March 7, 2003
The decision was made and it was a decision to go for the role on Coupling. How could you pass up an opportunity to be on the next potential Friends? Of course, the key words in that sentence are "opportunity" and "potential." Nothing in this business is a guarantee, and at no other time does that ring as true as during pilot season.
First up today, a work session with the director of the pilot. My call time for this phase was 11am. We met at Universal to go through the scenes and fine-tune my audition. Of course, I wasn't the only one called in to do this. All five guys auditioning for JEFF were there as well. And the three guys auditioning for another character were there. AND the woman who would be testing today for yet another character was also there. In all, about twelve people showed up at Universal at 11am to have a work session with the director.
Of course, there's only one director, so this is not a process that 15 people can go through all at the same time. Surprisingly, that didn't stop them from asking us all to be there at the same time. So I waited. They worked with the woman first. That took quite a while. So I waited. Then they worked with the guys auditioning for the other male role. That took long as well. So I waited. Then it appeared they brought in a couple of potential Jeffs. The waiting continued, but so did the clock-watching. The Studio Test was schedule for 1pm and it was drawing precariously close.
At about quarter-to-one, they called in four of the Jeffs and gave us
a little pep talk. The gist of it was that they had run out of time
for the work sessions, that we were all super guys and would be great
at he audition, and that we should just do what we had done at our
previous auditions. I waited two hours for that. Not a great runway
to take off from for an amazing audition.
We all piled into our cars and drove over to NBC Studios across the way in Burbank. Heightened security meant long lines at the gate, and it was about 40 minutes between leaving Universal and the last person successfully getting onto the lot. So we got a late start. There was no panic or pressure, of course, since the timing was out of our hands. Still, I waited.
The Jeffs were the second group to audition and I went fourth. A quick glance at the clock before I walked in the door showed a little after 2pm. I had waited three hours to perform this scene for them, doing basically nothing but think about performing this scene for them. I was certainly prepared. I wouldn't be forgetting any lines in this one.
The scene went fine. It's not easy. It's a little character piece, mostly a monologue, and the laughs come out of his antics and sometimes unpredictable moments. Riding the responses from the group assembled is really the trickiest part. Unfortunately, it was not the super home-run blast that the original audition had been, but it was solid and I felt was more than enough to get me on to the network audition. It's a relatively clean slate there so that wouldn't be a problem.
The problem, however, is that the NBC Studios people decided I looked
to preppie for the role. I will not be going on to Network. I will
not be part of the new Friends, at least in this incarnation.