Aaron Marcus, an actor with 35 years of experience, got asked to audition for a 70-plus woodsman role that seemed all wrong for him. His agent confirmed the casting director specifically wanted him, not the character type. Casting directors sometimes use mismatched auditions to test your skill or keep projects secret.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to my Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel. If you haven't subscribed yet, click the button below, and also don't forget about the bell, the notification button, so that way you'll know every time a new video is uploaded. And if you like it, then please click the thumbs up button, and that way it will help let other people know about this video. Okay, let's get started. So the big question is, should you audition for a role that doesn't seem right for you? And I can tell you, in the past, I would have said to you with 100% certainty, no, you know, don't audition for something that's not, not right for you. Don't submit for something that's not in your category. You know, I'm not going to be submitting Uh, for a woman, uh, role in her 30s. Okay. However, having said that, and by the way, I always like sharing information that is based on real experiences. I've been a full-time actor for a little over 35 years, so, uh, I'd like to share things that are concrete, things that have actually happened to me, things that I've learned. So this just happened to me, oh, I'd say about 6 weeks ago. And I was sent an audition for a film by an agent, and the role was for a guy in his mid to late 70s, tough guy, kind of a guy who lived in the woods, unsophisticated. I'm reading the copy, or I'm reading the sides, the words in the audition. It just doesn't make any sense to me. And look, I always want to audition. You never know what can happen. But I also don't want to spend a lot of time on something that is just not right for me. When I get an audition, I spend a lot of time with it. I study it, try to figure out— well, first of all, I try to memorize it If I can, certainly I always have the sides with me while I'm recording it, just in case I don't have it fully memorized or it's not fluent yet. And if I need to refer to it, try to figure out, you know, what's going on with the character, what I'm trying to get out of the scene, what's taking place. You know, there are a lot of things. Then you have to shoot it, you have to edit it, and sometimes— You have to watch it. The instructions take forever. I mean, I just had 2 auditions today, and all the different components of what the casting director was asking for took a tremendous amount of time. I mean, everything from still shots, holding up pieces of paper to the camera with information, how you label everything There were just— there were a lot of details involved. So if I'm gonna— if I'm going to do the audition, it's going to take me quite some time. So here's what I did. I contacted the agent and I asked her, was I actually requested by the casting director? You know, did you submit my headshot and resume for this role? And— or did you just like, you know, just toss a lot of people out and, you know, you were just hoping that know, maybe the casting director would like one of us. And she, and she wrote back and she said, nope, I did submit you. The casting director specifically asked for you. And I know who this casting director is. I've only auditioned for her a couple times, but once, uh, it was for a feature film. I did have a callback at her place, uh, didn't book the job, but I had a callback. And so, you know, she knew who I was. And at that point I said, okay. So as I was reading this, I can tell you the audition was very unusual. And, um, but I followed all the instructions. And just to kind of wind things up here a little bit, because I'm going to do a whole other video just about this particular audition. It was a, like I said, it was a very unusual audition, something that I've never done before. Uh, and, but I'm going to do that. I'm going to talk about that in a separate But the wind-up was this. I did, I did book the job. It was a lot of fun. It was great. And this has happened to me a few times where the role that I auditioned for was not the role they were considering me for. Sometimes they just want to get a sense of your acting skills. Sometimes They don't want to give out any information about the project because even though they might have you sign an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement, which essentially says you are not allowed to post anything about this project, you're not allowed to talk about it. Sometimes they don't even want people to know that the project is actually happening, you know, if it's a sequel, or sometimes there's just specific information. They don't want released to the public. And unfortunately, there are some actors who have done crazy things and they have given out information. I remember hearing once there was a television series and the person went to a local newspaper and said, hey, I know what's going to be happening in an upcoming episode, and shared the sides with the newspaper. So people are very concerned and protective about the information. So The windup was this was not a role that I was auditioning for. They just wanted to see my acting skills and what I did with it. So, so what I would suggest is, you know, certainly don't submit yourself for something that is just wrong for you. You don't want to waste the casting director's time going through, you know, headshots and resumes before they decide who they're going to grant auditions with. And the other thing too is it's going to upset them. You know, they're going to look at you as a desperate actor who's just not really paying attention. You're not being professional, and you're just submitting to everything that comes along. Don't be one of those kinds of actors. However, if you have been submitted by an agent, I think it's a very legitimate question to ask the agent just to double-check. Did the casting director see my headshot and resume? And am I being requested to audition? Even if the role is really wrong for you, because once again, you might not be auditioning for this role at all. So anyhow, I just wanted to share that with you. If you have any questions, always feel free to reach out to me. I'd be more than happy to try to answer them for you. And if you have had any experiences with auditioning for a role that was not right for you, Please leave them below. That's the reason why I have this channel, is to have a large group of people sharing information. And I would love for you to share your experiences with other people so we can all learn from each other and help each other have more success in the industry. Don't forget, please subscribe, click the notification button. If you like it, give it a thumbs up and feel free to share this link with others as well so other people can learn from this video also. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
