Long Day

I went to my audition on Saturday. The drive wasn’t too bad. The 91S/95S exchange in New Haven was a stand still nightmare. But having driven that stretch my whole life I didn’t expect anything different. The test took place in a meeting room in an old rectory. When I got there, a little early so as to rest and prepare, there were two different dramas going on with the production staff. First, it seems that they were in the process of firing the wardrobe woman. The artistic director, a rough looking woman in her 40s, was pissed of and raging. The other drama was a stripped screw on the tripod so that the camera would stay steady. This was actually the drama that most affected my audition. There other thing was drawing the attention of the producer and casting team but no camera, no screen test.

I got my four pages and went over them with this tiny little guy. I only point out his height because we were going to do this scene where I would pick up this bartender and then kill him. It’s a sexy scene. I am 5’9” and I was wearing 4” heels. So this tiny guy was like a small child next to me. We ran through the scene maybe 4 or 5 times. He wasn’t helpful at all. When I asked what was expected he just couldn’t, or wouldn’t tell me anything. And he seemed pretty buddy buddy with another actress who was also auditioning for the same role so… But whatever.

Time is still ticking on. Now it’s noon. And have I mentioned I haven’t eaten? I had an 11:00 am call and it was supposed to take 15 minutes. I’ve been there an hour and I’ve only gotten cursory blocking and no idea when I will be up. I go for a smoke with one of the PAs. She’s really nice. She’s from Hartford. Her husband is in Iraq. I like her. I wonder if I’ll see her downtown someday? Oh my god. Now it’s 1:30 and they finally, finally have the screw.

2:00. I don’t like the set up. All of the auditioners are in the same room and they call us and we do the bartender scene with the mini man. There is one girl whom I like. But she is very young. Maybe 17. I do my scene. It’s a little awkward at one point because there is a chair on stage that wasn’t there when we ran through it before. But I covered it alright and think I came off well. Now, they want to see how we interact in certain combinations. So I’m thrown into a scene and play all three parts with two different girls. And we do that for a while.

But now they want to take a break and do auditions for a completely different film. I’m invited to ad lib for Girl # 2. We do it three times from different angles, with different people. I am cast. It is a 20 minutes short about a guy who goes through all kinds of ridiculous contortions to pick up girls and in the end finds one by just being himself…awww. Girl #2 is in a night club while he tries to obnoxiously and over confidently pick up women. One day of filming in October.

2:45. Last part of the test. Scream with rage. Screaming is usually quite hard for me. But I was actually starving, exhausted, and a little pissed off. It came off loud, long, and quite gutturally angry.

And then it was over and I was on my hour long drive home with my meatball sub and my internal discussion about what was good and what was bad. Truthfully, I don’t know. I’ve never done film before so I don’t know what to think or feel. I was malleable to direction and suggestion. I played three different characters very differently. What else could I do? I should hear one way or the other by Wednesday.