How Apartment Hunting in LA is Like Being a Casting Director

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MaliaAs an actor, most of us think of casting directors as our enemy, the big bad wolf, the big obstacle standing in-between you and and your dream role. In reality, they are one of our biggest assets, often times fighting till the end for the actor they know is just perfect for the role, trust me, they want you to be good. Why? Because if you’re it that means they can go home.

Still don’t believe me?

It’s simple. Often the things (or people) we fear most are just the things we don’t understand. The casting director/actor relationship only seems scary to the people who have never cast in anything. For myself, I personally felt it necessary to try my hand at casting to make the whole auditioning process less scary. I was reminded of this again these past few weeks helping my parents look for an apartment in Los Angeles. Looking for the perfect home is JUST like casting the best actor for a part.

Think about it. From the second you walk into a place you get a vibe, you know instantly if you mesh with that space or not. Similar to how when from the second an actor walks into a room, the casting director gets a feel for them and knows whether or not they have the character’s “essence,” you then explore the space. Maybe you like it but the rooms aren’t arranged right, your furniture might not work in that space, you need more storage. Again, similar to when an actor may be AWESOME but just doesn’t quite fit the part for how many different in-personal reasons,  maybe when you’re exploring an apartment you notice a window that looks out onto a view that melts your heart, warms your insides and despite all the other not quite perfect things, makes you feel right at home and you know you need to have it. This can also happen and has happened when an actor makes a choice that instantly makes the casting director think, “oh wait, they ARE the character.”

You realize you being cast in a role or not being cast has very little to do with your talent, your looks or any of the other mind noise us actors have all the time. Just think about how many awesome apartments you walked out of when you were looking for a place to live not because they weren’t awesome but because they just weren’t it. So the next time you walk into an audition room, take a breath, do your best, leave with confidence and realize you’re either it or you’re not, and just because you might not be it THAT time, doesn’t mean you’ll never find your fit.