Casting Director: Paul Russell, New York City

If a casting director you want to know more about is holding a seminar or lecture series, go and meet them if affordable. Ask questions but don’t interrogate.

The best way to know a casting director is to present quality work and/or ask if a casting director needs help whether it’s being a reader, audition site assistant/intern, opening the avalanche of mail received daily (there’s a good one to learn the difference between proper and poor marketing). Be honest on the approach. We’re all ambitious to some degree, using others to move along. I prefer honesty in knowing that an actor who wants to help out is doing so to learn.

Myself, I have often called in people for a project that I have met at Paid Auditions. But for some industry associates, theses places are seen as two dreadful hours to mindlessly sit through in order to gain some extra cash to pay personal bills. Be judicious about who you pay to meet.

This does not mean that an actor has to be wearing the same clothing in the audition setting as in the picture, although I do know of one actress who used to do that. I haven’t seen her in awhile, I don’t know if she still reflects that picture and wears the dress to auditions, if so that blue velvet dress must be thin shreds by now.

Don’t go cheap if the quality is cheap because that’s all you can afford. Do some shopping as you would for a car. A headshot is an investment. Ask agents and casting directors what photographers work they prefer. Ask other actors. Look at many headshots.

Also, stop the color crap. This color craze thing that is spreading from LA like a virus, is horrible. The quality is often poorer than B&W and many look like high school graduation portraits or worse, air brushed, pin-ups from a porn magazine. The burgeoning color headshots for actors has become a talking point nearly every time agents, managers and casting directors get together. To put it bluntly. We hate the color pictures. Stop feeding into the anxiety that you must have them because a small, limited number of actors have them and photographers are telling you we want them. We don’t want them. They’re ugly. When the photographers pushing color headshots are sitting behind our desks, then they have the right to say; ‘This is what the industry wants’ Until then, stop sending color pictures.

I came from summer stock and dinner theater. I know there are quality actors out there who for whatever reason can not cross that bridge into the next level. It’s not always easy. Beyond talent, timing and luck are major factors. But there is a snob factor that I will admit to having myself because my clients (producers) expect a certain level of quality and history. For a language play I give stronger consideration to an actor who has worked at the Guthrie or Yale than someone who has only done musical ensemble at Barney’s Beef & Boards at The K-mart Plaza Dinner Theater. Mea culpa. But all integrity is not lost. If the latter is the only credit on the resume, something else might spark me into meeting the actor. For every casting director, it’s subjective

The only showcases I attend are those of very close friends, associates and school leagues. Please remember that we’re people too. We have lives. We work all day, have little opportunity to eat, sit in sessions which cause “audition glaze” and have to commute 45 mins. to 90 mins. to get home. Attending a showcase is still work to us. Make sure that what you’re are inviting us to, is something that you would proudly invite your entire family to. And their neighbors. I am often asked this question and my basic response is; ‘Don’t invite me to anything unless everything about the production is absolutely stellar. If you’re stellar in a production that is less than stellar, don’t bother because then I’m wondering why you made the poor choice to be a part of something so painful for the audience. I go home with a lot of resentment.’

Making up a reel on your own, in which the product is not a result of a production under a directors guidance is parallel to making up a resume and filling in credits that didn’t happen. You weren’t hired. DON’T DO IT. And also you take the risk that the final product, of which cost equaled three months rent, is poor in quality, and lacks authenticity. It’s like a showcase but in electronic form.”

The biggest mistake of all, are actors treating the actor employment search as something foreign to normal civilian job searching. Be professional. Cut the cute, get attention “I’m unique” crap unless that is what is being sought. If you do gimmicks routinely, you’ll end up in the trash basket. Or worse, my Freak File for the class I teach on career development and audition technique. It goes from the headshot and resume to mailings, to getting the audition, winning the audition, to negotiating the deal.

At heart this business is image, image, image. What image do you want to present and be known by? By the way, 90% of the decision process about a performer’s ability to match a role is made within the first ten seconds of entering the audition room. During the audition, it’s the actor’s job to meet or exceed those expectations or correct and defy the less than stellar expectations.

My biggest pet peeve goes back to what I stated earlier. Image. Know who you are and how to present that in a professional manner. And what I mean by a professional manner is this: If you were applying for a civilian job at a Fortune 500 company, would you send a poorly laid out resume or no resume at all with NO cover letter? Actors do this to me. I get similar and worse all the time. I still keep in my Freak File the “cover letter” I received from one actress whose cover letter was a Prozac post-it and written on it the role she wanted. Nothing else.

The other major pet peeve I have is when I encounter actors who don’t want to work. I’m floored by it. When I was an actor, you took work when it came. Nowadays many actors in NY are waiting for the film and TV career to land in their lap. Go to LA.

Now, I understand that some work may not be to an actor’s liking. Everyone is discerning. I’m picky with my food. It’s a Virgo thing. But I and my assistant Bonnie Black (also an actress) are amazed when actors pass on an audition for a project they feel is beneath them. Example; recently we had many actors (with minimal to fair credits) turning down a chance to play Othello over several weeks, to audiences of 5,000 a night for a weekly salary that would be the cost of a month’s rent in a small NY apartment. I thought this business was about creating, not waiting.

Full address of audition. Who is going to be in the room? Is there a script available? Can I read the script? Are there sides? (BIG OVERLOOKED FAUX PAS). The more prepared the better chances you have of winning. Who is involved? Commitment dates. Even the play title. OK, OK, I know that sounds obvious BUT sometimes an agent will just give out a character name and hope that the actor will know that Prospero is from As You Like It. Or is it Measure For Measure…. or Death of A Salesman? I wish I were making up the last one..

If the casting director instructs you or your representation that you should see a current production of what you’re auditioning for, even though you’re auditioning for a tour or regional version of that same play or musical, DO IT. It means that the director is going to be wanting a carbon copy of what another director has labored to present.

Prepare your audition as it would be in the audition setting. If it is a scene, drag, beg, or Craigslist.org a scene partner to be the reader. Place the reader where a reader normally is set in the audition room.

Do not memorize the performance. Memorizing the lines is okay if you’re solid with them but if the performance becomes audition by rote, you’re dead. Like scene theater games, do your audition piece in settings with activities that have nothing to do with material. Such as; Lady Macbeth ‘rehearses’ the “out damn spot” scene as the actress washes dishes, folds laundry, drives her Ford Explorer to the mall. Sweeney Todd rehearses his ‘Epiphany’ while planting mums in the back yard or jogging in the park …

Doing your audition outside of its intended environment as written will open up discoveries. You’ll hear new interpretations. Also you will be stronger in the audition room when the director begins adjustments. You’ll feel secure because, hey, if you could be Maggie from “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof” at the local Pathmark, you can be Maggie anywhere in any situation.

Also, musical performer auditions … As patronizing and elementary as the following is, many musical performers do forget that the lyrics to a musical number where written to tell a story and not just words placed to accentuate the pretty notes. I and many of my client’s want to hear the story in a song. Take the notes away from lyrics and dive into what is being told. (Okay if it’s Tim Rice you may find yourself laughing and wondering about the intellectual depth of a lyric that reads; “Only goes to showa, greatest man since Noah”.) There are some exceptions.

Another popular mailing is; “I auditioned for (insert generic play) and (insert generic commercial) and (insert generic casting director) and I’m available.’ OK, so I’ve just been told that you’re auditioning a lot but not getting any work. What’s wrong with your talent if you’re auditioning for the world and not booking? Why should I call you in if you’re not succeeding? Don’t tell us about the auditions you didn’t get. Tell us about the work you’re getting. And please, no pet stories.”