Acting : Casting Director Audition Advice by Tammy Hunt

Tammy Hunt

Casting Director Audition Advice

- Cindy Tolan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Straight Outta Compton, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Aladdin, If Beale Street Could Talk)

“I give adjustments. I want to find the person for the part, so if there is something that is right about you for the role, but your choice wasn’t going to best tell the story the director or writer wants, then you make an adjustment. Then maybe it’s almost there and you make another adjustment. I work with actors. There is also so much that goes into casting. You as an actor cannot be everything. You cannot twist yourself into a pretzel and say, “I could have been this.” There are so many factors that go into casting that the actor is not privy to. They just have to feel good about what they did in the room and then leave it there.”

- Meg Morman & Sunday Boiling of Morman Boiling Casting (The Baxters, In The Vault, Hello My Name is Dorris, Betrayed, Man With A Van, The Dead Girls Detective Agency)

Meg: “When we audition actors (with or without the director present), our rule is that the actor reads all of the pages they prepared at least once. If nothing else, just out of basic respect for them. We’ve given them specific material and they took the time to prepare. You’re showing them that you respect that time they’ve put into their craft. After that, if we want to redirect, we do but redirection is not always given.”

Sunday: “We never interrupt an audition. We’ve heard of directors doing this and it’s horrible. If you encounter this we’ll say, ‘Let them finish this scene and then we’ll go back.’ Auditioning is a very nerve-wracking process for people. You’ll get better performances if you are respectful of that.”

#actor #castingdirector

Maurice Vaughan

Thanks for sharing the insight, Tammy Hunt. Your post reminds me of an audition video I saw. The actor nailed the audition, but the producer kept asking him to act the part again and again. I wondered why the producer kept asking him to do that, but I guess the producer wanted to make sure the actor was the right fit for the role.

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