January 21, 1999
OK, so I didn't prepare as well for this audition as previous ones. I picked up the script yesterday while running around trying to get everything ready for my 30th birthday bash. I did not get a chance to even take it out of the envelope until this morning over breakfast. On the plus side, there were only five pages to learn. OK, well, that's not totally true, there were six pages to learn, but I only had five of them. By some fluke, the one page of the 60-page script that didn't get photocopied was one that I needed. So I got five pages of dialogue ready as best I could, hoping to pick up the sixth and final page at the audition.
That plan fell apart, too. There were no sides at the audition, no scripts laying around either, and no secretary or assistant around to help me out. The only other person waiting to read did not have a whole script with her. Hmmmph. Finally another actor arrived and I borrowed his. I quickly turned to my missing page. There were three lines on it for me. I immediately set about memorizing those three lines so I could tack them onto the end of my scene. I returned the gentleman's script and sat down to go over the words again in my head. It was at this point that I realized that I should write them down. Don't ask me why that didn't occur to me sooner. Maybe I liked the idea of the challenge of just memorizing them, but whatever it might have been, my common sense did actually return for a moment. But only a moment. Instead of asking to look at the script again, I decided to just write them down from memory. They weren't difficult lines, so that wasn't too hard.
This was already a producer's session so there were five or six people in the room. When we got to the second scene, I asked the casting director how far we were going to take the scene. She said, "To the line, 'OK, I'll call her.'" This is where the latest stage of my plan fell apart. "I don't have that line," I sheepishly returned. "Can I take a look at your last page?" So she came over to me and lifted up the first two pages looking for my last page. I directed her attention to the scrawl of words that were my three lines for that page and told her that was my page 53. She then showed me hers and I saw the fourth and closing line of the scene and committed it to memory. She returned to her seat and we plodded on.
Now all of this seems kind of goofy and awful but really the audition went very well. The first scene had its problems because one gentleman came into the room during it, but after we glided through that interruption, the jokes were there and they laughed appreciatively. They even gave a very hearty thank you at the end, as if they had been dutifully impressed. It felt good. Would it have been appreciably different if I had gotten the sixth page or even the fourth line before reaching Walt Disney Studios for the audition? I doubt it. Who knows? It may even have been worse. Still, next time, unless it conflicts with my 31st birthday party, I'll be sure the pages are in place beforehand.
Go on to the Callback.