In my classes, I show examples of good auditions so that actors can learn from them. But actors often ask to see BAD auditions t too. I figured that it was in pretty slimy taste (not to mention a breach of trust with actors) to show examples of poor performances. A few months ago, I asked actors to deliberately do some bad auditions for me to post for learning purposes, but actors were shy to come forward… probably because they didn’t want anyone to mistake their deliberately bad auditions for unintentionally bad auditions. Anyway, with the help of actor and friend, Chip Persons, I made a series of audition blooper clips. We worked on a scene from Universal Pictures’ Wanted. So for the next 6 blogs I’m going to bring you a blooper. He is blooper #1.
In this clip, Chip is site reading the text which is fine since the script had just been handed to him. What’s irritating though is that he’s reading the stage directions out loud. I have seen this quite a lot. Don’t worry about the stage directions. Read them to yourself and you can indicate them in your acting if they’re not too complicated (ie slam your fist down if you’re meant to be punching) but you don’t need to read them. We already know the stage directions.
