My audition process usually starts a day or two before I do the audition. Along with deciding how to play the role, I also read the sides over and over to get a feel of the character and the scene. If the the role is or a series, I will watch episodes of the show in order to get a feel for the show.
I got the sides for an audition this week and I started my process of trying to decide how to play the character. It was a guest star role on a webisode playing the main antagonist. I don’t watch webisodes and never heard of the show so I decided to see if I could find it and watch it.
I found the show and channel on YouTube. It has 8 million subscribers and their videos are watched from 1 million to 11 million times. It’s also a kids show and is shot in a funny way with more of a theater acting vibe.
If I hadn’t had found the show and watched it, I would have been way off in my interpretation of the role and scene. I would have played it super serious and a bit dark. There would have been zero chance I would have landed the role.
Making decisions on how to play a character in an audition is already a hard task. If they give you any information; movies, characters in movies, role description, character description, actor the role is based on etc… Take the time to research. Watch the movie referenced, watch some of the movies the actor is in, watch episodes of the series you’re auditioning for. It gives you a leg up an helps with your audition.
Simon Shih 