Acting coach Aaron Marcus says be honest with agents and casting directors, except when you first meet them. Then hide frustration and show up upbeat. He once arrived at an audition angry from traffic and parking, but greeted the casting director cheerfully instead.
In this video, you're going to learn when you absolutely cannot tell the truth to an agent or a casting director. So watch it until the end and you're going to see the exact situation where you absolutely can't be honest. Okay, let's get going. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center, where I share information with people to help them either break into the industry or advance their career to the next level. I try to I upload videos at least twice a month, so make sure that you click the subscribe button and the notification bell. That way, every time I upload a new video, you will know about it. And if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. Look, my philosophy has always been be honest. Always be very honest with people in the industry. But besides the fact, it's very easy to be caught in, in a lie. The other thing too is, look, you don't want to run your business in a deceitful way. Besides the fact that people in the industry will stop working with you, people will question you, people will doubt you. And in the way that some people lie, they, you know, maybe they kind of fudge their resume a little bit. They put, you know, maybe some theater listings where they think, Who's really going to know if I did this play or not? Or sometimes they might lie about special skills that they have, and they accept an audition or a booking where they simply can't perform what they said they can, and then all kinds of problems come up from that. And I've known people who've gotten released from contracts with their agents because they lied. About those kinds of things. But so, so I always firmly believe you have got to be honest with people in the industry. However, hey, in this video I'm talking about one situation where you absolutely want to lie. And here's the situation. And this has probably happened to you. It certainly has happened to me a number of times. When you go, let's say, to a casting, and let's say actually a situation that I was in, and this was a few years ago. The traffic was horrible. I'm driving around trying to find a parking spot. This was in New York City, and I'm driving around the casting director's office probably 20 minutes trying to find a place to park. It was horrible. I wound up going into a parking garage and spent, I don't know, $20, $30 for, you know, 20 minutes or 30 minutes. Um, and I walked in and there's a, an assistant, um, who signs you in or helps sign you in and might maybe perhaps gives you some, you know, additional information. And then you walk in eventually and you get, you know, ready to audition. And, and sometimes casting directors will say, you know, you know, how are you? So Honestly, I felt horrible. I was stressed out. I felt angry. I was frustrated. I just felt bad. You know, the driving, the parking, everything was just horrible. And my intuition was, I don't know how you guys deal with parking around. It's absolutely— That was what I was feeling inside. But I've learned not that the casting directors, or perhaps a new agent that you're trying to meet with, it's not that they aren't good people, they aren't nice human beings, they just don't care. They don't want to hear about your problems. They don't want to hear about a fight that you had with a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a spouse, a sibling. They don't have that kind of personal connection with you, at least at this point. And I can tell you, for most casting directors— and once again, I've been doing this for over 36 years full-time, so I've met lots of casting directors— and I would say pretty much most of them I have absolutely no personal connection with. We're very friendly, you know, they ask how you are, you know, that kind of stuff, but it's not like I have Social outings with them. A few, you know, I do have, you know, personal connections with, but the majority of them, no, these are just business associates, you know, who I might like, who are very nice to me when I walk in there and I feel very comfortable, but I don't have that kind of intimate relationship with them where I would sit down and start talking about my personal life and problems that I'm having. And the fact is they don't want to hear about it. They're busy. They are seeing lots of people that day. They are probably feeling somewhat stressed because they have to find the right person for this particular role, and they might be casting all day long. Who knows? Maybe they're casting for a couple of days. Maybe this is a last-minute addition to the project and they've got to find somebody immediately. They don't have time to hear about you complain about your life. So what you want to do is use your acting skills when you go in there. And if somebody says, uh, hey, nice to see you, how are you? What you're going to do is, no matter what is going on in your life, you are going to say, hey, I'm great. Hey, I'm here. I'm going to get a chance to play. This is fun. Um, how are you? You know, that's what you're going to do. Because honestly, they don't want to hear it. And, and the other thing too is, you know, if you start going on to a rant and start complaining about your life, they, they might be thinking, well, if this guy's on a set and this is the way he's acting, I don't know that I want to really push for this person to be working there. So what you need to do is Just make things comfortable. Make yourself look approachable, someone that they want to spend time with. If you're going to be working on a project, someone that they want to— people are going to want to spend weeks or months, or even if it's just a day with someone who seems like a nice person, not some angry curmudgeon who is complaining and just seems bitter and nasty. That's not what they want to hear. So whatever it is, everything is great. You are feeling wonderful. After you walk out of there, if you're still just feeling really frustrated and you need to, you know, hit a wall or something, do whatever you can to make yourself feel better. But when you're with these people, don't be honest with them. Uh, I hope this was helpful to you. And, and I'm curious if you guys have ever been in a situation where you were frustrated And you did say something about it, what happened? If you were frustrated and you decided to use this idea and you just talked about how great everything is, I'd love to hear about that as well. Don't forget, if you haven't done this yet, hit the subscribe button, the little bell notification button, so you always know when a new video is uploaded. And if you found this helpful, please give it a like and Give it a thumbs up. I'd really appreciate that. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
