THE 12 COMMANDMENTS OF AUDITIONS
You think nothing is written in Stone in this Business? Think again. By Jay Michael Beeber

So your agent calls with great news: "You have an audition at CBS tomorrow." You study the sides and head off to the audition. But what exactly should you do (or not do) once you're in that room to increase your chances of winning that callback? Just doing a good reading may not be enough. Below, 13 veteran casting directors offer their advice on what you really need to know before you enter that audition room. And why 12 commandments instead of 10? Why, because auditions are so much more complicated than everyday life, of course.

I. Thou Shalt Treat Every Audition as a Job Interview
This not only means that you're on time, have prepared the material, have a picture and resume (already stapled together), and are dressed appropriately, but you've also done some research about the project. You know the genre. Is it a comedy or drama? What kind of comedy? (Auditioning for Keenan and Kel is very different from auditioning for Sports Night.) If it's a feature film, have you read the entire script or just your sides? Or have you just relied on the breakdown? As Dean Fronk of Pemrick/Fronk Casting put it, "If you're coming in for a feature and you haven't taken the time to read the script, you're nowhere near as prepared as the actor who has." Fronk and his partner Donald Paul Pemrick also suggested that you get some background on the people involved in the project so you have something to talk about if the opportunity arises. "If you're interviewing with IBM, you're going to research the company you're meeting with," said Pemrick. "An audition should be no different than that." Another part of being fully prepared is always to check your sides against the sides available at the casting office to make sure you have all the material. Said Shawn Dawson of Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer Casting, "Every time I have an audition, at least one person comes in who's missing a page, even though they're numbered 1 of 5, 2 of 5, etc. It makes an actor look stupid."

II. Thou Shalt Not Make Too Much of a Small Part
Jeff Greenburg, who casts Frasier, had this to say: "Don't get small-part fever and make a meal out of a very small role by trying to enhance it with too many choices. Don't try to make it more than it is. Keep it simple." Added Patrick Rush of Rush/Klein Casting, Who's currently working on the Jennifer Love Hewitt spinoff Time of Your Life, "Less is more on the small parts. When people come in for one or two lines, these are really hard parts to cast, so keep it simple. You'd be surprised how many people can't say, 'Here's your pizza.'" ER casting director John Levey put it another way: "Your responsibility as a guest actor on TV is to feed the scene, to feed the series regular. Many actors forget that the scene is usually not about them; it's almost always about the series regular."

III. Thou Shalt Not Start the Audition With a Negative or Apology
One of the worst things you can do is go into an audition and say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I just got these sides." Casting directors really hate this. As L.J. Lane, who casts Seven Days, said, "I never want to hear that from an actor. It tells me you're not interested in auditioning for me, so why should I be interested in you audition? Out of 30 people, we'll often have three or four who say they haven't even looked at the sides yet. Right there, I'm turned off." Brett Benner, who with Debby Gross is now casting Ladies' Man and Action, added, "You're already setting up the expectation that the audition is going to be bad. Part of the illusion of the whole process is that it starts the moment you come in the room. All of that is the audition-it's not just when you say your first line."

IV. Thou Shalt Not Go Into the Room in Character
Dean Fronk describes it this way: "You're selling yourself first as a person before you're selling yourself as the character. Meaning, anybody who's coming in to play Hannibal Lecter should be the nice guy first and then become Hannibal Lecter. We have to spend 13 hours a day with you on the set, and if you're a freak, that's not going to happen."

V. Thou Shalt Not Touch the Casting Director
This is advice offered by Kim Nordlinger, who works with Rick Millikan on The X-Files and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Said Nordlinger, "If the audition sides call for a touch or romantic interlude with the other character, you'll need to find some creative way to suggest that action without invading the casting director's or reader's personal space. This may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how many actors will reach out and try to grab my hand or attempt to caress my face during an audition. That's just not appropriate. It breaks everyone's concentration. We stop thinking about your performance and start thinking, oh my God, what is this person doing? There's really no need for it and it doesn't really enhance your performance."

