Produce (Short) Movies

Why holding casting sessions are good for you as an actor

“Can you believe that guy had the nerve to show up to the casting session stoned off his ass?”

The actor had just walked out of the room and we (myself and the producer) were reviewing the casting appointment.

“He was funny, but man, we better not go with him because he might show up to the shoot that way.”

“But he did have great marketing materials. Look, he actually created a magazine pamphlet about his work and his acting. Very high quality. What a good idea.”

There are a lot of things to take note of in this exchange. The first is that though we were kind to those actors leaving the room, we did discuss what we liked and did not like and we were not shy about sharing our perceptions.

This actor probably would have gotten a foothold in our project if he had not been so blatantly stoned.

“Hmmm… professional marketing materials that are UNIQUE are GOOD, and these materials even provide an argument to cast an actor even if the actor is not the best. I’ll tuck that little observation in the back of my mind should I ever have to go on an audition again.”

When you are the producer, and your name and money is on the line, you get a much stronger feeling about actors late for auditions, actors’ selection of monologues, actors’ chit-chat before the audition, etc. It’s all very, very educational and worthwhile to you and your acting career.