I’m proofing the edit that Andrew and I have been working on, and something jumped out at me just now that I thought was worth excerpting here, for my fellow actors. I guess you could call it my fundamental rule for successful auditions:

I believe that actors have to find a way to enjoy themselves whether they book the job or not. We have to find ways to enjoy auditions, and as hard as it is, as counter intuitive as it is, we just can’t make success or failure about booking the job. We have to make success or failure about enjoying ourselves. We have to enjoy the process of creating the character, preparing the audition, and then giving the people on the other side of the desk whatever our take on the character is. We absolutely cannot go in there and try to give them what we think they want. The way we stand out, and the way we enjoy it whether we are hired or not, is to take the material, prepare it, and find some way to make it our own. Even if we don’t book the job (and the ratio of auditions to jobs is something like 20 : 1 for successful actors) we’ve been creative. Casting people will recognize that, and even if we’re not right for this particular job, they are more likely to bring us back in for other parts, because they’ve already seen us take a creative risk. I guess it’s kind of twisted to say that I enjoyed myself by being such an evil man, but committing to something completely, and refusing to look back until it was all over, was tremendously satisfying.

This particular excerpt is related to my audition for Criminal Minds last year, but I think it could apply to any job interview where you’re expected to be creative. I’ve been an actor for pretty much my entire life, but I didn’t figure out this really important truth until just a few years ago. Since I figured it out, I’ve had much more satisfying experiences in auditions, whether I’ve booked the job or not. I’m also more relaxed, and the whole process isn’t nearly as soul-crushing as it once was.

There is so much that’s out of our control when we audition, we need to focus on what we can control: how prepared we are, how clear our take on the character is, and how committed we are to that interpretation. I had an audition recently for a network show that everyone wants to be on. I prepared my scenes to the best of my ability, and I had a great time showing the casting people my take on the character. They sent my tape to the producers, and I didn’t get the job. They say that they really liked me, though, and they’d keep me in mind for a different role in the future. I don’t know if that’ll happen, but I know that I did not suck and I made a good impression when I read for them. This is what I set out to do, so the audition was a success, because during the small part of the process I have any control over, I did my job, and that’s all I can do. It’s all any of us can do, and if we think that we can do something more, we’ll drive ourselves crazy. We just have to get in there, do the best we can do, and let it go when we walk out of the room. In fact, I throw my sides into the nearest recycling bin as soon as I’m done, so I symbolically and literally let the whole thing go once it’s out of my hands.

This may seem like a bunch of “yeah, duh,” information, but it took me over 20 years to figure it out, so if I can help anyone else get here a little bit faster than I did, my work here is done.