When to Turn Down an Acting Audition or Job - This Can Help Your Career

Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to my Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget to subscribe. Just click the subscription button, and also you can click the bell, the notification button. And if you like the video, you know, click the thumbs up, and that way it will help let other people know about this video. So I've been a full-time actor for 35 years. I booked over 1,276 jobs, and I can tell you I've turned down very, very few in my life. And sometimes I've turned them down. Once again, I'm talking about a handful, maybe 3 or 4 jobs in my life. And I'm not talking about because of— I had conflicts and things like that, but just turned them down. Sometimes it was an organization, a political spot I just didn't want to be associated with. One, I remember, I thought it might hurt me in the long run. Well, matter of fact, I'll tell you very specifically. It was a great ad campaign. This was a commercial modeling job, national campaign, great concept. I was hoping it would be very successful. I decided to turn it down because I thought it was a bad business move for me and that I would lose work from doing it. It was an ad campaign about child abuse. And the whole concept was a lot of times when people think about child abusers, they think of scary, evil, frightening-looking people. And the sad reality is anybody can be a child abuser. Even a nice, friendly guy like me. So you've got to be careful. Great idea. I just didn't want to be the face of a child abuser. Not because I was concerned that I thought people might think, wow, you know, he seems like a nice guy. I can't believe, you know, he's doing these horrific things. I wasn't worried about that. Look, actors take on roles all the time. That, you know, it's not based on who they are. They're, they're actors. And same with commercial modeling. But I was concerned because at that time period, my kids were younger and I was doing ads, um, in my age range where I was the dad. And I had done things for, uh, Crayola crayons and Parents magazine and, and Toys R Us when they were still around, you know, things like that. And I was concerned. Mm-hmm. That if I did this ad essentially portraying a child abuser, that might have an effect on future work as portraying the dad. So I thanked the agent very, very much because this was— I was requested for this. I didn't even have to attend a go-see, an audition for the job. And I just said, it's just not something I feel comfortable doing. And I explained it to the agent. I don't know if she was very happy about it, but it was a good decision for me. And it was a— once again, it was a business decision. The one that I just turned down this week, it was different. And I can tell you, it was a very difficult decision. And I'm sharing this with you because, you know, this is something that you might want to consider as well when you are deciding on accepting or turning down jobs. So For this one, and I'll give you the backstory, and I don't want to give out specific details, just, you know, the names and things like that, just because I feel a little uncomfortable with it. But there is a casting director who I used to work with, and for whatever reason— and I booked jobs, booked some really good jobs with her, with her, but, you know, auditioning for her, and then I booked the jobs. Casting directors don't book you for the jobs, but Well, typically they don't. I didn't hear from this casting director for a long time, did not have an audition with her for years, never understood it. I would submit if I would hear about an audition that I thought was right for me, and for whatever reason, I was not being brought in to read. So all of a sudden I get an email, and it's a TV show that Being shot right now. They're currently shooting it, and it's something I'm very familiar with. I know the producer— I know, I know who he is. I even did a show, actually did 2 shows that he produced years ago, and they're great. It's on a major cable network. The topic for the show, phenomenal. So I was very excited to get an opportunity to audition when I actually got an email saying, yes, we'd like to invite you to audition for the show. And I'm thinking, this is great. So did the audition, and like with all auditions, I never think I'm going to get it. I'm not trying to book the job. That's just not my approach, and everybody has different approaches to auditioning. Some people like to visualize, you know, booking it, getting an Emmy Award or Academy Award, whatever it is. I go into it with a very different philosophy, and I'm not trying to tell you how you should go into an audition. I'm just telling you what I do, and it works well for me. I'm just there to enjoy the audition. It was a Tuesday afternoon. I got a chance to read for something that was fun. It was enjoyable. It lasted like 2 and a half minutes. It was just a couple of short scenes, and it was great. I had a great time, finished it, and did everything I wanted to do. Sent it in and I let it go because I, I knew I wasn't going to get the job because I'm not even thinking about trying to get it. Then I get an email saying you've got a callback. I thought, wow, well, that's, that's pretty cool. And so I will get a chance. I didn't know who was going to be there. This was a Zoom session. I didn't know if it was going to be the director, if it was going to be any of the writers, just the casting director. I had no idea. So like with all auditions and callbacks, I wear the same wardrobe. I remember what I did in the audition, and I gave it to him again. By the way, that's not the time to show how talented you are, how you've got such a wide range. To give them a very different kind of— give it to them again. They loved your audition enough to call you back, so do it again. Look the same. Don't make any major changes in your appearance because they liked what they saw. So as it turns out, I read for the assistant first. I guess she wanted to make sure that what I was doing seemed right, and then the casting director joined us. She had one little for me, which I followed, did