Melanie Lynskey on Building Her Acting Career and Gaining Confidence in Her Ability

Melanie Lynskey, despite being best known at the moment for her role on TV’s Two and a Half Men, has amassed an impressive list of acting credits since first appearing in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures at 16.  She also has appeared in the Oscar-nominated Flags of Out Fathers and Up in the Air and independent films like Win Win and Hello, I Must Be Going, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  Lynskey talks about how she built her career to Interview Magazine.

While Lynskey had the ambition to be an actor and admits it wasn’t difficult getting his first role in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, she does explain that it was difficult landing future roles, saying, “I always wanted to be an actor, but I had this whole plan to go to a good drama school and do it that way. I wasn’t trying to get into movies; someone came to my high school and auditioned some girls, so it was a complete accident.  I lived in a pretty small, provincial town in New Zealand; there weren’t agents or anything like that, so I just had no way of going about it. I just thought ‘All right, I’ll carry on with that plan that I had to go to drama school.’  So yeah, there was a good straight year where I wasn’t working as an actor but it didn’t seem like such a crazy thing, I didn’t really have a fear of not being able to make it happen, because it seemed so impossible anyway.”  Read more

Kal Penn on Why He Changed His Name: “Half of it was curiosity to see if it would make a difference”

In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Harold & Kumar star Kal Penn explained the origin of his stage name and how it’s gotten him more auditions than his given name ever did.

The actor was born Kalpen Suresh Modi and changed his stage moniker after moving to California from New Jersey for college.

“Half of it was curiosity to see if it would make a difference, and the other half was as a joke to friends of mine. We read something that said that 40 percent of actors have screen names, and we were sitting at this place called Jose Bernsteins… and they were just berating me with things like, ‘What about ‘Kal Pucino?’” he recalled. “I was rejecting all of their awful suggestions, and thought, everyone calls me Kal anyway. My first name is Kalpen, so it’s sort of how Joseph becomes Joe… And it did increase auditions.”

“To this day, I’ve never been completely sure whether it was [because it was] less ethnic sounding or just [because it was] monosyllabic and that was easier.”  Read more

4 Ways to Increase Your Auditions With or Without Representation

Written by Dallas Travers, CEC

Track One: Casting Directors

Casting Directors are the most obvious route to securing more auditions.  They’re definitely not the only route, but it is a good place to start.

Here’s a simple strategy outlining how you can become known by casting directors by utilizing workshops.  I’m going to use the umbrella term of “workshop” to define classes, intensives, and seminars.

Step One: Create your target list.  There are literally hundreds of casting directors in the business, so it’s pretty impossible to effectively apply the Rule of Seven to all of them.  Not to worry – you don’t have to.  Just select a small (less than 12) list of casting directors and target them specifically and consistently.

Step Two: Register for 3-4 different CD workshop studios if you can.  Now, remember, not all studios are created equal. I recommend that you join a service that truly auditions their talent before accepting an actor.  This insures that the caliber of talent is consistent and sets you up to really shine.

Step Three: Only workshop with those casting offices on your target list.  This will allow you to maintain your sanity and your budget by attending a limited number of workshops with a purpose rather than taking a shot in the dark and workshopping with various CDs through a process of random selection.  Read more

Booking Commercials – Your Image will get you work faster than your “Read”

Written by Gywn Gilliss

Most actors I meet who really want to do commercials and aren’t booking jobs can’t seem to figure out WHY it’s so difficult. They’re sent out for an audition, work on the copy, go through the process of auditioning and then wonder, “My audition was so good. Why didn’t I book that spot?? Or at least, get a call back?”

To take some of the mystery out of the process, let’s deal with some basic facts. There are only a few reasons WHY anyone gets booked on a major market commercial:

1 – You LOOK like the Spokesperson the client had in mind – the corporate guy in the Amex or Citibank spot.

2 – You LOOK like the “family member” they were trying to match up for the group scene- A family dinner at the Olive Garden.

3 – You LOOK like “the girl next door” the company needed to be their “image”- CoverGirl or Ivory, the suburban Dad building a deck & buying stuff at The Home Depot,the Mom with her kids having burgers at McDonald’s.

Read more

Non-Union Feature Film Casting 9 Roles

Casting 9 lead roles & 6 supporting for PARADISE, a Non Union feature directed by Max Makowski, a 3 time Sundance Director with an upcoming major studio feature already slated.

Terrific opportunity to be seen by an acclaimed Casting Director and work with an accomplished and rising Director. Not to mention spending a week in a luxury resort under in Indonesian!

CASTING
Open worldwide to all nationalities.

UNION STATUS
Non Union

PRODUCTION DATES
Aug 26 – Sep 28, 2011 (no role more than 10 days during this period)

HOW TO SUBMIT
Submissions are accepted via a self-taped audition online through Let It Cast
1. Visit http://goo.gl/8IvVs to view the production presentation, breakdown and instructions on filming your audition
2. Ensure you match all the requirements for the role
3. Film your scene
4. Upload directly to Casting through the website
5. The process is completely FREE and your video will remain private, accessible only to production staff.

