Actor-coach Aaron Marcus breaks down how to nail one-word auditions. He shares a TV audition where his only line was "77" and explains how he built backstory and emotional context around it. The key: understand who the scene is about before you deliver the word.
In this video, I'm going to be talking about how sometimes one-word auditions can be really difficult, and I'm going to give you a suggestion on how to deal with it. Also, at the very end, I've got a great bonus video for you— how to actually feel better when you don't book the job. And this works. 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. And what I'm going to be talking about today is I just got an audition with one word. And sometimes we start thinking, oh my gosh, we've got pages and pages and pages of dialogue, it's going to be difficult, there's a lot to go through here. Let me tell you, sometimes one-word auditions can be really hard. And so Although I can't give you specific details, I did have to sign an NDA, non-disclosure agreement, but I can tell you it's a TV show. And there were 2 different characters that I read for. One actually had some lines and the other one had one word. And I want to share with you once again, without giving specifics of what I did To make it what I think was a really interesting read. So in this particular situation, my wife is putting me down, just talking about something about me, and it has to do with a number. And, well, actually, I can tell you it was guests, guests that I had at an event. And my one response was correcting her and telling her— and once again, I'm going to change the numbers. Instead of there being, you know, you know, 75 people, there were actually 77 people. So instead of just sitting, having my wife denigrate me and talk about how unpopular I am, and I only had, you know, 75 people at this event. What I did was I created a whole story. Once again, my one word is 77. That's it. So I started thinking about, well, what could I do in here? What's going on in my relationship with my wife? And clearly it was not good. Didn't like her tone, didn't like the way that she was talking about me. She's saying this in front of a group of people, which really, it made me very upset. So As she is talking to these people, it's like, I've heard this once again. This is my background here. This is what I'm thinking of and went into me delivering this one word. I've heard this a million times. She's talked about this quite often to a lot of people. I find it embarrassing and it angers me. And so I started to imitate her as she's doing, you know, mimicking her silently as she's talking about, I only had 75, you know, that kind of way of thinking. And then when I get to say my one word, let's just say it was 77, I'm angry. And then I turned, even though that was the only word I had, it felt right. For me just to have one other little comment that I said quietly to someone who was sitting next to me. Now, it's not in the script, it wasn't in the sides, it just felt right. And so if you are ever in a situation where you've got one word or two words, you know, you know, one of the things you absolutely need to think about is Who's the scene about? So if the scene is clearly not about you, then you don't want to try to make it about you. And sometimes that one word or two words, you know, if you're just saying hello to the star and it, it allows the star to start talking about something, clearly you don't want to draw any attention to yourself. In this particular one, the other actor who's not the star, and it was an interesting scene that was setting something up for one of the regulars of the TV series to begin talking. And so since I knew that it wasn't about the other person, I felt comfortable in adding a little bit more life to it. So anyhow, if it seems about— not about you, don't make it about you, but Even if it's only one word, find something interesting. Find a reason for you to say the word. Look, no writer is going to be placing a single word in the script unless it's important. They're not going to pay you over $1,000 if you're a union actor to do this unless it's important. They're not going to give you a trailer if you book the job So it's— it might only be one word, but it's important for some reason. So you have to figure out why. Why is it important? What can you do with it to make it interesting? Once again, assuming that it's not about somebody else and you're just setting things up for somebody else. So that's what I did. And, you know, like for every audition I do, honestly, I don't think I'm going to get it. But it was fun. I really enjoyed it. I loved the process. I loved thinking about what the situation was, and I really liked the audition. It was a fun couple-minute audition. So anyhow, I wanted to share that with you. If you have ever had the experience of, you know, one or a couple of words, tell us, you know, what did you do? How did you handle it? Please share it in the description section of the channel. So that way we can learn from you and share the link. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, subscribe, click the notification bell so you always know when I upload a new video. And if you like it, please give it a thumbs up. That's actually very helpful. So I did promise a video, uh, link up here. And yeah, if you didn't book the job Try this. It's going to make you feel a whole lot better. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
