When All You Can Think About Is…
Today is a dark day. As I type this, the death toll in Las Vegas’ mass shooting is 59 souls, and climbing. Citizens in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico are struggling to recover from massive hurricane damage. Mexico is reeling from a major earthquake. Catalonians were beaten for trying to enter a polling location… These days, it’s hard not to be touched by calamity.
When tragedies strike, it’s difficult to know which way is up, let alone how you should proceed with your daily life.
The world doesn’t stop when these horrific events occur. As we’ve all seen, the only things that shut down the entertainment industry are Christmas and a writer’s strike.
So, what should you do when you have an audition scheduled on a day when you are struggling to deal with one of life’s catastrophes? (And by “catastrophe”, I’m not talking about sitting in traffic on the 405…)
Reschedule your audition. Plain and simple.
We often see actors come in to our offices, who are grappling with a major personal issue; they got a bad diagnosis, they just had to put their dog to sleep, or like today, they’re waiting to hear from a loved one who was too near a violent event. We’ve even had actors show up to read after getting into a car accident on their way to see us. They assume that they have one shot, and do their best to buck up and be a professional. Folks, there are no brownie points for “showing up anyway.”
There is no world where an actor, who is dealing with physical or emotional trauma, can give any sort of a decent audition. And we don’t expect them to. In fact, when we recognize that the actor is struggling with something personal, we shoo them out of our offices to go deal with it.
You are human beings. If something catastrophic is happening in your life, we want you to take a moment to acknowledge and process it. We will either see you another day, look at a self-tape, or read you for another part down the road. Mark my words, you will not blow your chance with a casting office by being up front about this. If you simply cannot focus on your audition because you are dealing with or waiting on some sort of life-changing news, we will ALWAYS understand.
Let me say that again: if you need to reschedule your appointment so you can process or deal with a major life event, we will be glad to accommodate you to the best of our abilities. Without question. Every time.
If you ultimately decide that you can and would prefer to pour your energy into your audition, (and be VERY honest with yourself about this,) then follow the words of a beloved princess:
