition and cutting out the very end. I've seen people send in auditions where they hit the record button and then they might do— get their tie right or their shirt right, you know, look around And then start the audition. You don't want to do that. And at the very end, they— you see him reaching in to kind of hit the, the record button again to stop it. You got to get that stuff out of there. For, for me, look, as an actor, I'm going to do whatever I can to try to help other actors with that kind of stuff. So So it's not a big deal for me, but most casting directors, it leaves a really bad taste in their mouth and it, it just looks very unprofessional. So only have the parts of the audition that you want people to see in the actual audition and edit out everything else. Number 7. Now this one, I do an entire workshop on this, but I'm going to give you the short version here. You've got to slate properly, and what I mean by properly is every casting director wants you to slate differently. Some casting directors want you to slate at the beginning of your audition, some of them want you to slate at the end. And by the way, just in case you don't know, slate— that's how you introduce yourself and, and identify yourself They might ask you to say in your slate first name, last name, height. Maybe it's first name, last name, height, and the city that you live in. Now I've never understood this. I'm going to have to ask a casting director at some point. Sometimes they will ask all of that, the city that you live in, and what city are you shooting this audition in? It's like, what What difference does it make where I'm shooting this audition? But anyhow, sometimes that is part of the slate. Sometimes they'll say, what character? Sometimes they'll ask, are you willing to work as a local hire? Meaning they're not going to pay for transportation or hotels or pay you a per diem. Whatever they ask for, give it to them very specifically because I have heard of casting directors who get Sometimes they won't even watch the rest of it if they want an audition or they want a slate at the very beginning. So just follow their directions very carefully. Here's a little hint though. I learned about this a couple of years ago. I love it. I do it every single time I'm asked to in the slate. So it's subtle, but I really like it. I'm going to share it with you. So if I am asked to say my name and the character I'm reading for, typically what people will do is they might say, my name is Aaron Marcus and I am reading for the role of William Papura, you know, the attorney William Papura. Okay, I don't do that. Here's what I do. Hi, my name is Aaron Marcus. I am William Papura. I'm not reading for the role of William Paport. I am William Paport. By the way, William Paport, he was the attorney that I played on the HBO series We Own This City, and I'm representing one of the police officers, and he was one of the lawyers. Anyhow, little side note. So anyhow, I love saying I am, not I am reading for the role of. And the one other little thing about slating, If they want you to slate at the beginning and then go into your audition, it's just a personal thing for me. I don't like doing that. Now, if I'm in a casting director's office and they say slate and then let's get started, of course, you know, I'm not going to say, you know what, I just don't like working that way. Of course I'm going to do it. But if I have an option, what I like to do is I like to do the audition first. I'm in character, I'm ready to go, I'm prepared. I've got my lines down the way I want to. I want to shoot it. And then what I will do is do the slate afterwards and then just cut it and paste it and put it at the beginning if that's where they want it. Number 8. Now, if we do get back to going into a casting director's office, or if you find that you are going in there, I made this mistake once. I will never make this mistake again. Look, I, I'm a physical person. Like, if I see somebody I haven't seen for a while, I'll give them a hug. That's just who I am. And if I'm going into a casting, if I see somebody, I might not hug them there, but if I know the person, sometimes I would just put my hand out and shake their hand and say, nice to meet you, or something like that. I stopped doing that. The reason why I stopped doing it is— and this was a number of years ago— Went in, saw the casting director. She introduced herself to me. I said, oh, hi, I'm Aaron Marcus. And I put my hand out, and it was clear she didn't want to shake hands. You know why it was clear? Because she put her hands up like somebody scored a touchdown, and she wouldn't touch my hands or get anywhere near them. And so my hand is sitting out here like this, and now I'm starting to think, I don't know what to do with my hand at this point. If you It feels very uncomfortable. So I just kind of slowly lowered it, and now my mind is spinning. You know, here I was ready to do the read, and now I'm thinking, oh, I