GET IN THE ROOM ~ Why Actors Should Choose the In-Person Audition Whenever They Can

Whenever an actor is given the choice between an in-person audition and a self-tape, I believe the better choice is almost always:

Go in.

Not because self-tapes aren't useful. Not because an actor can't give a great performance on camera alone.

But because acting is not supposed to be about controlling every variable.

It is about responding to what is happening.

And you can't fully respond to something you have completely constructed yourself.

Learn More

YOU NEED TO FEEL THE ROOM

An audition room gives you information.

You walk in and you feel the energy. You meet the reader. You see the people behind the table. You sense whether the room is quiet, excited, distracted, curious, skeptical, warm, cold—or something you can't quite put your finger on.

And then you get to work.

Maybe the reader gives you something you didn't expect.

Maybe someone laughs.

Maybe they don't.

Maybe they ask you to do it again with a completely different adjustment.

Maybe the room suddenly goes still.

Maybe you walk in planning to play the scene one way and something happens that makes you realize there is another way in.

That's when your skills kicks in. 

You are receiving information and allowing it to affect you.

A self-tape can become an exercise in trying to manufacture the perfect performance. You rehearse. You set the frame. You choose the reader. You choose the takes. You watch them back. You adjust. You do another take. And another.

You run the risk of directing yourself through the entire experience.

And suddenly you're not living through the scene.

You're managing it.

STOP DIRECTING YOURSELF

One of the most dangerous things an actor can learn from too much self-taping is the illusion that you are supposed to know what's going to happen next.

But your character doesn't know what's going to happen next.

So why should you?

The magic often lives in the moment when you don't know.

You don't know exactly what the other person is going to give you.

You don't know how the room is going to react.

You don't know whether the choice you just made is going to land.

You don't know whether you're about to discover something you didn't plan.

And that's precisely where something alive can happen.

Actors need to put themselves in situations where they have to receive rather than control.

Where they have to listen.

Where they have to risk.

Where they have to make a choice and then live with it.

Where they have to shoot their shot.

Free Class

GET IN THE GAME

Think about an athlete.

You can practice the play a hundred times.

You can watch the footage.

You can study your opponent.

You can rehearse your moves.

But eventually, you have to get on the court.

And once you're on the court, you don't get to stop the game because you didn't like your last move.

You don't get to rewind.

You don't get to edit out the moment you missed.

You have to stay in it.

You have to react.

You have to adjust.

You have to keep playing.

That's what an in-person audition can give an actor.

It gets you back on the court.

You are no longer sitting alone in your house trying to create an acceptable version of yourself for someone you can't see.

You're standing in front of another human being and saying:

Here I am. This is what I have. Let's see what happens.

And that requires courage.

YOU HAVE TO PUT SOMETHING ON THE LINE

The best auditions aren't always the most polished auditions.

Sometimes they're the ones where the actor walked into the room and went for it.

They made a choice.

They committed.

They listened.

Something unexpected happened.

And instead of fighting it, they followed it.

Maybe the moment wasn't perfect.

Maybe it was better than perfect.

Maybe it was alive.

That's the thing actors risk losing when everything becomes a self-tape.

We start believing that the goal is to eliminate mistakes.

But acting isn't about eliminating mistakes.

It's about being available enough that something real can happen.

Sometimes the most memorable moment in an audition is the thing you never planned.

The laugh you didn't expect.

The pause that lasted longer than you intended.

The look that suddenly meant something different.

The adjustment that changed the entire scene.

The moment when you stopped trying to give a performance and simply needed something from the other person.

You can't schedule those moments.

You can only create the conditions for them to happen.

And one of those conditions is being in the room.

Learn More

SO SHOOT YOUR SHOT

If you are offered an in-person audition, don't automatically choose the convenience of the self-tape.

Ask yourself what you're gaining by going.

You're gaining an opportunity to feel the room.

To feel the people.

To receive energy.

To be affected.

To make someone else feel something.

To respond to something you didn't plan.

To experience the beautiful discomfort of not knowing exactly what's coming next.

Most importantly, you're giving yourself the chance to play the game instead of simulating the game.

You don't go into an audition because you know you're going to book the job.

You go because you don't know.

That's the point.

You walk through the door, take your place on the court, and put yourself in a position where you have something to lose.

Then you shoot your shot.

Don't direct yourself through the moment.

Live through it.

Don't try to control what happens next.

Give yourself a chance to discover it.

And when the opportunity exists to get in the room—

Get in the room. Even if it’s the Zoom Room. 

Because sometimes the thing that gets you the job isn't the performance you carefully prepared.

Sometimes it's the thing that could only have happened because you were there.

Contact Lisina