Actor Growth

Recently my agent has been telling me that all of my calls for background work has apparently been special requests from the casting director of the show. Usually when it is they just ask if I am available to work on a certain day or not. It was the same thing with my previous agent as well.

I know a lot of people would say background work is a waste of time, but I personally think it is a fun and great way to do something at least to help make contacts while learning all the behind the scenes production.

I remember my last agent told me too that usually if you become known as the reliable person that you will most like be one of the first in line to be considered whenever possible for an upgrade to do things like stunts and principal roles should it become available. So if you think about it, it can be just like going to another audition.

Hopefully all of these special requests will turn out to be something good.

Usually when you get an agent you are always wondering what kind of parts you are being submitted for. It’s a pretty standard practice to request a list of productions that your agent has submitted you for just to see if you are both on the same page in terms of getting you out there.

One common complaint that actors have is that their agent never submits them for lead roles in big productions. Someone told me an interesting perspective about this as many times when you audition for large roles it can be the first time that you have ever seen a particular casting director.

Therefore, this is one of those first impressions situation as if you mess up there you could possibly get overlooked for future roles. So in the agent’s eye it is better to hold off until they feel you are ready professionally to audition for larger roles.

Makes sense in many ways. It’s always good to see things from a different person’s perspective as many times impatience can make you do things that will end up working against you.

One discussion that was brought up during the workshop was the question on whether or not joining a larger agency gives an actor an advantage over joining an agency that has a very small roster. Usually from an actor’s point of the thought is that the large agencies get most of the attention from casting directors and hence people who are represented by them get more opportunities.

Therefore, the assumption as well is if the agency that you joined has a very small roster, or often referred to as boutique agencies, then most likely you are being overlooked for a lot of potential roles as the agent doesn’t have as much power/influence.

For the most part, what was told to us is that generally speaking many casting directors could care less who your agent is as they mainly care about the talent. The message was that casting directors would be doing themselves a huge disservice if they only limited themselves to auditioning actors from specific agencies only.

In fact, one thing that was mentioned is that casting directors sometimes like to find new and promising talent as that way they can have bragging rights that they discovered them first in a way. Was useful information I thought as this is definitely a question that crossed my mind.

In the workshop one topic that came up is that how as an actor you have to understand the strange terminology that some casting directors use when they are trying to get you to enact the scene in a certain way. For example, they could tell you to be “a little colder”, “warmer” and one really odd term was “smellier”.

So imagine doing a scene where you interpreted the character a certain way and afterwards the person asks you “Can you please try that scene again except try being a little smellier?” I’m pretty sure most people would just be frozen over that.

Basically, the casting director is trying to tell you do the scene in say a lighter approach, more sinister fashion, etc. The thing is too there is no universal dictionary for these things as every casting director uses different terms and may have different meanings for them. The only real way to learn is based on experience.

Kind of an interesting obstacle that actors face.

I got an e-mail notice today about the casting director workshop that I am attending next week. In the e-mail message it indicates that we should list about 3 questions that we wish to ask the casting director about anything regarding the industry.

I was trying to think of some questions and think that I have two good ones that I have always wondered about. I figured that maybe someone out there has an interesting question that I should ask too. If so, simply tell me what your question is and I will consider asking it.

Of course, I want to avoid any basic stuff such as “What does it take to be an actor”. I see this as a good opportunity to find ways and things we can do as an actor to help further our careers in the eye’s of a casting director.

My agent suggested to my with an e-mail before I signed on that there was this casting director workshop that I should attend as it would be a good way to learn some tips directly from a casting director.

It was kind of a heft price too at almost $200. However, I decided that I will attend it as this is the first time I have decided to try something like this. Kind of feels weird too as it’s almost like paying for someone to see you.

Just wondering what type of questions I should be asking and all for when the day comes.