Interview with a Vampire, I Mean Agent.

Simple statement.  We want you to be good.  Know that going in.  Every agent, casting director, producer, director want you to be the answer.  It may not seem that way, but when we walk out into the waiting room we are on your side.  Now, the truth is that much of the time you lose us and you lose us very quickly.  Why?  Good question.  For me it is mainly because you have failed to be yourself.  You are either trying to be "what I am looking for" or you have been told this is a business and this is an interview and so, like a first date, you aren't being real.  I have had actors come into my office in a suit or shirt and tie.  If you don't wear a shirt and tie everyday then don't wear it to my office.  I get up in the morning and put on a suit.  Five days a week.  51 weeks a year.  I am completely comfortable in a suit.  You probably aren't and so you sit in your meeting with me and I don't get the real you.  Another example is the douche bag who came to my office carrying his motorcycle helmet and had a copy of No Exit sticking out of his back pocket.  After his meeting I happened to see him leaving the building driving a 2000 .  Why the F was he carrying a motorcycle helmet, probably doesn't even understand Sartre.  Neither actor is being real.

I can tell you this, and this is part of my Gospel, any actor can read the words right.  The actor that makes the copy their own has a better chance of getting the job.  Talk to me about life, interesting things going on.  Don't sit and talk about your resume.  I can read your resume, and if I ask you about it, don't tell me what it was like working on such and such.  Tell me the freakish thing that happened to you while working on it.  If I ask for your resume in a meeting, it is not going well.  It means that I can't find a way to make conversation with you and i need a crutch to get you to talk to me.

People often ask me what I am looking for.  I wish I had that answer.  I would put it in a bottle and sell it at Sam French and make a fortune.  What we are all looking for is ephemeral.  It is a quality and an energy.  It is also something that you develop in life.  I have met actors who didn't have it when we met and when they crossed my path later in life it was there.  I signed an actress many years ago who, when she was signing her contract told me that I had met her 4 years previously and passed on her.  She also told me she understood why.  That is an actor with a unique self awareness.  You get what is yours when the time is right.  I know that is hard to hear and certainly nothing you can work on.  What you can work on is having the skill set to get on a set and do the best job you can.  You can work on being yourself and being real.

Remember, we want you to win!