Why are actors treated with so little respect?
Why can’t email addresses be collected at sign-in? When a project is cast, a group email can be sent out saying:
“We have cast project X. If you have not already heard from us, you have NOT been cast in this project. We cannot offer a critique of your performance, and there is no reply option to this email address. Thank you for the time and effort you put into your audition. We appreciate your work, and wish you the best of luck in the future.”
For film, this may be more difficult, but for theatre, print, and commercials, there are very specific timelines. This method could not be used on every project, but the truth is, it could be used on MOST projects.
Obviously, everyone should be treated with respect as they go about their pursuit of acting. That said, there is also something vitally important about coming to grips with the realities of auditioning. You are — more often than not — going to attend an audition, do good work, leave the room, and never hear about the project again. And it’s not the producers’ (nor casting directors’ nor agents’) responsibility to make sure you know that you need to move on.
“Leave the game on the floor,” an actor friend once said, about the auditioning process. You can’t be so consumed with what’s going to happen after you do your job (the audition) that you need to hear back from us about what’s going to happen next (or what’s not going to happen, to use your example about an email alerting all auditioners that they need to move on). Instead, you need to develop the ability to just forget about it after the audition is over with, enjoying the happy surprise of a callback or booking, should that come to pass.
Take a look at my Shopping for Cereal column for perspective on this issue. I don’t go down the aisle at the supermarket and explain to every box of cereal that I don’t buy why it’s not being put in my basket (or even that it’s not being chosen). You know you’ve not been chosen because you’re not chosen. To need to hear that “for sure” is to appear high-maintenance about the realities of the casting experience itself.
Sure, we could create a one-way email address (or call it a one-way address. Believe me, even if we said no one would ever receive email at that address, I can guarantee that actors would use that email address on promotional blasts about their upcoming appearances) and reach out to everyone once casting is over, but what about when we have a last-minute recast? Are we then seen as jerking the actors around, for having said, “Move on,” and then coming back with a, “Oh, wait! Now we need you,” follow-up? Actors who are sure they have an email address for us will begin to use that email address not only as I described above, but also to communicate that they’re running late for or canceling a future audition, and then we’ll — since we don’t check that email address — think we have a no-showing, no-calling flake while the actor is sure he’s communicated with us.
It’s a situation ripe for other problems down the line. Yeah, I agree — in theory — that actors should be thanked for their time and preparation, then told the project is moving on without them. When an actor has made it past the preread round of a project, I absolutely attempt to get word to her that we’re going another way with our casting decision, but even so, sometimes I don’t get to communicate that fact and the actor learns she didn’t get cast by reading about the actor who did get cast in the trades. We are so dang busy closing deals on those actors who did get cast, providing feedback to agents and managers who are calling us after those auditions, and gearing up for casting on our next projects that there is just no way to reasonably expect that we’re going to add another “to do” to our list. Again, I don’t disagree that it would be nice! It’s just not gonna happen.
So, the best thing you can do is develop — very early on — an understanding that you will hear when you have been cast and, otherwise, it’s a NO. Your feedback, when you don’t get actual feedback on the read, is simple: Are you called back in for that CD? You did a good job. Stop getting called in? You need some more training or experience or, heck, maybe just time before the next appropriate role comes around for that CD and you to intersect. If you really, really, really need that email, I’d recommend that you send one to yourself: “Hi. Thanks for auditioning. Unless you hear otherwise, you have not been cast in this role at this time. We’ll see you next time. Now, move on!”
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/000806.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.