Audition Fairies

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Jen Levin newBeing an audition fairy is something that I love to do and try to do at every opportunity I have. What’s an audition fairy you might wonder? It’s being someone who is willing to help out your fellow auditioners.

Technically, you are helping your competition, but I’ve never seen it that way. If casting and the producers want you, they will want you whether or not your competition is there. And maybe I feel a bit more strongly about this because I am a very specific type and I usually see the same 10 or so women at my auditions. So I’ve gotten to know them well and have even become close friends with some.

One of the first times I’ve remembered being an audition fairy was a few years ago at a co-star audition for a network show. A good friend of mine who is the same type as me (we affectionately refer to each other as Evil Twin) was going to the same audition as me. However her agent forgot to give her all the details (I think the room on the lot, as well as parking instructions were forgotten by her agent). So my Evil Twin texted me to see if I would be at the same audition as her. I was, so she asked me if I had the missing information about the audition. And of course I gave her all the details. Neither of us ended up booking that part (they went with someone who was a totally different type), but no matter what, being a nice person is more important to me than getting a part.

I had the opportunity again to be an audition fairy recently. I was at a music video audition where we had to lip sync a song. They told us to prepare the entire song but they would only be using a few lines from it for the audition. I played that song on repeat for several hours for me to get all the words down. I arrived at the audition and they were running pretty far behind. At least 20 other people auditioned ahead of me. When it was my turn to go in, they told me that all they wanted to see from everyone was the first verse and chorus. I did my lip syncing and left the audition. There were still at least 20 people waiting after me, so I let them know that they only had me do the first part of the song. I let them know that maybe that would change, but at least for me that’s all I had to do.

Several people thanked me and went back to focusing on those lines. There were some people who did look at me suspiciously (like I was lying to make them mess up for something), but that was the minority of the group. I left that audition feeling like I rocked it in the room and then left the space on a very positive note. I didn’t book that job either, but they were looking for someone much younger than I am (I felt lucky to just get that audition).

The same week as the music video audition, I had an audition for an independent film. The person helping organize when people would go in and audition was very confused (she said that it was only her second day at that job and she had never worked in the film industry before) and things were running very behind. The person in charge of the sign in sheet even let people who were crashing the audition go in ahead of people who had an audition and had been waiting for almost an hour!

I was standing next to a woman who I knew was auditioning for the same part as I was. We started chatting and it turns out that we have a couple of mutual friends! We kept chatting while we were waiting because we had been told many times that our part had no lines or sides to audition with. My new buddy was a few people ahead of me so she went into the room first. As soon as she walked out, she came right over to me to let me know that there were sides but they weren’t letting actors see them until they were in the room (I’m not sure of their reasoning for that).

I was so grateful that my new friend let me know about this and now she was my audition fairy! I haven’t heard back from that audition yet, but I know that they were hoping to cast it with their friends first (never a good sign).

I know that not everyone will agree with me about helping out your fellow auditioners, but like I said before, being a good person is more important to me than a part. And you never know when someone you are auditioning against will change careers and become a director, producer, or casting director. They might remember your kindness and bring you in just because of that (stranger things have happened)!

Do you have an awesome audition fairy story (with either you being the audition fairy or someone being the audition fairy for you)? I’d love to hear it in the comments!