Please Give Me A Second Chance!

I am so fortunate to have gotten to read for a film my casting office is working on! That is the great part about interning for a casting director. Since I, along with several other actor/interns are working in front of them all day, it's easy to stay in the front of their minds and the nice part is they consider us for all the roles they are casting for.

The film they let me read for is a fun action sci-fi script. What I love most is the quirky goth character that I was privileged enough to read for. What an interesting character she is!! I literally was given twelve pages of a scene to prepare in one day. Yikes!

The next day, after hours of attempting to memorize this daunting number of pages, I walked back into the casting office with confidence. I loved my outfit of choice- a black baby doll dress, lace stockings, combat boots, and burgundy lipstick. I did my very best to step into this quack of a character. Yes I said quack. Needless to say, I was buried in my script and did my best to not look like I had JUST received my sides.  After my read for the director and the producer, I was kicking myself. "Man! I could have done so much better had I been given a week to prepare!" But hello! That's just not the way it works here in H-Wood.

The next week, the casting director approached me, handing me a sheet of paper with a list of names to call for a producer session for a different film they were casting. I glanced at it briefly then looked back to my script that I was "pseudo reading". Really I was eves-dropping on the conversation the two casting directors were having in their office. He came back and said "you have a call back for..." Of course my heart skipped a beat because I thought he was referring to my audition that I had for them last week for the super awesome sci-fi flick. My eyes got big like that girl in the Dove Chocolate commercial for less than a split second. Then I realized he was giving me the spiel to say to the actors that I was supposed to call about a short film they were casting. I let out a big sigh and looked back to the script I was so totally engrossed in. (That was sarcasm). I want that call back, I thought to myself.

A week later, I saw the producer and the director walk in and I swiveled around in my office chair to avoid eye contact. I was dressed too preppy that day and I didn't want them to see me not-in-character. Luckily they didn't recognize me. They were bringing in cute guys to read for the leading role. As the casting director walked her way into the conference room, I grabbed her arm and whispered, "did they not like me??" 

"Gosh, don't look so concerned sweety, they liked you," she said as she waltzed into the conference room.

Liked me. Liked me? Ok, but what does that really mean?? They probably liked a ton of actors they saw for the part. I wanted to drill her with questions about how I could have improved and who else they liked and why they would have liked me! I sat there watching all these adorable actors sign in the rest of the day trying my hardest not to think about if I would get a call back. Cross your fingers!!

--Heather Tocquigny

Comments

[Dominique Toney]

Hi Heather! I have a question - how would one go about trying to intern at a casting directors office? Do you need to know someone or can you simply offer your services through a letter, email, etc? Thanks!