Aaron Marcus, an actor and casting professional, says the top reason actors don't book isn't lack of talent but appearing desperate in auditions. When you walk in thinking "I must get this job," casting directors feel the neediness and turn away. Reframe it: make fun and learning the goals, not landing the role, and you'll project the confidence they actually want.
In this video, I'm going to share with you the number one reason why actors don't book. It's not what you think. Okay, let's get started. Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I've been acting a really long time, and I've even done some casting. And I can tell you, yes, there are a number of reasons why actors don't book jobs. It could be anything, you know, maybe your acting skills just aren't very good. Maybe you don't audition well. Maybe your self-tapes Aren't set up properly and they can't see you, they can't hear you, there are distracting things. But forget all that stuff. Here's what I truly believe is a major problem for some actors and why they are not booking jobs. It's more of a psychological thing than, than actually skill sets. And this is something that took me many years to figure out. And, and I really believe this is true, and I've actually seen it happen when I was doing some casting. So a lot of actors, they go into an audition and they are thinking, I worked hard on this, I got it, I'm gonna book it, I'm gonna nail this audition. Or sometimes it's, boy, This, this job is something I really want. I get a chance to work with this famous actor. This is going to give me a tremendous amount of exposure. I'm going to make a lot of money from this. But here's the thing, when you walk into an audition or you're submitting a self-tape, if you look desperate, like, I've really got to get this, if you look needy I'm telling you, you are going to turn the casting directors off because what— and it's going to affect your audition as well. What you really want to have happen, it's like going out on a blind date. If you say to the person the first time you sit down with them having a meal at a restaurant and you look at them and you say, you know, I want to get married to you. I love you. Nobody's going to buy that. It's going to scare people off. That's not who they want to date and get to know. It's the same for casting directors. They want to see somebody who is exuding confidence, someone who can walk in there and internally be feeling, look, My major goal here, the reason why I'm auditioning, it's not to book the job because personally I can tell you I never think I'm going to book the job and it's not because I think I'm horrible, I just know the realities. So what I do is I reframe everything and what I do is my number one goal for every audition, it's not booking the job. My number one goal for every audition Is to have a good time. That's my goal. It's a Monday afternoon. I get a chance to act. I get a chance to play. That is fun. That's my goal, to enjoy myself. Yeah, a second goal will be to try to learn from the experience. You know, did I do everything I wanted to do in, in the audition? And if not, why? And maybe figure out what I could have done differently. And like, if I happen to book it, which I don't think I will, That's just icing on the cake. So when you go into an audition, don't try to— as a lot of people say, I want to nail this. Forget nailing the audition. Forget it. It's too much pressure, and nailing it doesn't mean anything either because maybe you just don't look right for the part and you might have given a great audition. Get rid of all that. Just be thinking internally, hey, if I book the job, great. If I book— if I don't book it, that's great too. I'll book something else. Just enjoy the experience. And I'm telling you, you seem so much more powerful. You will be the type of person that directors want to work with— someone who is not needy, someone who is not desperate. I highly recommend you try that. And tell me, and because I'd love to hear this, and this will be really helpful, if you've ever experienced something like that. Where you did feel, you know, needy or desperate, share it with us. Or if you have some other techniques or ways of thinking when you are auditioning, please share that with us here so we can learn from you. And if you found this helpful, hey, please subscribe, click the notification bell. If you like it, give it a thumbs up and share it with other people. And that's how we can continue to grow the channel and have people helping each each other. Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
