January 29, 1999
Whew. A callback. The original audition for this project was not one of my shining moments as a dedicated professional, but the return trip today would allow me to do everything I could have or should have done the first time around. Or would it? What was the lesson from the first audition? Should I always go in without having seen one of the pages from the audition? Should I pick one line to ignore until I have to ask the casting director for it at the last second? Probably not. This time I was well prepared, putting in the usual amount of work on the now eleven pages of material.
The scene hadn't changed. The same six people in the same six seats. New pages for the audition and a deeper understanding of the material were the only differences. We read through all eleven pages, which was nice, and it all went pretty well. It's hard to know what's working and not working sometimes. These people have to sit in a room all day and listen to these scenes over and over. They genuinely laughed a few times, though, I thought, and they liked me well enough. Did they love me? I wouldn't bet money on it.
At the end of my eleven pages, they all thanked me for coming and the writer made a big move to shake my hand and thank me. This is where the over-active actor's imagination begins to take over. So why did she do that?
She really liked what I did and wanted to show her appreciation.
Whatever it may be, I didn't embarrass myself so I have a shot at it.
Go on to the Studio Test.