Tag: acting

Accents at Auditions – Use ’em or lose ’em?

This week: “Zee play is zee-How you say? -Is zee thing, yes?”

A reader  — long ago when Susan Boyle was “the it girl” —  inquired:

“Paul how important is it to use an accent at auditions?”

A vague, but important inquiry. So let’s get specific here on a solution. There are several audition scenarios for which I can foresee the utilization or avoidance of an accent.

Auditioning for a Specific Role:

You’ve been given sides. The breakdown for the role reads that the character is French. What do you do about an accent?

First there is a question you must ask of yourself and/or the person who has provided you the material:

“Is an accent required for the audition?”

Why ask this?

1. The auditors may want you to be more focused on the story telling in the scene than your ability at linguistic legitimacy. An accent may be secondary. Stage and screen projects with budgets for a dialect coach will have someone to properly discipline your dialect dexterity.

2. If every role in the project is of the same accented heritage the director may have opted to have all actors perform the piece without the regional dialect associated to the characters.

3. The accent, for the auditors, may be just as important as the story-telling. If so, make sure you ask the person presenting you the audition for dialect specificity. Lost on that? If you’re told to do an English accent what kind would you present? Cockney? RP? Central London? Welsh? Mid-lands? Know before you go what derivation of pronunciation you’re to show.

A General Audition:

There are times when you’ll have auditions in your career for which there is no project of employ; academic entry, talent reps, paid auditions, getting-to-know-you as an actor and similar. You may have chosen a piece (monologue or scene) that can be associated with a dialect. You’d be wise to focus on the story telling than to bring an accent into the audition. Why? Because you’re being viewed in a general audition for your ability to bring character and thru-lines to life. You’re not there to show how well you can mimic sounds. Leave that, for the moment, to parrots and talking heads on cable news.

If you choose — in a general audition — to forgo a dialect. Let the person(s) viewing you know that you have made a conscious decision to focus on story telling and not selling a sound.

Overall:

When requested to provide an accent at the audition make sure that you’re presenting one that is either learnt from a credible dialect coach or at least from one of the many available dialect CDs. The worst thing an actor can do is present a self-taught, foreign-to-them dialect acquired without training. The most bastardized of regional tongues are the Queen’s English and American Southern. I and my colleagues have heard one-too-many substandard “southern accents”. And what you may think is southern (inadvertently sounding like a drunken Texan) doesn’t pass for southwestern Virginia Appalachia or coastal South Carolina. A one-size fits-all southern accent does not work. This advisory holds true for all regional dialects of French, English, Spanish, what-ever origin of tongue.

Whenever you audition for a role in which an accent is associated always ask, “Is an accent required for the audition?”  If you don’t ask, they won’t tell.

Arm yourself with knowledge of accents (type & usage) before going in front of auditors. That’s the best way to apply accents at auditions.

My Best,
Paul

AMIYB_AmazonRead advice from legendary talent agents,
plus Hollywood & Broadway actors in Paul Russell’s Best-Selling Book ACTING: Make It Your Business!

Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Temple and the University of the Arts. He writes a column for Back Stage and is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.

 

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Political Play: Getting Ahead as an Actor

This week: Rule #7 of Political Play in the Performing Arts: Loyalty

There is one client that I had who one day in auditions turned and said to me, “I’m a loyalist.” And he’s been loyal to me and my career and I have returned in kind my devotion to him and the organization. O.K. now before you think this is going to develop into a romance; far from it. It’s a relationship built upon trust and mutual respect. And both of us have benefited (I probably more so to my chagrin).

In our business loyalty and trust is often viewed with cynicism. Why? Because we often confuse loyalty with entitlement. We expect that if we’re loyal to someone we work for, they in turn will continually steer employment our way. There’s one problem with that thought in our line of work. If not hired for a position that calls for an actor that is of a certain physical type and skill, it’s that lack of traits and abilities which betrayed the loyalty and not the person responsible for hiring. Same goes for directors and designers. Some directors are more adept at certain styles. That aesthetic may not be suitable for a production. Is it a lack of loyalty that caused one not to be re-hired? No. It’s what your skills and abilities have to offer. If your talents match what your devoted friend is seeking than more than likely you’ll be the first to be called upon. That’s loyalty.

Now loyalty can not be all a one way street where the benefits flow only towards you. You have to return the devotion in return. How and what that may be is dependent upon your relationship and what you can offer. Sometimes it’s as simple as friendship. Other times it’s stepping up to defend or promote the one you’re loyal to. Loyalty is one of the rarest gifts of friendship and business that can be bestowed upon you and in return it’s your most treasured offering aside from love that you can give to a person or producing entity.

Is loyalty always returned? No. Are there times when you are overlooked and the person you’re loyal to has turned their back upon you. Yes. But that’s life. Our industry, while a pinup poster for backstabbing and betrayal, politically operates no differently than academia, corporations, government, your neighborhood or a campus. Only the players are vary. The personalities remain the same. But among those personalities you’ll discover people like you who honor loyalty.

My Best,
Paul

AMIYB_AmazonRead advice from legendary talent agents,
plus Hollywood & Broadway actors in Paul Russell’s Best-Selling Book ACTING: Make It Your Business!

 

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Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Temple and the University of the Arts. He writes a column for Back Stage and is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.

 

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