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Happy Holidays to all!  I hope your weekend is filled with love and joy!

 Before I start the blog I need to ask a favor.  It will take 1 SECOND of your time.  The trailer for my film “The One-Nighter” has a 95% “Funny” rating on “Funny or Die” but it’s not on the front page!  To get it on the front page I need a massive number of Funny VOTES.  The link above does not connect to “Funny or Die” to vote.  The link below does. Please give me a “Funny” that will count by CLICKING here:

http://bit.ly/ZEotto

THANKS!

Now on to the blog.

I am a working member of SAG - AFTRA and AEA, as well as an American member of British Equity.  Our unions help protect us from unbearable working conditions and unscrupulous individuals.  It also makes sure we get paid!   Support our unions. There - I’ve got that off my chest.

Moving on, here is a tip for handling rejection, overworked and exhausted casting directors as well as the occasional jerk who treats unknown actors like crap – until we become stars – then they’re kissing our butts.

First of all, please understand that casting directors work very hard and have a tremendous amount of pressure put on them to get the perfect actors for the roles and to get them cast on time for the shoot. Things happen that are out of their control - like being handed a breakdown for a role that shoots the next day.  So don’t take it personally if a Casting Director is short tempered with you or takes a phone call when you’re reading.  This is just part of the business. 

However, someday you may run into someone who is actually mean.  I’ll tell you the worst thing that has ever been said to me, and how I handled it.

I had just come back from London where I had worked with Pierce Brosnan on the fringe and then scored a starring role on The West End.  I was proud of the fact that I had even gotten those roles – and managed to get some good reviews to boot.

I came back to the states on my twenty-ninth birthday and was sent out for a series. I walked in the door and before I had taken two steps into the room the casting director looked up at me and sneered, “What did he send you out here for? We need someone young and beautiful.” 

I took a moment to crawl out from under the bus and replied very calmly, very politely, “Well, I got all dressed up to come meet you and I drove all the way across town and I really worked on my sides. Don’t you at least want to hear me read?”

What could he say!  I was so damn nice about it he grunted,  "Go on,“ then he looked back at his desk and continued writing down some notes – probably about the last poor schmuck who had come in the read for him.

I took two steps into the room and delivered the first line. (This was a fight scene.) He gave me his line like he was reading a telephone book – without looking up.  I delivered my next line and walked a couple steps closer.  He looked up at me and actually gave me his line.

I moved a few steps closer to him, never taking my eyes off his. He gave me a decent delivery and I knew I had him.  By the end of the scene I was sitting on the edge of his side of the desk looking down at him.  I took a very slight beat - leaned my face just a little closer to him - delivered the last line of the scene ever so quietly and watched his eyes dilate. 

I didn’t get the series but the next week he hired me for a Guest Starring role.

So, the upshot of the blog today is:

Never lose your cool. Your objective is to do a terrific reading, hopefully get the job and make that casting director admire your work and like you as a person

So he’ll become a fan and cast you over and over.

 

PS If you’re on twitter please retweet. @JillJaress