Auditions and Making it in Hollywood or Not…

Waking up late is nothing new in The Hollywood Hills. I don’t know what it is, but it’s always so hard to get to bed for me. When Europe wakes up and starts bombarding me with emails it’s midnight in LA . In stead of ignoring the people overseas and getting my beauty sleep I stay up and try to get some work done. Note; that’s why I look tired most of the time in case you were wondering ;-). Another issue is the heat. It’s sick! Usually I love warm weather, but this is insane. Over a 100 degrees for the last week and a half is just too much.

So today I have two things on my agenda: writing texts for a fashion company that I’m working with and going to an audition. This is the first audition that I’m a little excited about since I got back into town. It’s for a feature film and I know the director. He called me up when I was in Vegas to schedule an appointment. I have seen bits of his previous films and production value is high. And that’s always a good start. Problem is the director doesn’t want me to see the script beforehand, which I hate. I like to read the script and fantasize about the character and make some strong choices before I go to an audition. But this director wants it ‘fresh’ and ‘natural’ ‘just come as you are’ as he puts it.

It is a weird process auditioning. I’m pretty sure that once you walk into the audition room the casting director already knows whether you stand a chance or not. It’s very much about if you ‘look the part’. And by that I’m not saying that you have to look like a supermodel. You have to look somewhat like the director envisioned for the part. And then there’s a lot of politics involved too. Right now when recession is kicking everybody’s ass, if you can raise money for the production you get a part in a movie. It’s sad and crazy, but that’s the name of the game.

Of course, there will be times when you can surprise a casting director. It happened to me once when I was auditioning for ‘Omar Saved From Cheating’. A movie that comes out later this year. I was auditioning for a smaller part, but then they wanted to test me for another part. And even though it was a ‘cold read’, as they call it when you haven’t seen the script before, I made the director cry and got the part. At least that’s what he told me later. But that is a lucky coincidence, and it only happened because I just said ‘Fuck-it’ and made a really strong choice in the audition room. Sometimes I get so caught up in details and I have so many questions that I stop myself from just going for it. Too much thinking always gets me in trouble.

Once when I did a writing class with J.F. Lawton, who is a big name out here; He wrote the screenplay of ‘Pretty Woman’, ‘Under Seige’ and many other blockbusters. J.F. told me that money, sex, drugs and beauty will get you far in Hollywood, but the most important thing is that you have to be entertaining and fun to hang around. Interesting …. no?

What happened to talent? According to him talent is not nearly enough to make it here. You need to have ‘people skills’. And then there is the whole ‘who are you’ story that you need to get straight. When I get asked to tell a bit about myself at auditions I tell them that I’m Danish born, moved from NYC to LA recently, I love acting, I’m a writer with my first book published, I’m a photographer, I model and …. But already after the first two sentences they are losing interest in me. My story is waaaay too long winded and complicated in a casting situation. J.F. said that my story doesn’t sound good in Hollywood. ” Oh yeah we have this new amazing actress. she’s a writer, went to university, she’s a model and she had a book published”. It sounds so boring, unfocused and confusing that they want to shoot them selves in the head. What Hollywood wants, is a ‘‘this amazing new actress who was a drug addict and a model now she’s dating Jeremy Piven”. That sells in Hollywood. Sad? A bit. But ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game’. Also, there are other people that find talent and complexity in people very valuable and I have worked on many productions where that has been the case.

Now I have to get back to work; my writing work that is. I will let you know how the audition goes.

speak soon!

xxx kristina