B. Monte wrote to ask…
When you are auditioning an underemployed performer who gives a great audition, but is not right for the part, how do you give encouragement that doesn't come across as a "great try kid…don't call us, we'll call you" brush-off?
With rare exceptions, you don't tell them on the spot that they're not getting the part. You say, "Thank you for coming in" and if they're at all professional, they say, "Thank you for having me in" and they leave. Keep in mind that they usually have no idea if I have the final say as to who gets hired. For all they know, I have to play the auditions I recorded for others who will make the final decision. So they don't come in assuming that their mission is to please me and only me. If they were auditioning for a famous, award-winning director they might assume that but I don't have that problem. I'm just the guy running the audition.
So I try to remain positive and to give them whatever compliments I feel are warranted. And I do make notes about what they did well in case they can be of use to me later in casting something else.
I should also add that the voiceover business has changed a lot and that it's becoming very rare for someone to come in to audition. This was changing before The Pandemic and has now become pretty much the norm. Actors are sent the audition script and some sort of guidance as to what is needed, and they record their own auditions in their own studios and submit them.
Occasionally, a director or producer may be live online with them to direct their tryout performances but when that happens, it's usually in the second round of auditioning and beyond. They submit as above and then the submissions are whittled down to a handful for the one-on-one auditions. So that pretty much eliminates the situation where a director or producer has to interact with someone who's totally wrong for the part. Those folks got eliminated in the first round.
But still, you usually don't tell them to their faces that they aren't getting the part. And any experienced actor is used to not hearing from you and understanding that someone else booked the job. Not getting it is, after all, the norm. Even the best actors feel fortunate to be hired for one out of ten-or-so auditions. And doing it from their home studios makes it more comfortable since they didn't have to leave their homes — shave, shower, get dressed-up, drive somewhere, park, drive home, etc. — to be considered. Yesterday, I was talking with an actor who'll be on one of my Cartoon Voices panels in San Diego. That morning, he got up and recorded twelve auditions in one hour — before breakfast and in his pajamas…and he'll be happy if one yields a one-time paying gig.
There have been a few times when I've told an actor at an in-person audition that they weren't going to get the job. One was Robert Guillaume and I told that story here. Another was the same day for the same show. It was the actor in this story who insisted on ignoring the script and improvising a different character. But telling someone on the spot "We ain't hiring you" is very rare.
