The worst crime that we can commit at an audition is to come totally unprepared. It would be both a waste of our time, and the production team’s. Do a bit of preparation and you can walk in there, feeling like you’re about to experience the most fun kind of workshop imaginable, and you might give some new ideas to the director. They might even thank you by casting you!
You already do this. Acting itself is about creating something from nothing. You take black marks on a page, use Stanislavsky’s ‘What if I were this person?’ – then weave your mind, soul and body into this character to give birth to a distinct individual, who is existing right now in this moment.
So before your audition, take the time to dig for the kind of gold that will help you create this universe.
Make these last two points extremely strong, so that you’re starving to get what you want from the other character. This will hook you into a relationship with your scene partner – but never share these secrets with the other actors.
The more ideas you come in with, the less self-conscious you’re going to be as a person and the easier you, as an artist, are going to naturally enter this wonderful new world. The director will notice this, and she might even ask you to help them create this new world.
Bryan Bounds is an award-winning US-born, UK-based actor, teacher, writer and creator of the Neuro Acting System of actor training. He began his professional career began in 1984 and received an MFA in Acting in 1991.