VI. Thou Shalt Avoid Using Props or Costumes
Most casting directors feel that relying on props or costumes marks you as an amateur. If you're supposed to be on the phone, just hold your hand up to your ear. A pen can double as a knife. Your sides work fine as a gun. As Patrick Rush said, "It's not about bringing in a pepper grinder and dressing as a waiter. It's just about delivering your lines as realistically as possible." Sometimes an actor can really go overboard with props. Every casting director, it seems, has a story like this, from Jeff Greenberg: "An actor I won't name once held a real knife to my throat at an audition. Don't do that."

VII. Thou Shalt Pay Attention to Personal Hygiene
Said Scott Musgrove, who works with Patricia Noland casting shows for Peter Engel Productions, including One World and City Guys, "Many actors don't consider that it's often hot here in Southern California, they're going to auditions all day, and they have to account for their nervousness. That's where deodorant comes in." Scott also suggested that actors not use too much perfume or cologne and avoid smoking just before the audition. "Our offices are usually pretty small. Smells linger in here and can lead to a situation that might really give a casting director a bad impression."

VIII. Thou Shalt Be Nice To the Casting Assistant
If you're rude or obnoxious to the assistant or receptionist, don't think the casting director won't hear about it. Not only is it simply wrong to behave badly, but, as Patrick Rush points out, these are the casting directors of the future. Furthermore, casting directors will think, if he's rude at the audition, how bad is he going to be on the set?, and they'll be less likely to pass you on to the callback. Remember: Your behavior once hired directly reflects on the casting director. Why should she take a chance that you'll embarrass her when there are 50 other actors, just as good, waiting outside?

IX. Thou Shalt Not Ad-Lib
This is especially true when auditioning for situation comedies. Tara Johnson, who works on 3rd Rock From the Sun and That 70's Show for Liberman/Patton, said, "The producers want to see you make the words on the page funny, not what you've made up. Every word is written very specifically. For the most part, if you mess up one word, you've probably lost the joke."

X. Thou Shalt Not Linger
Let's say you've done your read and you think you've completely screwed it up. While it's always best to ask to start over again before you get too far into the scene, you'd better ask before you leave the room. Jami Rudofsky, who works on The Practice with Janet Gilmore and Megan McConnell, advised, "The thing that makes us very uncomfortable is actors who leave, and then linger outside because maybe they felt they didn't make the right choice and they want to come back and do it again. I don't think it's ever happened that we've let someone come back in and do it again and then they've ultimately booked the part." A better way to handle this, said Rudofsky, is to ask-once you've finished and you're still in the room-if there's "anything we'd like to see different. If we need to give an adjustment, we will, but don't take it the wrong way if we don't. We expect that if you're a well trained actor you can take direction and go a different way with it."

XI. Thou Shalt Not Change Thy Performance From the Pre-Read to the Callback
This one really drives casting directors crazy. They find someone who does a great pre-read, but by the time the actor shows up at the callback, they've adjusted their performance. Shawn Dawson advised, "Whatever you do in the pre-read, do exactly that in the callback. Don't go home and work it some more unless the casting director gives you a note to leave with. So many people come back the next day and they've completely changed what they did for you and you're disappointed because it's not what you wanted."

XII. Thou Shalt Not Worry About Things Beyond Thy Control
This is probably the hardest advice to take, but it will do the most to keep you sane in this crazy business. The truth is, there are so many things outside an actor's control, but you must keep focused on the things you can control and let the rest go. Advised Debby Gross, "One of the hardest things about this business for an actor is that there are so many unknowns. You may think you did a killer audition and you don't get a callback and you think, What did I do? But it wasn't you. Sometimes a part has been written out, or it went to someone's friend. Be the most secure you can be in the job you've done. Ninety percent of the time it's not you." Added Patrick Rush: "Often you don't hire the person that gave the best audition. Sometimes the best actor doesn't get the job. Rather, it's the person who delivered the goods and looks like the person the producers imagined who books it. But if someone comes in and gives a great audition, I remember to bring them in when they're right." John Levey summed it up: "Don't listen to the voices that tell you how fabulous or how awful you are. Leave them in the car and just concentrate on your preparation. If you've done a really good examination of the script and you have a clear sense of what you're after in the scene, then you can go into the room and you don't have to listen to those voices. You can just do your work."

*This article originally appeared in the Back Stage West on November 11, 1999