Aaron Marcus, a veteran actor, explains why audition rejections aren't about your talent. Casting hinges on factors you can't control: height, body type, whether you match what they pictured. He learned to stop taking it personally and keep confidence by surrounding himself with supportive people.
In this week's video, I'm going to be sharing with you some personal and painful things that I experienced at the beginning of my acting career, and I'm doing this so you can avoid what I and a lot of actors actually go through. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I've been an actor for over 40 years and One of the things that was really difficult for me, especially in the first number of years of my career, was I would prepare for an audition, work really hard, go in, do the audition. I would think, that was really good, I thought I did a great job in there. And not book it. Or I would submit to an agency and I'm thinking, boy, my headshot looks great, my resume is in a good situation here. Crickets. Didn't hear anything. And what, what I started doing was I would take things personally, you know, and I would start questioning myself. Um, Can I really act? Have the jobs that I've gotten before— was it, was it just a weird coincidence? Do I really have the skills to do this? And something else, and this was the other part that was so painful, was that I'm taking things personally and I'm questioning my self-worth. As a person. And, and I, I unders— I understand why I and a lot of people do that, because look, when you go to an audition, essentially you're a salesperson. And I'm not, I'm not equating the two completely here, but, you know, if I'm trying to sell you a Mac because I really like Macs, and you tell me, you know what, I really like PCs. Thank you, but I'm just not interested. As a salesperson, I go, okay, I understand. And then I go on to somebody else and try to sell them the Mac. However, as an actor going to an audition, what they're saying is, I don't want you. It's not the Mac, it's not the piece, it's you they don't want. And it is easy to tap into that and start thinking Am I bad? I'm embarrassed. I'm not being successful here. People are going to think that I'm horrible. And it's a tough place to go, and a lot of us have done that. And so what I've learned by speaking to so many casting directors about the audition process is that— and, and, and this, I just, I find this so helpful to hear. And I'm not— look, let me just tell you, I'm not saying, oh, maybe you should be taking more classes, maybe your auditions aren't as good as they could be. Of course. But the fact of the matter is, when we're auditioning, it's not like the Olympics. It's not you're an ice skater and whoever skates the best does the best routine, doesn't have any flaws in the routine, they're going to get the gold medal. It doesn't work that way for us, and that took me a long time to get because the fact of the matter is it's not necessarily who gives the best audition who gets the booking. There are so many factors that go into getting the job. Look, when I'm auditioning for a film or television show, I'm I'm assuming pretty much everybody who's auditioning is going to give a really good read, and then it comes down to factors that we have absolutely no control over. You're too tall, you're too short, your body's in too good of shape, it's not in good enough shape, you're too attractive, you're not attractive enough. Or maybe if you're one of the, you know, children in the scene and the parents have already been cast and you don't look enough like the kid— like the parents, You're not going to get the job. So it's not about who gives the best auditions, it's who fits the role the best. That's what it comes down to. And I think that the quicker you stop taking things personally and understanding these are business decisions, it's not about are you nice, are you good. It's It's about who fits the role the best. And I can tell you, there have been auditions that I've had, I didn't book the job, but the casting director, as it turns out, liked what I did, and she, you know, she requested me for something else that I did book. So I just want to make sure that you, you have that. And please share your story with us here if you've ever Gone to a place where you just start feeling bad about yourself or taking things personally, please share it here so we can learn from you. And, and look, I can just tell you the fact of the matter is you're a good person. You're still a good person whether you book jobs or, you know, or not. And that's why it is so important to always surround yourself with people you love, people who care about you, people who will not dislike you because you're not being successful at this time period. So please share those experiences with us. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, just subscribe, click the notification bell. If you found this helpful, give it a thumbs up. And if you want to be on my special email list where I send out great industry information, just go to my website, howtoactamodel.com, scroll down to the bottom, fill it out, and you're going to get a great bonus video. It's the 6 Secrets to Mastering Home Auditions. Anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to hear your comments and read your comments, and I will look at every single one. I really appreciate those. See ya.
