The biggest trap actors fall into in the beginning of their audition process is that they are preparing themselves to lie as opposed to telling the truth! Meaning that you don’t want to pre-plan your audition with line readings masquerading as truth – you actually want to tell the truth by going after One Specific Honest Thing in the audition scene. Whether you’ve been given five minutes with a script or five hours, the approach is really the same. Here are the steps to turn your audition into a thrilling, spontaneous display of life, instead of something canned, phony and ultimately dead on arrival:
1. Quickly and Efficiently Analyze the Scene.
You want to articulate what the character you are portraying is doing in the scene. You want to do this as objectively as possible. This is not where your artistic interpretation comes into play – that’s the next step – right now, in the most basic, literal way possible, you want to write down, in one sentence, what the character is doing. “Arguing with their wife about their marriage”, “Planning a bank heist” – something like that. Next, as best you can, decipher the stakes and tone of the show or film. If you are auditioning for a show that is currently on the air, absolutely watch part of an episode to get a feel for the stakes and the tone. If it’s a film, what other film do you sense it’s similar to in the stakes and tone? Research other content by the production team if you can. Getting a solid feel on the stakes and tone of the piece is absolutely essential! Also, from the script/director/producer point of view, what do you think the purpose of your role is? And lastly make sure you’ve digested the character breakdown, plot breakdown and FYI pages completely to garner any more literal information about your character and the stakes and tone of your scene.
Tip: Have an audition journal where you can clearly and calmly write out all the above information.
2. Choose an Essential Action.
The Essential Action is what YOU are actually, literally going to attempt to do to the reader during the audition. This is where things get subjective and your artistic side takes over. You want to choose a do-able, playable action that is NOT a re-articulation of what is literally happening to the imaginary character, but seems like a good fit. For example, if my character is an innocent man being interrogated by the police in regards to a violent crime and he’s trying to explain to them that he is not guilty, my Essential Action might be “To Get A Loved One To Give Me A Second Chance”. This is NOT a re-articulation of what is literally happening and that is GOOD! As strange as it may seem, we are purposely getting away from the fiction of the scene.
Tip: Make sure the Essential Action has its test in the other person, in your reader/scene partner. You want to be able to look at that actual human being in front of you and truly SEE how close they are to giving you a second chance. Your impulses come from the other human being, not the script!
3. Choose an As-If
The As-If is not only where we really get to nail down the stakes and tone of your audition in a very specific way, but it’s also where you get to use your imagination in the way that it wants to be used. One of the biggest traps actors fall into is attempting to get their imagination to buy into something it doesn’t really want to buy into! I will never know (thank God!), what it’s like to be a serial killer, or an alien warrior from another dimension. If I try to believe that I am these characters, I end up “playing at it”, creating a caricature of a human being because I don’t really believe. But I CAN imagine convincing a good friend of mine that they are going to come out stronger than ever after a divorce. Or convincing a sibling they are doing the wrong thing by embezzling money from their employer. The As-If wants to be something that has not actually happened but you could imagine happening. For example, going with my Essential Action of “To Get A Loved One To Give Me A Second Chance”. My As-If might be that I have relapsed in regard to drinking and drugs and my wife has left me, taking my daughter with her, and I’m begging her to give me a second chance. Now in my real life I am a recovered alcoholic and drug addict with 23 years of sobriety, so I can imagine relapsing, my wife leaving me, and now I’m begging her to give me a second chance. This is something my imagination can accept! I find it gripping and believable! This is what we want the As-If to be – gripping, powerful, FUN and very specific! In essence, the As-If is how we are going to do the Essential Action. I’m going to get a loved one to give me a second chance as if I’ve relapsed and my wife has left me. So right before you do your audition, you want to close your eyes and imagine that you are going after your Essential Action/As-If. Going with our example, I would close my eyes and imagine that I was in a very specific environment with my wife, trying to get her to give me a second chance. I really want to watch it play out. In my imagination my wife is just staring at me, not saying anything, so I have to keep going! What would she look like, what would she say if she were really going to give me that second chance? That’s what I want to see, and I’m not seeing it, so I have to keep trying different tactics, spontaneously, moment to moment, attempting to get what I want from her. Then, at a certain point, I open my eyes and jump into the scene – still playing that very specific action, but now with the actual human being in front of me and not my imagined wife.
Tip: Imagine, don’t think! Don’t think about how you might go after what you want, actually go after it in your imagination. If it’s really gripping, specific and believable to you, you’ll be surprised and delighted at what your imagination does!
4. Let The Lines Mean Anything!
You’re warmed up and now you want to let it rip! Keep your focus on that human being across from you, say whatever lines the script is asking you to say, but you are really treating the script like it’s gibberish! The words mean nothing to you, all your impulses want to come from what you are seeing in that other human being. So in our example, I am REALLY, ACTUALLY, LITERALLY trying to get that human across from me to give me a second chance, in the same manner I was with my wife in my imagination. In real life, when we are very actively trying to get something from someone, we don’t really know where the words are coming from, and we are not really consciously choosing the words – this is what we want to experience in the audition! I get the impulse from what I see in the other; quickly scoop up some words from the script with my eyes, or trust that they are in my memory and let them come out unbidden, then spontaneously try another tactic to get what I want from the other human being – based on what I am actually seeing in them.. We are not mimicking human behavior in the audition, we are displaying actual human behavior!
Tip: Most actors erroneously think acting is about getting deeper into yourself – it’s not! Acting and auditioning is all about losing yourself in that other human being!
5. Join An Empowering, Encouraging Class
I think a good acting class should be like a martial arts dojo! A safe place that encourages and empowers you, where you can learn, train and practice, practice, practice. You need to find a class and coach/teacher that has a real grasp of practical audition/acting skills like the ones listed above. Acting is much more like athletics than most people realize. The gymnast, the dancer, the football player need to practice their skills over and over and over in order to make them habitual – this is exactly so with the actor. And the skills of the actor are real, physical, practical and actual. Acting is about DOING not thinking!
Summation: After imperfectly assessing what’s literally happening to the character and the stakes and tone of the material, choose an Essential Action and an As-If. Run the As-If improv in your mind, warm yourself up for thirty seconds or so, then open your eyes and continue to go after what you want with that real human being across from you. Let it rip!!