Sides are the few pages of a script you audition with: usually one to three short scenes for your character, chosen by the casting office. In the US they now reach you through Actors Access (as of November 2026, showfax.com redirects there) or from your agent. We asked 23 casting directors how well you need to know them.
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Sides are the audition pages: a short extract of the script, cut down to the scenes casting wants to see. They arrive with the role description and instructions.
Kym Jackson's way of putting it: sides are audition pages, and once you book the job the same pages become your scenes. She also notes that bigger projects tend to send shorter sides. She once booked a series regular role from a page and a half, while a no-budget indie might send twelve.
Showfax was the Breakdown Services site where casting offices stored sides and scripts for agents, managers and actors to download. In Kym's experience, you get Showfax by paying for Actors Access, and that is how her videos describe it.
As of November 2026, showfax.com redirects to Actors Access, and sides live inside your Actors Access account. Casting directors attach them to each audition invitation using a tool Breakdown Services calls Secure Sides. If a guide tells you to buy Showfax on its own, check the current Actors Access site first: it now lives inside your Actors Access account.
If you have an agent or manager, they receive the audition from casting and forward it to you, sides included. If you submitted yourself, the invitation arrives in your Actors Access CMail inbox.
The Actors Access help centre says the sides sit at the bottom of the invitation. Casting can lock them until you confirm, watermark them with your name, or block printing and downloads. If you can't open the pages, confirm the audition first.
No. This is what Breakdown Services publishes about Actors Access on its own pages:
| Option | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free account (Starter) | Free | Secure Sides and audition updates, Eco Cast self-tape invitations, 2 photos, 1 SlateShot, your résumé, and submitting your name and résumé to roles released to actors |
| Actors Access Plus | $68 a year or $9.99 a month (USD) | Everything free, plus responding to every Actors Access breakdown with your full profile and media |
As of November 2026, per the Breakdown Services FAQ and the memberships page. Extra photos and media cost more. You don't need Plus to open sides for an audition you've been invited to.
Dummy sides are stand-in audition scenes. When a project is kept secret, casting may send scenes written just for the audition, or real scenes with names, places and plot details changed.
Prepare them like any other sides: play the relationship and what your character wants, rather than guessing the real story. Ask your agent what casting can share about tone, and if there's a non-disclosure agreement, keep the pages to yourself.
Read it whenever you can. Actor and acting teacher Anthony Brandon Wong told us the full script gives you the character's overall objective, the tone, the backstory and who the people and places in your sides are. Ask your agent or manager to request it every time, though big studio projects with NDAs may say no.
TV series rarely release full scripts unless it's a pilot, Kym adds. Either way, read every page casting sends, including notes on the role.
Kym prints the sides the minute they arrive and highlights her lines straight away, because the average turnaround is only about 48 hours. One trick from her performance preparation masterclass: write the first letter of each word of a line in the margin, then fold the page so you only see the letters.
Read the character description too; Blair Hickey and Brian Wold see actors skim it for age and job title and miss the arc. Casting director Greg Apps adds that punctuation is there for meaning, not delivery, so the pauses and rhythm are your choice. Anthony Brandon Wong says follow a stage direction when the scene turns on it, like a character pointing a gun.
We asked 23 casting directors how important it is to be off book. Nine said it matters a lot; Deirdre Bowen and Rachel Sutton put it at 100 percent. The other 14 said know the scene deeply but don't panic about glancing down, and several want you to hold the pages anyway. Almost all said they can tell who prepared.
The bar rises as you go. Meg Morman and Ricki Maslar both said be fully off book for a network test, chemistry read or producer session. If sides arrive late, Scot Boland and Victoria Burrows suggest getting at least the first scene off book. Kerry Barden finds actors from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada usually arrive off book. For methods, see our guide to memorising lines.
In the US, usually yes. Kym calls it industry standard at almost every level short of a network test: the pages are a safety net and suggest there's more to come once you've lived with the role.
Casting director Lisa Beach prefers sides in hand for live sessions, because an over-rehearsed actor is harder to redirect. Kahleen Crawford is fine with pages on your knee, as long as you don't look down every time the other person speaks.
Most US self-tape requests come as an Eco Cast invitation, with the instructions, sides and deadline together. Per the Actors Access help centre, a 12:00 AM deadline means before midnight the night before, and once you submit you can't edit your files.
On tape there's no reason to read, so be off book. Lisa Beach warned against tapes that look like they took 23 takes. Blair Hickey and Brian Wold suggest setting up camera, light and reader before any invitation arrives, then starting early.
Sides are the pages of a script you audition with, usually one to three short scenes for your character, sent with your audition invitation.
As of November 2026, showfax.com redirects to Actors Access. Casting directors attach sides to audition invitations, and you open them in your Actors Access account.
Not for an audition you have been invited to: as of November 2026, a free Actors Access account includes Secure Sides for those. In Kym's experience, wider access to sides through Showfax comes with paying for Actors Access (Plus is $68 a year or $9.99 a month).
Stand-in audition scenes used to keep a project secret, with names or plot details changed. Play the relationship and the want in the scene.
Know them as well as you can. Of 23 casting directors we asked, nine insisted on off book; most said holding the pages is fine, except at producer sessions and network tests.
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All rates current from showfax.com, breakdownservices.com, actorsaccess.com and actorsaccess.freshdesk.com as of 3 November 2026.