10 Top Audition Tips For Actors 2023
Mar 16, 2022Being confident in an audition can be hard sometimes, right?
So here are my top ten tips for a great acting audition and below these acting audition tips I give you more ideas about how you can use your brain to better effect in an acting audition. These kind of tips on acting will set you apart from all the other actors out there. Go to it guys!
What separates good actors from wannabees is preparation and how you execute the gig. Good actors do the work and so will you. Take control of your audition with these ten acting audition tips to improve your performance skills.
1. Own the room
Walk in the door with your held head high. No shuffling, no apologetic body language. If you feel like crap and had a bad journey, your cat died or the bus was late and you are covered in sweat it leave those feelings outside the door.
Practice good posture and body language before you arrive. Imagine a golden thread connecting the top of your head to the heavens. Flow in to the room and remember to smile—that’s the impression you want to leave in the room - someone easy to work with.
2. Shine and Be Present
Let your light shine, release your personality. Don’t give one-word answers to the casting director. Get involved, be engaging, be present. Be open, be smart, be curious.
3. Only Connect
Make a great connection with the reader. Memorise your material or at least be familiar enough so you can maintain eye contact. Knowing the dialogue helps, but making a connection with the reader is what will make the scene natural and believable.
I worked with an actor who had learned the entire scene so precisely she was so stuck in her version of the scene. She could not take notes, was not open to me, or connecting with me and not available. Avoid.
4. Research Your Role
Know your character. Read the entire script beforehand. Get as many clues as you can, unearth, mine, discover. We know about a character by the following:
- What he/she says about himself/herself
- What other characters say about him/her
- What the playwright or screenwriter says about him/her
- So should you :-)
5. Know Your Goals
What does your character want from the other characters? What is the character’s purpose in the scene/story? What is their objective?
And...
What happens if they get the goal?
6. Obstacles, Roadblocks, Traps
What’s in the way of the character getting what he/she wants?
What happens if they DO NOT get the goal?
7. Why NOW?
Why is this scene happening right here and right now?
8. Silence
Look for the multiple ways you can be still and silent in a scene. No one else ever does this. It's very powerful Remember when you last held a secret back from someone.
Refused to speak.
How did you feel? Get the idea?
9. Find A Positive Side To Bad Ass and Nasty Characters
Find a moment in the scene where heart can show through. Where love can be revealed, where their dreams may exist. Even monsters were small innocent babies once. Imagine that.
I always use this as a guideline.
<<Tweet this>> Saddam Hussein used to write Romantic Novels.
10. YO-YO The Scene
Feel the levels and dynamic in the scene. Don’t play one feeling. If the character is angry or tough, when might he/she show some vulnerability? FInd at least 3 levels of emotional range and make sure you show the changes. Kick it up, kick it down. Yo Yo!
Your Brain
How would you like to learn how to increase confidence in your acting auditions...?
The way you approach any audition is critical. Here's a very easy way to empower yourself to feel confident - it's a new angle, a new take on the way we usually do things...give it a go.
When you begin to trust yourself more and more your ability to respond well to new ideas will begin to explode.
Be confident - Own the room - Make it yours
How To Be Confident In An Acting Audition
Step 1 : Imagine you have already got the part.
(Sneaky Neuro Tip - Your brain cannot tell the difference between a real and an imagined event - so use the power of your brain :-)
Step 2 : Make it yours. Own it. Say to yourself "This is my part, my role"
Step 3 : Avoid calling it an audition - Think of it as being like a rehearsal, fun and playful - a safe place where you can express yourself fully and completely.
Step 4 : You're going in "to share."
CLICK on the pic below for FREE Self Taping Training
How do you know if you have confidence?
Quick test:
Confidence is knowing you can cope or handle things. It's being able to act as you intend, and succeed in a specific situation, like any kind of audition or self tape
It’s trusting you will reliably show up as your "best self" and do a really good job.
Confidence is a combination of mindset and movement
Remember - The Brain knows THEN the Body flows...
Confidence is best developed using trust, intention, action, and self-reflection.
1. How can I trust myself even more to do a good job?
2. What is my intention in this audition or self tape?
3. What am I going to do specifically?
4. Once it's over...how can I improve on anything I did last time?
A few stories about confidence from fellow actors
How do you increase your own confidence in an audition? Let me know what you do? How do you make things easier on yourself?
10 Audition Tips for Actors. (Updated 2022)
From US Based The Producers Perspective
Sitting on the other side of the table is something that every actor should do. It’s incredibly educational and inspirational because frankly, you realize that while there are lots and lots of people that call themselves actors, there are a much smaller group of Actors (and talent is only a small part of that definition, by the by).
