Aaron Marcus shares three audition mistakes actors make. Ask for a few minutes to review sides before reading, answer personal questions with genuine stories tied to the character, and always prepare two distinct interpretations so you can pivot instantly if a director asks for something different.
Hey, in this video I want to share with you how to avoid tricky audition surprises. I can tell you they've happened to me. And watch this to the end, I've got a great bonus video for you. It's how to lower acting stress. Use these tips. All right, let's get started. Hi, my name is Aaron Marcus and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. Look, actors always have surprises at auditions, and even, even though a lot of auditions today are done at home, but sometimes you will go into a casting director's office, sometimes you will have a live home audition, and I want you to avoid these 3 problems. Number 1, this happened to me, and this is a number of years ago, and it was— I was auditioning for a television show. So walked in, I was all prepared, did the audition, and as soon as it was over and the director was there, the director says, hey Aaron, I'd like for you to read for another role. So I, you know, I just assumed 2 things. One is he liked my read because otherwise he wouldn't be asking me to read for something else. And 2, for whatever reason, I wasn't the right person for that particular role. So he hands me the sides and this is what I did, and I'm so glad I did this. I said, oh, absolutely, this is great. Let me just go out in the hallway for a couple minutes and so I can take, take a look at this. And he said, yeah, of course, I'll bring in some other actors. And so by doing that, instead of, you know, trying to show how great I am and how quick on my feet I am and I can just, you know, take the sides and just, you know, say it right away, I took some time to look at it. I didn't spend hours, but, you know, I took 15, 20 minutes and, and really looked things over. And when I felt like I was ready, I, you know, walked back over and they brought me in. And as it turns out, I booked the job. But here's, here's the crazy thing. It was a role that made no sense for me. Look at my face. Okay, now granted, this was a number of years ago, but still, look at my face. He had me read for a bouncer at a strip club. Now when I envision a bouncer at a strip club, it's not me, but I guess, you know, and I have to say, with the right wardrobe, with the right kind of read, I thought it worked. I believed it. But anyhow, so if you're ever asked to read for something else Always feel free to ask for a moment to go look at things. Something else that you want to be prepared for, if you are ever asked, so tell me something about yourself. Look, a mistake that I used to make at the very beginning of my career was, well, absolutely. So I worked on this project and I worked on this project. And what I learned was they can see my resume. They don't want me to list projects that I've done. They want to get a chance to know a little bit more about me. And in a situation where that happened, this was interesting. It was an outdoor shoot. I was vacationing with my wife. That was the scene. And we're outside. We're travelers. We like traveling. Traveling the world. So instead of just talking about work-related things, I didn't mention anything about work. What I said was, well, I love camping, love traveling. As a matter of fact, my family, we went camping last week, and all I did was just talk about outdoor things, nothing about work. And I made sure that if I was asked about, you know, about myself, I would connect it with the character. You know, something that was real. Now, as it turns out, I really didn't go camping the week before, but I have gone camping with my family and I love being out in the outdoors and I love traveling. So that made sense and I'm sure that helped. Here's the last thing I want to mention. Oh, hey, and by the way, if you haven't done this yet, so I don't forget, don't forget, subscribe, click the notification bell so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up because that's actually very helpful. And share, share the link with your fellow So the, the last thing I wanted to mention was if you're going in to read live, I would suggest having 2 ideas in the back of your mind as far as what you want to do with the character. Now I can tell you when I'm doing home auditions, I don't do that. I think this is one idea, this is what I want, this is what I think is best for the character, and that's what I offer. Look, if they ask for multiple reasons, you know, take 1, take 2, take 3. Of course I'm going to do that. Typically I'm thinking this is what I think is best and this is what I want to, to present to the casting director. If I'm being seen by the casting director, whether it's once again live, um, you know, online or in the casting director's office, I typically will go in there knowing about one, but I'll have an idea for a second one. Just in case the casting director says, all right, hey, why don't you try something else? That way I'm prepared. I'm not grasping for ideas at the last second. So I think those things will be really helpful. I'd love to hear if you have ever had any interesting experiences, things came up, things you were asked to do, surprises. Share it with us here on the channel so that way we can learn from your experiences as well. I did promise a great video. You'll see it right up here. Look, we all deal with stress. Well, at least I could say I do. I'm assuming a lot of actors do. And here are some great tips to help lower your stress while acting. So anyhow, I hope you enjoy it. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
