Soooo... I'm going to start an acting blog. I want to have something to catalog my experiences, recall successes, and to learn from my failures. At some point, it would be great to have my successes outnumber my failures, and my failures to become opportunities to fine tune my craft.
At the very least, this blog will be something that will also be a part of the work that I'll do to become a better actor. I've spent a lot of time worrying about what people will think of my choice in life to become an actor, and not enough time to just be me, to be weird, to experience the full experience, whatever that may be.
That being said, I'd like to recollect my learning experience for today. I was on a commercial audition for a Nokia ad. I was in a decent mood, which definitely helped. I have a tendency to be closed-off and aloof when I go into auditions. (The realization hit me that acting is about interacting, and I recently made a conscious decision to open myself to other people and their personalities.)
Anyway, the casting director told me and my partner Ruby that we were playing a married couple having a discussion about Ruby wanting to buy a dress for herself. I totally blanked! For some reason, I just got really nervous and stood there staring into an imaginary mirror! Maybe it was a reflection of my self-absorbed personality. Ruby was a superstar, doing her thing, being cute and funny, and I was the idiot who calls himself an actor standing there barely able to respond.
To be honest, commercial auditions are usually pretty silly. Sometimes the casting calls for funny poses, weird expressions, and general oddity overall. Occasionally, you get a gem of an audition, where you get to interact and improv, and let your true personality come out. Needless to say, I didn't do that. I failed. Miserably.
A friend once told me that your best auditions are the ones you have on the drive home in your car. Unfortunately, that adage was proven definitively today in my car. I was a comic genius on the drive home. I wish there was a camera in the car with me. Good Lord. *sigh*
Anyway, I'm going to brush this off because that's all I can do at this point. If by some miracle I get a callback, I'll take what I learned today and hopefully be able to apply it to the callback. That's about it.
Today's lesson: Be in it, be yourself. This lesson was brought to you by zombies, and the letter F'ed.