Since so few Actors get a chance to sit where Producers and Directors sit, here are my 10 tips on how to have a better audition experience.
1. Always bring a picture and resume. I don’t care if you have an Agent, a Manager, and a Momma Rose-style “mom-ager” who all promised to send it over. You’re the one that won’t be remembered if you don’t have one.
A P&R is more than an American Express card. It’s like a pair of shoes. You wouldn’t leave home without shoes, would you?
2. Haven’t memorized the material? Don’t pretend you have. If you have sides, try to memorize them. But if you can’t, it’s ok. We’d rather hear the material as written with the papers in your hand than hear you make up stuff just to prove that you tried (and failed) to memorize the material (remind me to tell you about the time an actor added a few lines to a Tony Award winning playwright’s monologue to kill time while he tried to get back on track).
3. Don’t make excuses. I don’t want to hear that you have a cold, or that you have bed-head, or that your printer is broken. Do your best.
4. If I ask you to make a choice, make one. I commonly ask the people auditioning for me to choose between two monologues, or I ask them to give me three song choices from their book and then I say, “which would you like to do?” I want to learn what YOU are attracted to, and I also want to see you make a choice.
Don’t say, “It doesn’t matter. What do you want?” Actors have to make strong clear choices when developing characters. I want to see that side of you in everything you do.
5. Make your first 15 seconds count. When you meet someone for the first time, don’t you make a lot of suppositions? We do too.
Be the 3 Cs. Be comfortable, charismatic and confident. Actors have to command attention. They have to be the most interesting people in a 1000 seat theater. Be someone that we want to get to know. If you can do that as yourself, I know you’ll also be able to do that in a character.
6. Don’t take the last audition times of the day. Casting is not an easy process, and at the end of the day, a creative team is grumpy, tired and wants to go home. The early actor gets the part. (Another reason to be scheduled early? You don’t have the rest of the day of actors to be compared to. I’m much more likely to call someone back that I see early because I have no idea what the rest of the day will bring.)
7. Let us know where to find you. Even if you have an agent, put an email address where you can be reached directly on your resume (For safety reasons, I’d suggest a separate email just for this purpose).
This way, if you ever leave your agent, or if your agent doesn’t get back to the casting director right away, interested parties have a way of at least sending you an inquiry. You don’t have to respond. Pix and Resumes sit in files for years. You always want some piece of contact information to be accurate so someone can find you fast.
8. Don’t start over. Screw up? Fight through it. And it probably wasn’t as bad as you thought. You’re more sensitive to it than we are. An old voice teacher of mine used to say, “If you put a microphone on the inside of a Mercedes engine, you’d hear all sorts of sputtering and spitting, but from the outside, you’d hear nothing but purrrrrrrrr.”
9. Always audition. The best way to master auditioning is just like everything else. Do it over and over. You’ll get numb to the nerves. You’ll be able to be yourself. And you’ll get free practice! I used to go to dance calls, because learning a dance combination at an audition is a free dance class (and I needed them). Actors who get to work on sides with directors at an audition get a free coaching.
10 Remember, we want you to be great. We’re pulling for you more than you can ever imagine. Because a great audition, means a great cast, which means we’re one step closer to a great show.
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Want to know what the top casting directors are looking for when you walk in the room? Get inside knowledge when you listen in on my one-on-one podcasts with Jerry Mitchell, BernieTelsey, and Tara Rubin.
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FAQ's : Acting Auditions
1.How do you prepare for an acting audition?
By being in an open receptive relaxed and fearless state of mind as you begin to imagine your upcoming audition going exactly the way you want it to and as you step into this new picture of this imaginary successful self you feel a jolt of energy and a surge of confidence as you KNOW deep inside you have done your preparation and are ready to bring your A Game to the people you MUST share it with.
2. How do you stand out in an audition?
Take a moment of silence to focus yourself and the room before you begin. When you do begin it should be with a laser focus and a deep intention to serve the role and the character honestly and openly with all the vulnerability and confidence you possess and as if what is happening in the room is happening for the first time, right here, right NOW!
3. How do you make a good impression for an audition?
By being professional, being on time, knowing your lines, being prepared and positive and owning the room like there is nothing else that matters in the history of the world . And by not doing exactly what everybody else is doing. Ever. And then by doing something that surprises them something they NEVER would have dreamed of in a million years.
4. What should you bring to an audition?
- A highlighter: You might get new dialogue.
- Your photo and resume: stapled back-to-back. If requested.
- Your sides
- Bottled Water: Hydrate a lot before an audition.
- Smartphone - off.
- Bring your positive mindset!
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