Audition “AT&T” @ Jane Doe Casting. Now THIS was an experience…a family experience. A fake acting family experience…well sort of. I’ll explain. In the spot I was to be the father of a 7-year old boy, the lead in the spot. I also had a 10-year old daughter and a wife. As expected there was a little bit of confusion in matching up the families.
I was there for a long time, which wasn’t a problem for me since I didn’t have anywhere else to be…’cept maybe home catching up on sleep. Do you ever really catch up on sleep? I’m starting to doubt it.
Anyway, after about 30 minutes I was matched with a family. I got a “son” who was “full of personality”. Did I say “full of personality”? On a scale of 10, he was a 50! But a great, active kid. I really like kids so we immediately hit it off. Then I got a daughter who was a little older, very active too with a lot to say. Of course, she fit right in with the two of us. We didn’t yet have a mom.
After another moment “my kids” and I were matched with a “mom” who also had a daughter that was there to audition. This mom had another daughter, about 4-5 years-old and a toddler that she was holding. The woman from the casting office that was putting the group together then looked us over and said, “hmm, that should work, it’s fine if you all go in together”. I think she meant that the real mom, would be my “acting wife” and I would have two acting daughters and the other two children would just be in the room.
I don’t think the “real mom” understood it that way. The real mom, to me, didn’t seem like she was there to audition. Her body language said to me that she was just bringing her actor-daughter to audition and had her two other children with her…but I wasn’t sure.
So they took us back where the audition rooms were…very small area and lots of people. You can imagine what that was like. Lots of rambunctious kids AND me playing HIDE ‘N’ SEEK. Hey, I never said I wasn’t part of the problem.
My “second actor daughter” was much more introverted and stayed close to her mother and two sisters. At this point, I really began to believe that the mom didn’t realize that the woman from the casting office meant for her to audition as my “wife”, the “mom” in the spot. So we get in the room and prepare to slate. The session runner had had a long day with many changes from the ad agency/production company and as a result his patience was a little…short.
The moment of truth.
I stood, preparing to slate, with my son and two daughters and the real mom sat on the couch, not on camera, with her other two daughters. The session runner pauses and asks; “alright, who is here to audition??” The mom, after glancing at us, quickly answers, “Not me”. I explained to the session runner how the confusion happened, but he needed a mom ASAP and convinced the real mom to be a commercial mom.
She put her toddler down and joined us on camera. I could tell she was really nervous, but she did fine with the slate and questions. Her other two children, still sitting on the couch started laughing and we couldn’t figure out why. Bingo! There was a monitor behind and above our heads that the kids were viewing. They could tell mommy was a nervous and thought it was funny.
Back to my “extremely active” 7 year-old son. I was curious as to whether he would be able to focus when it came time for the camera to roll. Let me tell you that kid was perfect. Focused, professional, interesting and full of personality. Maybe our connection will be my key to a callback.
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Life on the Sunset Strip…
Observations: Table of 9 women. They order 7 sandwiches...all with french fries...didn't even ask about salads. No way they were from Hollywood. Nice women.
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