ONLINE AUDITION DEADLINE
August 5, 2011 18:00 GMT

RATE & DEAL
US $370 per day of shooting. Travel, meals, lodging & certain incidentals paid for by production. Please refer to the sides/audition document for complete Rate & Deal (see SUBMIT instructions below on how to access this document).

ABOUT LET IT CAST
Let It Cast is used by productions to enable talent to respond to casting calls by submitting the actual audition for the role. The goal is to privilege the artistic expression of an actor’s work over the traditional resumé/demo submission process

An Easy Solution to the Audition Waiting Game

Written by Dallas Travers, CEC

A lot of actors express frustration about not having access to their dream auditions.

They say that if only they could “get in the room” they’d be able to book the job.  Perhaps you don’t need to “get in the room” at all before auditioning for a role you desire.  Maybe you can instead film an audition for that dream role and submit your DVD to the producer, casting director, or director of the film.

Did you know that Vera Farmiga landed the role of Madelyn in Martin Scorsese’s film, The Departed because she created an audition tape and sent it directly to Mr. Scorsese?

Mick Brown interviewed Farmiga for the August, 2008 edition of The Telegraph where he wrote, “In lieu of attending auditions, whenever she read a script that interested her she would make a mini home-movie of the character she wanted to play, acting out the part while a friend fed her lines. ‘With the program on a Mac you could really edit it in a very clever way, fade in and fade out, have intimacy with the mikes, the lighting, and have the luxury of takes – you could make yourself as ugly or as beautiful as you wanted. They always resulted in a meeting – a flight over to Los Angeles to meet the director. Even if at the end of it all I didn’t get the role it would be fine because I’d already executed it in my own living-room’.”
Read more

San Diego Repertory Theatre Seeking Actors for ‘The Great American Trailer Park Musical’

The Great American Trailer Park Musical

Music and Lyrics by David Nehls

Book by Betsy Kelso

Directed by Sam Woodhouse, Artistic Director of San Diego Repertory Theatre

 

We are seeking both union and non-union performers.

About the Play

There’s a new tenant at Armadillo Acres—and she’s wreaking havoc all over Florida’s most exclusive trailer park. When Pippi, the stripper on the run, comes between the Dr. Phil–loving, agoraphobic Jeannie and her tollbooth collector husband—the storms begin to brew. This is a hilarious tongue-in-cheek, satirical, country-rock and blues musical about adultery, ’80s nostalgia, spray cheese, road kill, hysterical pregnancy, a broken electric chair, kleptomania, strippers, flan, and disco.

Performance Schedule

Rehearsals Begin:      October 10, 2011

Performance Dates:  November 5 – December 4, 2011

Last Day of Possible Extension:  December 18^th, 2011

Performance Space: Lyceum Stage in Horton Plaza, downtown San Diego

We’re currently seeking to cast 5 females and 2 males the following roles:

All actors must be strong actors/singers with skilled comedic timing and country/rock style vocals.

JEANNIE GARSTECKI 35-45, Belt and Legit Mezzo. Jeannie has lived in a trailer at Armadillo Acres for 20 years with her husband and high-school sweetheart, Norbert. She was 17 when she was married, 18 when her son was born, and 23 when he was kidnapped. This traumatic event turned her into an agoraphobic, and she hasn’t left her trailer since, and the man she loves is drifting further and further away.

NORBERT GARSTECKI 35-45, High Baritone. Norbert is Jeannie’s husband and collets tolls for a living. He tried to be as good a husband as one can be to an agoraphobic. He is a former high-school football star whose rugged good looks are marred by fatigue and the stress of his difficult marriage. He is a simple man who desperately wishes his wife could get out of the trailer but is not equipped with the emotional or intellectual tools to help her do it. Instead he ends up doing something he’s never done before, sleeping with another woman who happens to be a professional stripper.

PIPPI 28-35, Large Belt. Pippi is a striking beauty with a great body and a taste for clothing that shows it off. She is a professional stripper who has gotten by on her looks and talents for dancing and petty theft. She means no harm and is ready to stop making bad choices and start making changes. She leaves her boyfriend and moves to the small town of Armadillo Acres to start over.

DUKE 20s, Rock Tenor. Duke is Pippi’s obsessive, possessive, and excessive Magic-Marker-sniffing boyfriend; “ex”-boyfriend according to Pippi. Not so, according to Duke.

BETTY 30s-50s, Rough Belt. One of  “The Girls”, Betty attended high school with Norbert and Jeannie Garstecki and has lived in Armadillo Acres for just as long. She now runs the leasing office and makes it her business to know everything about everybody who passes through the trailer park. Betty is the mother hen to the denizens of the trailer park. Of all of “The Girls”, Betty is the most grounded, earthy and dry.

LINOLEUM “LIN” 30s, Belt. One of “The Girls.” So-named because her mother gave birth to her on the kitchen floor, Linoleum has a husband on death row at the Florida State Prison. His fate is an electric chair that doesn’t work properly unless most of the town’s electricity is turned off. So Lin watches everyone’s lights and appliances very closely in the hopes that she can keep the chair on the fritz. Sometimes self-absorbed and sometimes has a smart mouth, she hints at a wild, rock-and-roll past and is the fiercest of “The Girls.”

