Actor Aaron Marcus auditioned for an Amazon series, reshot the scene after the director rejected his first take, then was asked to resubmit the original. Instead of lashing out, he paused, responded calmly, got the role, and kept his career intact. The lesson: never reply angry to casting directors.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and if you are watching this on YouTube, don't forget to click the subscription button and the little bell, the notification button, and that way every time I upload a new video, you'll be sent a notification. Hey, so I wanted to tell you about— it was a pretty crazy experience. I had an audition for a TV show and worked really hard at the audition. And recorded it. It was a home audition. I liked it, thought it went well. And it was about a week later. It's unusual that it takes that long just because normally with TV, um, things are happening very quickly. And while they're shooting one episode, they're prepping, auditioning, uh, for the next. Uh, but this was a show that's, that's on Amazon, so It's a little bit different. And it was about a week later, and I hear back from casting, and they said that the director had some very different ideas for the character and essentially wanted me to completely change what I did for the audition. And so, you know, so what that meant to me was, well, they'd like the audition, but they're giving me direction. They want me to do something different. Now, the problem was what they were asking me to do, honestly, it didn't make any sense. I just didn't believe it. Didn't seem like it was right for the character. But I'm thinking, look, it's, you know, ultimately, ultimately it's their call. They're the ones who know specifically what they have in mind. So yeah, of course, you know, I'm going to do it. Just like if it were an in-person audition and the casting director gave me some different direction, I'm not going to say, hey, what are you, crazy? This doesn't make any— of course I'm going to do it. So spent a lot of time again and redid the audition. Did not feel that it was right. Oh, it was a good audition. It just didn't seem to make any sense to me. And it was a couple days later, I get another email from the casting director saying, you know what, um, the director watched it and decided your idea was actually better than what he was asking for. So, uh, would you do me a favor and shoot it again just like you did the first time? I'm furious at this point. Not because they, they liked what I did more than what they were asking me to do. I mean, that's fine. But it's like, why? Why do I have to shoot this thing again? It made no sense. They already had it. They had what they liked. So why am I doing this again? And my initial thoughts, my initial fantasies was to say, No, I'm not doing it. Look, you saw my audition, you liked it, you're asking me to do it the same way I originally did it. I don't want to spend the time doing this. I've got a lot of other things going on in my life, and it just seemed ridiculous. So internally, that's what I'm feeling, and I, I made a wise decision, and I decided, you know what, I'm not going to respond right now. I need to take, I need to take a little break. I'm feeling very angry. That's not a good way to respond to people, not only in the business but in the world. And so it's not like I waited days to get back in touch, but it was, you know, a few hours. I decided to do some other things, just clear my head. And I thought, hey, look, Seems like a good character. I like the show. Sure, of course I'm going to do it and, and not say anything, not get into any kind of verbal confrontation or anything. And I said, sure. So I wrote back and I said, yeah, I'll have it to you by the end of the day. And I did. And as it turns out, I— and I booked it. And it was wonderful. It was a great experience. Loved working with the director. The other actors were great. It was a lot of fun. Really enjoyed it. And it just proved to me that you've got to be careful when you are responding to people because it's easy to get caught up in the moment and whatever you're feeling, you might say something you're going to regret. You might say or do something that will not be good for you. So just wanted to share, uh, share that information. If something pops up and it just bothers you, take a moment. Just, you know, and I'm not saying that there might not be times where you respond and saying, no, uh, look, I disagree. I'm not going to do it. Doesn't feel right. And that's fine. But you want to do, uh, you want to have any kind of response that you do, out of a clear-headed, rational way of thinking and not just blurting things out in the moment. So anyhow, hope that's helpful to you. As always, I'd love to have you be a part of my YouTube channel and help support it. There is a donations link. It just goes right into a PayPal account. You can just click on it. Whatever you can afford, I would greatly appreciate just to help support the channel. It helps allow me to continue to add more quick tip videos here. Feel free to share this with other friends throughout your social media. Look, my goal is to have as many people as possible learn more about the industry. So share it. That would be great. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
