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What is Your Age Range?  Height?  Weight?  Haircolor?

I recently went to an audition and walked into a waiting room full of women in my same age range, my similar type, dressed in the same general professional fashion…and it reminded me to talk to you all about being honest in representing yourself in your picture, resume, and in your type category and age range.  And to be confident that you have something that they do not.

It can be mind blowing to see 10 or 15 other “you’s” in the room with you, but don’t let it rattle you.  There is no one there with just your performance, your essence.  So commit to it, and bring your best job to the reading, and you’ll be fine.  But…

Susan Sarandon can still play a young Speed Racer’s mother, but I’m pretty sure most people her age cannot.  If you are even tempted to be unrealistic about your look, your type, your age…please think about it again.  If you walk into a casting office and are not the same person as the picture they have in front of them, you’re doing yourself a lot of damage.  Some casting directors will never have you back.  Your picture should be YOU.  Your image of that “you” should be realistic to the extreme.  The casting process is pretty fast.  They usually release the breakdown to agents, take submissions, and start reading people within a couple of days, then they thin the list and take the short list to the director and producers.  That’s at most another day or two, and especially in TV, it has to happen now.  The casting process has no room for wasted time.  If you are 50 and come in for a 30 year old young mom, you better look 30.  If you’re 19 and they need a sultry late 20’s call girl, you better be able to make that happen too…and look the part without too much imagination required.  And don’t come to the audition in costume…as we’ve discussed in other articles.  Just a suggested idea of how that character would dress and look, and that should be enough.  It is more important to make that character you, and commit to an intelligent and inventive reading.  That is something to remember.  Not the fact that you did not look the part, and did not have a representative headshot, and wasted 15 minutes apologizing.

So…get out there and give them the real thing.  Honestly.

Beth