Weekend ruminations on the theme...
We've all heard it before: it's know what you know, but who. Over the course of several days, the universe has managed to slap me in the face with the stinging reality of nepotism - repeatedly and without any ado whatsoever.
My agent friends and casting intern buddies have revealed that much of the casting process relies on careful attention of directors and producers to how a person presents him or herself. Do you seem like a person they would actually want to work with? Are you consistent in the audition room, so you'd be consistent at rehearsal and later onstage?
One of my favorite dancer-agent-teacher friends would agree; he once said that once he got behind the casting table, he realized that most casting people have a sense within a few moments of seeing you whether or not they would want to hire you. Ideally, after you're noticed, you just have to make sure you don't mess up the choreo or the scene and you're in!
In this industry, it is all too easy to conflate one's sense of self with one's art. Maintaining clear degrees of separation in your life is the only way to combat drowning in the fickle maelstrom of it all. In some auditions, they will love you. They'll ask you for two, maybe three more songs or scenes and talk contracts, contingent on your attendance at the next day's dance call. Then, not more than an hour later at another audition, a casting team may hear you sing the best 8 bars of your life, and respond with a polite-yet-dismissive thank you.
I recently had a music video audition - a la "Love the Way You Lie" fame - where I did a scene four times at the request of these two gorgeous black men. They seemed to love it, we had great chemistry, but a few days later they emailed me that while they thought I was fantastic, I didn't get the part. But they do still want me - as an extra. At this stage, can't be picky.... Gotta rack up those resume credits!
At the end of the day, most people can tell when a casting director sees something in you that interests them. The more difficult analysis becomes how to isolate, reproduce, and improve upon whatever it is that they like.
Herein lies the catalyst of the natural evolution in this Broadway Baby's thought process. Sheer will drove my first few months. I ignored the bad, embraced the good, and blazed past doubts, exhaustion, and two broken toes. These days, the regular call-backs from dance auditions have shifted to novel terrain. While I battle the New York Winter and an old lady's back problem, I've shifted by necessity to straight play auditions, music videos, and EPAs (Equity Principal Auditions). All singing and acting - no dancing. I'm a bit out of my element. It's been hard - I miss moving - and there are less frequent call backs.
However, all the eagerness, hope, and frenetic energy of my first several months of auditioning have begun to give way to resilience and patience. These are easily the two most important virtues that anyone who wants to get through the trenches of this business MUST learn; although the lessons that cemented them in my psyche have not always been the easiest to stomach.
Balancing self-magnification with modesty will continue to be a challenge, but hard work, determination, and slow but steady progress make the scales a little less heavy.
Off to more modeling shoots tomorrow! Yay money!
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