hope I didn't mess things up. It feels uncomfortable, and it just distracted me. So rule of thumb, like, and I don't know, you know, maybe it's a germ thing. Maybe— who knows why people don't want to shake your hand? It's fine. It doesn't make any difference. But here's what I do. I never extend my hand. Unless they put their hand out first. If they do, of course I'm going to shake their hand, but otherwise don't do it. Hi, nice to see you. Nice to meet you. Number 9, almost there. Look, I like the idea of wearing wardrobe that gives them a sense of me being that character. I want to wear something that is appropriate If— and look, this, this isn't the only way to do it. I know some actors, and it's not a right or wrong. I know some actors who will go into an audition with the philosophy of, what difference does it make what I wear? You know, I'm reading for a doctor, I'm going to wear a t-shirt. I don't care. You know, they know what doctors look like. I'm an actor. I want them to look at my acting skills. And I get it, and that makes sense. That's not the philosophy that I use, but it doesn't mean that I'm right and they're wrong. It's just what I do. I like to dress the part without insulting the casting director. So if, if you're reading for the role of a police officer, you don't have to wear a police officer's uniform. As a matter of fact, I would highly recommend that you don't. It's insulting to the casting director. They know what police officers look like. You can indicate it. You can wear a blue shirt, maybe have a blue or black tie. That could be appropriate. I like to at least give the feel. So if I'm reading for a doctor, I'm going to walk in with a suit and I will bring a lab coat with me. And typically I'll ask the casting director, hey, is it okay to put a lab coat on? If that's right, because sometimes doctors shouldn't be wearing a lab coat. In which case I'll take my jacket off and then put the lab coat on. And the reason why I do that is, number one, I feel like a doctor when I have a lab coat on. And two, everybody looking at me will say, yeah, that guy's a doctor. And so I like to bang people over the head with the look, but don't go overboard with that. Drum roll, here's the very last one. Number 10, don't mime. People do that all the time. And I just think it's a bad move to mime. Look, if you're, if you're supposed to be— your character's on a cell phone talking on a cell phone, you know, don't do one of these kind of things. If, you know, first of all, you could just pull out a phone. I mean, that would be fine. And if for some reason you don't have a phone and you are trying to indicate that you're having a phone conversation, just kind of tilt your head and you're kind of talking like this. You're You're holding the phone up like that. Sometimes I've seen people do this, and this is like for a TV commercial audition where they're holding a bowl of cereal, they've got their spoon, and they'll say the line is, boy, this stuff tastes so great. So they do this. Boy, this stuff is so great. Well, I'm watching it, and now I'm watching your mime technique. First of all, you didn't swallow, you didn't chew. As you're saying your words, you probably just spit up the milk and cereal all over the room. As you said how great this stuff is, you threw the bowl in one direction, you threw the bowl in the other direction. Now I'm watching your mime techniques and you're distracting me. You can indicate things. There was a show that I worked on a million years ago. It was called Law and Order: Criminal Intent on NBC. And I'm a doctor and I've got a patient who collapses. So for the audition and the callback, I'm not going to grab the reader, which is what I did when I actually got cast and worked on the show, for a few reasons. One is you don't just grab somebody, and 2, the, the reader was pretty far away from me and I'd be off camera if I tried to do that. But what I did was I indicated it. I didn't put my hands up like that because that would look kind of weird. I just kind of moved in a little bit. You know, I'm grabbing the person and now talking to them. So instead of miming and distracting people, just indicate it. It's a much better way to do it. So those are the 10 common mistakes that actors make that casting directors absolutely hate. Hey, if you haven't done this, just a quick reminder, Subscribe, click the notification bell. If you like it, give it a thumbs up, share the link with other people so we can learn from others. And if you know of any common mistakes that actors make at auditions, please share it below. I did say I was going to share a bonus video with you, and you can look right up there. You don't have to follow my finger. I'm pointing. Doesn't make any difference. You see the little i up there, and it's 7 Really just easy and great ways to prepare before an audition that will give you a powerful read. So enjoy it. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.