A Familiar Face

Let it be known that I generally dislike bumping into people that I know at an audition. Even if it's someone that I'm actually quite fond of, you can guarantee that my heart will sink and weep gently the second I lay eyes on a familiar face. Unless you're a genuine friend who I enjoy talking to at anytime then I promise that I will be disappointed to see you. And here's why...

OK, I'll admit that there's one thing that I do like about seeing someone I know at a casting. I know what it is and I bet you know what it is...it's the sheer joy of having someone see that you're still working. it's the most wonderfully passive way of letting other people know that you're still castable and that you've still got a chance of actually getting work. But that's it. Everything else is bloody tedious.

The most tedious of all has to be the dreaded catch up. I bumped into someone I knew at an audition yesterday and there are only a few precious seconds that can go by before it gets awkward that you haven't asked how they've been. I hadn't seen this particular person for about three years and, at best, he's a boring, boastful and rather beligerent human being, so engaging in 'The Catch Up' was not a pleasing prospect. I mumbled a vague question about how he'd been and I was then catapulted into a 15 minute speech about his every movement from the last three years. But I didn't want this. When I get to an audition, I want a few minutes to help get myself into character. This was one of the biggest auditions I've been to in quite some time and I didn't want my chances ruined just because some bore wants to ramble on about how amazing his life is. No. I want to pace around, muttering lines to myself and pretending to everyone else there that I'm a real, proper actor who takes my job seriously (they didn't need to know that just an hour earlier I'd got about half a bag of Kettle Chips in my hair.)

So instead of psyching myself up and helping myself believe that I might actually be in with a chance of getting this job, I got the absolute opposite. Not content with destroying my few minutes of silence before going in, he thought he'd destroy my last ounce of hope that the casting might actually go ok. While my ears were bleeding with his constant tales about how successful he's becoming, an extremely attractive actress walks in who is clearly up for the same part as me. I mean, she was stunning. The kind of stunning that meant I stared at her a lot. And then, while my self-confidence was already starting to shred before my very eyes, he leans over and whispers that, basically, New Attractive Girl is clearly a lot more suited to the role than I am. Oh thanks. Thanks very much. Here, have my rags of confidence and make yourself a cloak out of them, you evil, horrible man.

I'm actually quite pleased to say that despite everything that went on, the audition seemed to go incredibly well. I mean, I won't get the job because Little Miss Pretty has clearly already got it but, y'know, it's nice to be able to sew a few shreds of confidence back together.