the audition again, and once again didn't hear anything. They didn't give out any kind of dates or anything like that for the shoot. And, you know, for films, you know, sometimes they don't know. You know, they might say from now and then the next 3 months, are there any dates that you are booked out? I wasn't asked about that. For this. And this is a— like I said, it's a miniseries on TV. So did that, didn't hear anything, I don't know, for about a week. And then I got an email saying, congratulations, we'd like to offer you the role, and here are the dates that we're shooting. And I looked at it and my heart sunk a little bit. Because I've got one week that I am booked out next month. It just so happened that is when they're shooting this, while I'm away, booked out, out of town on a project. So I can tell you that years ago, I would probably have— No, you wouldn't. Done everything I could to try to make some changes, and, and which, which I still did. But this one— and I'll just tell you, it was a vacation. It was a vacation with my family. And if it were a job that I was booked out on, I would have contacted the people who, you know, I booked the original job with for those dates. I would explain to them, I am committed to doing it. I've already agreed to doing these dates with you. Is there any chance that I can switch the dates? And if they say— if they said no, I said, okay, you've got me. Even if it was a very small job and the other one was a much bigger higher paying job, I wouldn't have just dumped the first one. And I know people who have done that because they're thinking, hey, I can make a lot more money with this one. I'll just call in sick at the last minute, or I'll just tell them something came up. And I've just never done that. And I don't— for me, I just don't think it's good business. You don't want to pull out on somebody just because you've got a better offer, because those things will be remembered. And you might lose out from ever working for those original people. So anyhow, I just wanted to share that part of it with you. But for this, it was different. It was a vacation. And like I was saying, years ago, I probably would have altered something in my vacation in order to do the job. And I have done that. In the past where maybe I would, you know, take off, fly in, do the job, fly back. Um, you know, that was a possibility. Uh, I didn't want to do it. You know, the, the world has changed a bit. Um, as you know, uh, getting a chance to spend time, for me anyhow, with, with my family is, uh, just feels more special even now. Not that it didn't before, but it feels even more special now just because everybody has busy lives. You know, everybody's working. My children are working. And so for them to take time off from their work to spend time with us, it would have complicated— I just didn't want to do it. I just Didn't want to break up the vacation. We're taking a long drive together, and I didn't want to miss out on that. And so it was really hard. It was really hard. And I contacted the casting director, and I thanked— I thanked her, you know, very much. And I said, unfortunately, I am booked out. during those time periods. And I gave her the dates of when I'm booked out. I didn't say vacation. I just said I am booked out on those dates. If by any chance those dates change, please let me know. I would love to do the job. And they wrote back and they said, well, thank you for letting us know, because I let them know right away. So that way they could go to their second choice for this particular job. So I just wanted to share that with you. I'm not telling you what you should do. It's not my job to do that. And like I said earlier, earlier on in my career, I wouldn't have turned the job down, to be perfectly honest with you. I would have done something to make it happen. But You know, I guess maybe— and I'm not saying, hey, look, well, you know, I've done this long enough, I can just turn— it wasn't an easy decision. It was a very difficult decision, but it was the right decision for me at this time in my life. So anyhow, I just wanted to share that with you and to let you know that it is okay to turn down jobs, um, you know, Will it hurt you? Look, sometimes agents could be angry, maybe the casting directors could be angry. As long as they didn't tell you ahead of time when the dates were and if you were available, and then you auditioned and then you had a callback and they just said, oh, I forgot to mention I'm already booked out. Now that's not good, that's not being professional. But if you weren't given the dates and they just threw these dates at at you and you happen to be unavailable for whatever reason, then if they are upset, then that's something they're going to have to deal with. This is your life, you know, and, and your life is, is more important than anybody else's life, at least as far as, you know, other industry professionals. And just, you know, be honest, be professional about it. And that's the way you want to handle the situation. So I turned it down. I felt really bad. This is a great— it's a good job. It's on a show that I would love to be a part of. Who knows? Maybe I'll get another opportunity to audition for the show, which would be wonderful. And so I just wanted to ask you, hey, if you have ever had an experience where you had to turn a job down, Please share it below so that other people in our acting and modeling family can learn from you. And let us know what your experience was. Did you have any ramifications? And, and who knows, maybe people will view you in a better way because, wow, this person is busy, this person is working. Unfortunately, they weren't available On these dates or this date. So, you know, who knows, maybe it could be a positive thing, you know, by turning it down. But in either case, please share it below. And once again, if you haven't subscribed, please hit the subscription button, the little bell, the notification button. And if you found this information helpful, click the thumbs up button or icon so that way it will help share this information with other people. Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.