DONNA “PICKLES” late teens-early 20s, Belt. One of “The Girls.” A newlywed, Donna is called “Pickles” because she is perpetually hysterically pregnant—that is, she’s so convinced she should be pregnant she’s exhibiting symptoms. Her husband is a lot fancier than she is, as he is from the big city of Jacksonville. His parents haven’t been very supportive of his marital choice, so Pickles is desperate to give her husband a family of his own—even if she has to fake it. The dimmest of “The Girls,” Pickles is airy, sweet, and blissfully ignorant.

Submission Process:     Please send headshot and resume to Casting Director, Jessica Bird (no web site links, please):

Email:      casting@sdrep.org, or

Mail:        Casting: Trailer Park
San Diego Repertory Theatre
79 Horton Plaza
San Diego, CA  92101

Questions?  Please call Jessica at (619) 231-3586 x 638

LA: DreamWorks Studios Casting Call for Young Male 11-13

CASTING CALL FOR LEAD ROLE IN UPCOMING “WELCOME TO PEOPLE”

MOVIE STARRING CHRIS PINE AND ELIZABETH BANKS

DREAMWORKS STUDIOS LOOKING FOR YOUNG MALE ACTOR (AGE 11-13)

LOS ANGELES, CA (November 30, 2010) – DreamWorks Studios has launched a casting search to fill a lead role in its upcoming movie “Welcome to People,” it was announced today by DreamWorks Studios.

Actors interested in the role are invited to attend an open casting call on Saturday, December 4, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. No acting experience is necessary for interested actors, nor are they required to prepare anything for the audition.

Role to be cast is ‘Josh’: Male, 11-13 years old, Caucasian, athletic, independent, and confident. Interested actors should be able to memorize lots of dialogue. Film will be rated PG-13 and actors should be comfortable with dialogue reflecting that rating.

Details on the open call audition are as follows:

Saturday, December 4, 2010

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Denise Chamian Casting

Sunset Gower Studios

1438 N. Gower St.

Building 35, Suite 270

Hollywood, CA 90028

(323) 315-9445

(Street Parking Only)

Welcome to People is a drama about a young businessman (CHRIS PINE) who returns home after his estranged father’s sudden death, only to uncover a devastating family secret, which sends him on an unexpected journey of self-discovery. Film is the feature film directorial debut of Alex Kurtzman (TRANSFORMERS, STAR TREK) with a script written by Kurtzman, Roberto Orci (TRANSFORMERS, STAR TREK) and Jody Lambert (OF ALL THE THINGS). In addition to Chris Pine (STAR TREK), Elizabeth Banks (THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN) has also joined the cast. Film is scheduled to begin production in January in Los Angeles.

About DreamWorks Studios

DreamWorks Studios (www.dreamworksstudios.com) is a motion picture company led by Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider in partnership with The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The new company is a continuation of DreamWorks Studios which was formed in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. The company expects to put into production 5 to 6 films per year that will be distributed by The Walt Disney Studios.

DreamWorks Studios can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dw_studios.

For publicity inquiries contact:

Kristin Stark

(818) 733-9685

For additional information contact:

Denise Chamian Casting

(323) 315-9445

Washington D.C.: Looking for Bald Guys with Tattoos

Central Casting is looking for Caucasian males with strong acting ability between 25 and 45yrs old with shaved or bald heads and visible tattoos and a muscular build. This will be for a dayplayer role in an industrial.

Please submit headshot, resume, sizes and phone number ASAP to dagmar@centralcastingusa.com.

No phone calls please.

If you do not fit the requirements above; you do not need to reply, but you may forward this to anyone you think would be interested.

These are general emails that go out to those of you on our contact list, as a courtesy. If you wish to be removed, you can unsubscribe by clicking on the link below. Thank you.

4 Ways to Get Cast Without Improving Your Acting

4 Ways to Get Cast Without Improving Your Acting
by Paul Cram

1. Don’t Apologize

When… You just performed a scene you think went awful. All too often at auditions, actors shoot themselves in the foot doing this. Do yourself a favor and shut up. Instead, focus your attention on if there is any feedback. If there isn’t any, say thanks and leave.

2. Do Apologize

When… You are running late. Call and let ‘em briefly know how much longer you’ll be for you to arrive. When you do get there, say a simple “sorry for keeping you waiting” to everyone that you’ve effected by your tardiness.

3. Arrive Fashionably Early

Five minutes early for auditions, Ten minutes early for a job.

4. Say Your Name, Say Your Name, Say Your Name

At auditions, call backs, industry parties and on jobs. Don’t assume people know you. Be the first to extend your hand saying, “Hello, my name is…” Studies show that it takes someone hearing or seeing you several times to remember you.

Paul Cram, a working actor (check out his IMDB profile here), shares his thoughts on getting cast again and again by the same people.

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