Kym here. I have been auditioning for twenty-five years, and the order I prepare in has not changed much in the last ten.
Here it is, from the Journey masterclass on auditions, in the order the work actually happens.
Print it. Two copies. Highlight your lines while you read the scene aloud, and never leave the sides in your laptop.
Printing gets the audition into real life. Once it is physical you can work on it at a party, in a stairwell or in the passenger seat of a car.
Then set a fake deadline. Whenever it is actually due, work as though it is due tomorrow morning. Creatives are better with deadlines, so invent the pressure yourself.
For any project other than a TV series, and any role with more than a few lines, yes. Sides mislead. Low budget films sometimes refuse and much bigger films hand it over without blinking, so there is no way to know until you ask.
I’d love to grab a copy of the full script if it’s available. Thanks for the audition.
The thank you is not decoration. Every reply to every audition needs one, because it is easy to take your rep’s work for granted and answer with “confirmed”.
Hydrate first, because your brain fries while you memorise. Then move. I learn most of my lines walking the dog with headphones in, and those walks are rarely under three hours.
Record the other character’s lines on the voice memos app, mouthing your own so there is a gap where your line goes. Leave one or two seconds after each line, longer after a monologue.
Start with the monologues, anything longer than two or three sentences. Repeat line one until you have it. Then lines one and two together. Then read line three twice and run one to three. Then one to four. At that point your brain resists, so drop lines one to three and restart at line four, which becomes the connecting line. Run four and five, four to six, four to seven, then start again at seven.
Then the back and forth. Draw a circle and add a mark for each pass, twelve in total. Run the whole scene twelve times with neutral energy and tone. Do not act, and do not even try to memorise. You are getting your mouth used to words that are not yours.
When your brain turns to mush and you suddenly want to clean the kitchen, that urge is the signal. Put it down.
Then nap properly. The class cites University of Notre Dame research that sleeping shortly after learning new material is the most beneficial thing for recall. Not twenty minutes. A full REM cycle, ninety minutes to two hours. Lines learnt before bed are almost always much stronger in the morning.
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Read the full script once the lines are in. Reading earlier is procrastination dressed up as work. You only need to read up to your scenes, or search your character’s name in the PDF.
Watch the previous work of the director and the writer, even just trailers, because you want the tone. If you read the dialogue as snappy but the filmmakers work loosely, with air in the scene, you need to know.
List everything the text tells you first. She has a crush on Jake. She cares about animals. Then expand with your imagination, because writers want an actor to make it their own.
Pace back and forth and say it out loud, over and over, using Joseph Pearlman’s exercise:
I am one who is reliable. I am one who is trustworthy. I am one who is strong, but afraid to show it to people.
Find the animal that matches your character. On one film my lead would not lock in until I landed on a duck stuck in mud who thought she was a swan.
Then live the history. Close your eyes, become the character at four, and ask what is happening. What room am I in? Who else is here? Do the same at seven, ten, thirteen, sixteen and twenty. Two to three minutes per age. This is how you find reasons for behaviour that looks indefensible, because your character is almost always justified in their own mind.
Write the super objective across the script and the short term objective inside the scene, then write what is in the way of each. There is always an obstacle.
Work out what you are doing before the scene starts. Most casting directors watch ten or fifteen seconds before deciding whether you are right, so never build to the good part. A physical action gives you a clear opening beat. I once had no idea how to begin a scene setting up a soup table, a coach suggested moving boxes from left to right, and the role booked.
Find the turning point, the moment something shifts, so you do not play the end of the scene at the beginning.
Then write an action on every line. For every sentence, an intentional verb: to impress, to educate, to tease. Aim never to repeat one.
To impress: I just got a new car. To educate: It’s from the dealership over on Fifth, they’re having a sale right now. To tease: You want to come for a drive in my car?
Two exceptions. Expository dialogue gets marked MOF, matter of fact. And lists are not varied: vanilla, chocolate or strawberry is a list, and varying it reads as pushing.
No stripes and no checkers, because they go funny once the image is scaled down. No costumes. No police or fire uniforms.
Dress in the tone. Wear a suit if it is corporate, because they will not imagine you in one. For a TV series, dress in the show’s palette. Reading for a science fiction series where everyone wore dark blue and green, I wore dark blue or green, so they feel subconsciously that you fit.
Hair the way the character might wear it, makeup only if the character would, and no hats that shade your face.
Run your lines when you wake up, then run the scene with a real human on top of that.
Arrive early. Take a selfie in your audition outfit to send your agent afterwards, because reps never get to attend and it reminds them you went. Sit in the car, run the scene once, do a breathing exercise, then close your eyes and picture the whole audition going beautifully. Walk in about fifteen minutes before your time.
In the waiting room, calculate the wait at two minutes per page per actor, plus a minute of hellos and goodbyes. Go to the bathroom when four to six people are ahead of you.
In the room, you are a guest in their space and this is your time. Ask before you move anything.
Is it all right if I move this chair? I’ve got a chair here, but I’d rather stand. Is that okay?
Redirection is everything. Do not analyse it, just listen. A note that makes no sense often means you nailed it and they are checking whether you can take direction. Then thank them and leave without commenting on your performance.
Thank you so much for bringing me in. Have a great day.
Hold your confidence until you are in the car. Do the analysis there, and be over it by the time you get home.
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Kym’s method: learn monologues first in overlapping chunks, then run the whole scene twelve times with neutral energy and no acting, marking each pass on a circle. Then go back to the chunks, four lines at a time, twice more, and run the scene once or twice again. Then stop and sleep on it.
Hydrate, move, and record the other character’s lines with gaps for yours. Learn monologues in a ladder (line one, then one and two, then one to three, restarting at line four). Run the scene twelve times flat, then sleep a full REM cycle of ninety minutes to two hours, because sleep after learning is what makes recall stick.
Yes, for anything other than a TV series and any role with more than a few lines. Ask politely with an escape hatch: “I’d love to grab a copy of the full script if it’s available. Thanks for the audition.” Some low budget films refuse and big films hand it over, so you will not know until you ask.
Stripes, checkers, brand names across your chest, costumes and uniforms, and hats that shade your face. Dress in the tone of the project and the show’s colour palette instead, with hair and makeup only as the character would wear them. Do not try to look gorgeous just because it is an audition.
Early enough to sit in the car, run the scene once and do a breathing exercise, then walk in about fifteen minutes before your time. Estimate the wait at two minutes per page per actor ahead of you, plus a minute each for hellos, and use the bathroom when four to six people are ahead.
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