Prepping for an Audition? Stop Making It About You.
When prepping for an audition, stop making it about you!
Thinking solely about yourself when you are filming a self-tape is going to keep you stuck in your head. It’s going to make you doubt yourself. It’s going to make you over-critical, and it’s going to take you out of the scene and disconnect from the character.
Clients of mine get really bottlenecked when they’re preparing a scene and they’re just solely thinking about their character. Of course, you need to prep your character. You need to know their objectives, what they want, their beliefs, their backstory, all of that important information. But so many of my clients forget about the other characters in the scene.
Think about it as a human being in life. If you are with someone else, you are usually focusing on them. If you want something from them, even if like you’re being quite selfish in that moment, you are not really necessarily thinking about yourself, you’re thinking about the other person.
The focus is going to the other person.
So why are you not doing this?
When you are prepping for an audition or prepping a character, I tell my clients 40% of the character preparation should be on the character they’re playing, and 60% should be on the other characters in the scene because you are the character and you are going to bring your experiences to that character, and it’s going to be easier for you to connect with because that’s your main focus.
But you need to know who you’re talking to, what they others look like, and most importantly, how you feel about the other characters in the scene. So if you don’t make choices on who they are or what they even look like, or like personality traits that come through, then you may as well just be talking to yourself. This is especially important when you are doing a scene with one other person.
You need to be crystal clear on them so you can really visualise them. Even if you’re looking at a spot on the wall, by focusing on the other person, the other imaginary people, it’s going to take you out of your head to focus directly on the other person, and it’s going to make you so much more specific and give it a real direct point of view.
So when self-taping, or prepping for an audition focus on the other characters, it will make the scene more believable, more active, and you will impress the people who are trying to cast you.
All my clients who applied the 60% on the other character, 40% on your character mantra if you like when prepping for an audition, have seen more recalls, more callbacks, more job bookings and elevations in their careers.
So forget about you and start making it about them.
When prepping for an audition apply the 60% 40% rule on your character and get more recalls, more callbacks, more job bookings and elevations in your career!
Thank you for watching and if you found this video useful, sign up here for my free six-step character preparation checklist.
I’m Tom O’Brien. I’m an acting and performance coach, and I work with some of the biggest names in film, TV, and theater. My clients can currently be seen playing leads and guest stars in shows for HBO Max, Netflix, Hulu, and the BBC.
So what do all my successful clients have in common? Successful actors all have a theater technique. Think of your favorite actors. Do a little research, dig a bit deeper, and you’ll notice that most of them at some point in their journey have studied theater techniques. I’m an award-winning theater director and I use my 20 years of experience to help my clients embody the characters that they play, bringing top level and detailed performances so they book more jobs and get juicier roles.
If you’re an actor looking to elevate your acting skills and get the job every single time, my YouTube Channel is for you!
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