I was working with a young actor on an audition for a feature film. She kept being brought back into the room. The process lasted over three weeks. It was down to her and one other actor. When she didn’t book it, her manager asked for feedback. The casting director told him, “She just didn’t hit it out of the park.” The actor came to me completely ruined asking how we could work on her “hitting it out of the park” the next time. She was destroyed by a comment that meant nothing and gave her no where to go with her work. I asked her manager to please stop providing feedback like this. Feedback after the audition, while sometimes very specific and clear, can often be confusing and even misleading.
The bottom line is, once you don’t book the job, unless they are considering you for something else, their interest in making you stronger goes away. Be careful of over-analyzing the feedback you get, taking it too personally, or believing it is feedback that you can always directly apply to your work. In addition, be cautious about how much you beat yourself up over the comments. Sometimes, that part is just not yours.
Still, there are times when feedback can prove helpful, and I
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