The longer I stay in the acting game, the more I understand what is true and what is merely an old wives tale passed along year after year because nobody bothers to test out all these acting “truths.” For instance, have you ever heard that auditioning is a numbers game? “It takes 30 auditions to book a role.” Sounds like a cold hard statistical fact, like flipping a coin or rolling a dice. On the surface, it seems to actually make sense. After all, it is measurable: If you divide the number of auditions by the number of submissions, you would get a very specific ratio. The mistake lies in believing that bookings are random; that every audition has an equal chance for success.
To anyone other than actors themselves, auditions probably seem like nothing more than a Vegas-style slot machine where Midwestern housewives (read actors) pay a fee to press some buttons (online submissions), eventually resulting in an audition. When we are actually granted an audition, the game starts again, but in reverse. The person who calls us in hopes to high heaven that we look something like our headshot and that our skills and personality are a good match for the role. Both parties are basically shooting in the dark
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