Aaron Marcus explains why audition response times vary wildly: movies take weeks due to rewrites and callbacks, while TV shows decide in days or hours because casting happens while episodes are shooting. He got a Gotham offer within two hours of a casting change, and advises against pestering casting directors unless you have real news to share.
Do you sometimes feel helpless after an audition? In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you how long you need to wait to hear results after an audition. Also, stick around to the end. I've got a great bonus video for you. You need a reader for an audition? Here are 4 amazing tips. 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. A lot of people have asked me, you know, they've done an audition, how long does it typically take to hear back from an agent or a casting director? Well, let me start off by telling you there is no specific answer for that. You know, it depends on the type of project, And then there are a million other factors that could play into whether you hear back or not. So let's start with movies. So movies typically— and, and this is typically, not all the time— but typically those aren't cast that quickly because there's always prep time. And so there could be, depending on the role also, there could be Callbacks, multiple callbacks, and you might not start shooting for weeks or even longer. The other thing that could easily happen, especially with a movie as opposed to an ongoing TV series, is that things change. Funding all of a sudden that was there is not there anymore. Director got fired. Some of the stars got sick and things got postponed. There are a lot of rewrites. There are so many factors involved. So, I mean, typically I find that within a couple of weeks I'll hear, but there have been projects where a month went by and then all of a sudden I got an email and a text saying, hey, we'd like to offer you the role. So there is no Exact answer for that one. Now, for a TV series, an ongoing running series, I mean, typically what happens is they are casting for next week's project. And so while one episode is being shot, perhaps the director of the next episode is scouting, is helping with casting, making decisions. So those decisions typically can happen within Days. Now, just kind of jumping back to a movie, there have been times where things happen very fast just because, you know, the, the actor that they planned on having dropped out, or for whatever reason they couldn't do it anymore. So those things do happen. And then for TV, look, sometimes I've heard within an hour of auditioning. As a matter of fact, I remember for the show Gotham, As I was driving, I auditioned in Baltimore. As I was traveling back from New York to Baltimore, got a call from my agent and said they'd like to offer you the role. Actually, it was a different role that I auditioned for. I'll just tell you the story. I think it's an interesting one. So I auditioned for a guy who is leading A phobia group, people with phobias. And I'm talking to the entire group. All these people have some issues. So the agent called me as I was traveling back home within probably 2 hours of the audition, and he said, I've got some good news and bad news for you. So I always like to hear bad news first so I have something to look forward to. That's just me. So I said, what's the bad news? Bad news, they cut cut out that role. They're not even going to shoot that scene. I said, okay, there's good news? And they said, yeah, they really like your audition. They want to offer you a different role. And so those things happen all the time. Now, something else that I just wanted to share with you— sometimes people have asked, you know, is it okay to follow up, ask the agent, have you heard anything? Could I even get in touch with the casting director if you didn't go through an agent? Here's my suggestion. Look, I know that sometimes it's really hard not to hear back because typically the way it works, unless you are getting a callback or you're getting cast, you don't hear anything. And you have to understand, the casting directors, they are seeing so many people that they don't have the time to sit there and contact everybody and say, Hey, thank you for auditioning. You didn't get it. Thank you for auditioning. You didn't. So you will only hear from them typically if you get positive news. So my suggestion is I would not follow up with a casting director. I wouldn't even follow up with your agent and say, hey, have you heard anything? Because once again, if the agent submitted a lot of people and a bunch of people from that agency, Audition, the agent's going to be spending a lot of time. Now, this is something, a little secret that I'm going to share with you. Some agents might not love. I'm going to share it with you because I have done this occasionally. If there is a big project and for some reason it's really sticking with me— normally I'm pretty good at just kind of letting things go after the audition, but if it's something that's just kind of gnawing at me, I just want to hear one way or the other. What I have done is sometimes contact the agent for another reason. I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be booked out these days. I'm heading out of town. Just wanted to let you know I just did this. I got booked on something. If it was in another market, whatever it is, I'll contact— I'll email the agent for another reason. Oh, hey, and by the way, did you happen to hear anything about that audition? So I'll kind of sneak it in through the back But I don't contact the agent saying, hey, just wanted to follow up, because sometimes what the agents might do is, look, if I hear anything, I'll let you know. Essentially, please don't bother me. So anyhow, wanted to share that one with you as well. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, subscribe, click the notification bell. If you like it, give it a thumbs up and share, share the video with fellow actors so we can continue building a great channel with Actors helping each other. I did promise a, a video, bonus video. If you have an audition and you don't have a reader available, here are 4 amazing tips. I am Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya. See ya.
