When you go in for a late-afternoon commercial audition, you're likely to be fresh-faced and upbeat about being there. But actors are sometimes oblivious to the fact that the casting director has already been at it for six or seven hours. He or she likely has that not-so-fresh feeling. In fact, the CD could be more tired and annoyed than you realize."Actors have no way of knowing the session was too packed all day and the casting director didn't get a lunch," says Killian McHugh, a CD with Alyson Horn's office in Hollywood, who teaches workshops in commercial audition technique.If the direction you're getting from a casting director isn't of the hand-holding, warm-and-fuzzy variety, chances are good that the CD is having a rough day. That's something you have to be sensitive to if you want to maintain a warm, ongoing relationship with that office."Actors don't know what it's like at 4 p.
- 12/9/2010
- backstage.com
In years past, most actors new to New York and wanting to work in commercials would immediately start their quest for a SAG card—that little piece of plastic that indicates membership in the Screen Actors Guild, one of the unions that covers TV actors. Times have changed, however, and the news is good for nonunion performers.One longtime commercial casting director (speaking anonymously) says she cast far more nonunion jobs—60 to 70 percent—than union jobs last year. This is a reversal of the situation a few years ago, she notes, when about one in five commercial jobs was nonunion. Household-name clients—whose commercials she long cast with SAG actors—this year turned to nonunion talent to save money. That news may be mighty disheartening for SAG actors, but for nonunion performers it means that agents who used to ignore your requests for representation may now be more willing to consider you,...
- 2/11/2010
- backstage.com
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