A few years ago, I was casting a film and a teenage girl came in to read for the lead character. I knew she was somewhat green because she didn’t have many credits and had minimal training, but she had an intriguing look. Since I had spent quite a lot of time with the director in the weeks prior, I knew what we were looking for based on his feedback and the feedback of the producers who’d watched all the auditions thus far.
She and I worked on the scenes in a very thorough way. When I work with an actor in a preread or coaching, not only do we break down the character and go through the script for clues, we also talk specifically about what to do in the audition room to help the filmmakers see him or her as the role. We talk about questions to ask, what to wear, and, for the women, hair, makeup, and clothing choices. This role was a very physical one, and we had chosen a physical training scene to see how the actor could move by showing us simple sparring moves while reading the dialogue.
When we rehearsed the scene in the initial audition, I could tell that she was coming from the wrong place emotionally—at least for what we were looking for. I redirected her and shaped the performance and her objectives so
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