Chapter - 03

A Foot In The Door

First impressions are lasting impressions.

In show business, the first impression can sometimes be the last impression. Producers, directors and casting directors are busy people. The deciding factor in giving an unknown (or even an experienced actor whose opportunities have been limited) a chance to read for a part is often based on first impressions.

It's up to you to know how to handle yourself during an interview: how to be at ease, and how to be well poised. How to sell yourself; how not to oversell yourself.

Diane Brewster, who rose from television commercials to Glenn Ford's leading lady in Torpedo Run, a picture with an otherwise all-male cast, worked for weeks to make the right impression when she got her first important interview.

At the appointed time, she stepped buoyantly into the office— tripped and fell flat on her beautiful face.

Diane's world went black, but months of training came to the rescue. She showed such poise and quick judgment in making neither too much nor too little of the incident that the director had her read immediately for the part. When she left his office, the role was hers. The accidental fall itself turned out to be unimportant.

What counted was the director's first impression of her professional poise.

To be as unshakably poised as this young actress is much more a matter of sound technique than of serene temperament.

Don't be fooled by the casual manner of a casting director. You may be sure he's studying you: looking you over, like a piece of merchandise. He's no window-shopper, either. When he looks, it's because he wants to buy.

Always have professional pictures of yourself, and be ready to show them without apologies or explanations. Your graduation picture won't do, nor will glamour-gimmicked photos of the type displayed in night-club lobbies. The pictures should show you: some, headshots showing a fair range of moods; others, in various types of wardrobe.

Have extra prints of each picture. Your interviewer may want to keep one. Make certain that your name, address, phone number and vital statistics are written legibly on the back of each photograph. Don't be misled into thinking that the pictures he rejects are "no good." Almost every interviewer is likely to make a different selection. Each has his own professional purpose and his own taste as valid reasons for his choice. For the sake of efficiency and economy, it's a good idea to have a few eight-by-ten composites made up with four poses on each one.

Have a neatly typed, short outline of your background, qualifications and (if you've ever appeared anywhere, in anything) your credits.

Be honest. Don't invent non-existent credits. You'll only identify yourself as an impostor, a charlatan, or to use show-business terminology, "a phony." "Any casting director can spot a phony every time" is a show-business axiom. If your only credit is a single appearance in the chorus line of a high-school operetta, say so. Everybody has to start somewhere.

Deborah Kerr began her career in the curtain raiser for a local show at Bristol, England. No one outside Bristol—and probably very few Bristolites—particularly noticed this modest debut of an actress who studied long and faithfully to prepare herself for intercontinental stardom. Nevertheless it was a beginning—a good one.

It will look a lot better, and be far more plausible, if you state in your outline that you've put in your time and effort studying with a recognized teacher, rather than if you make up phony credits that won't bear checking out.

Perhaps your teacher will give you a card stating your credentials. Some teachers and coaches periodically give the not-so-fully-established actor a card stating how long he has studied and what, in their opinion, he is capable of doing at that time. These cards help the actor in getting interviews and protect the teacher, or coach, from false claims by overeager job seekers, who claim to be a client of theirs after one lesson.

Some of the first questions you'll be asked are:

"Tell me about yourself."

"What have you done?"

"Is there any film on you?"

You are in a spot. However, every beginning actor has been in that same spot. But just remember—every actor had to be a "beginning actor" at one time.
Tell the truth. If you have no film, say so. If you have no professional stage credits, say so.

However, there is a way out. Almost every casting director will help you. Ask for a chance to read for him, or to audition a scene you have already prepared. He's looking for talent, and he'll usually give you a scene, if you don't have one. You can take it home, study it, then come back and do it for him. If he likes the way you do it, he'll indicate the next move for you.

After you've begun to establish yourself as a working actor, you may get jobs on a "cold reading"—that means reading a part at sight, with no preparation. When you do a cold reading, remember not to read too fast, and to listen to the other person reading with you.

Rehearsed or cold, your reading will give you something extremely important: exposure—where it counts.

He may not need you today, but he will remember you tomorrow. He'll remember how you read, how you handled yourself, and whether you were able to live up to your claims. He casts something every day and he knows better than anyone that there is a definite place for the well-trained beginner.

The need for talent is in an ascending spiral. Television, motion pictures, the legitimate stage, musical shows and night clubs are burning up talent as fast as it comes along. So almost everyone connected with casting is more than willing to give promising new people a hearing.

The emphasis today is on speed, especially in television. Many parts are cast from a cold reading. More than ever in the history of show business, it is important to be a "quick study."

How fast is a quick study? Well, a better-than-average quick study can memorize two pages of dialogue in thirty minutes.

If you should get a two- or three-line part, congratulate yourself, its shortness is no disgrace but a good indication that your interviewer thinks you can "deliver." He believes you will look good to the director, the producer and—if only for one fleeting moment —to the audience.

If you try to fake phony credits, the truth will come out the minute you are set for a job. At that time you will have to show proof of your professional union affiliation or affiliations.

At the present time, all professionals must belong to at least one of the organizations in the "four A's." The four A's are the Associated Actors and Artists of America. There are more than four now, but they are still called the four A's.

Among them are AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), SAG (Screen Actors Guild), Equity (Actors' Equity Association), AGMA (American Guild of Musical Artists), AGVA (American Guild of Variety Artists) and SEG (Screen Extras Guild), which is devoted primarily to the interests of people appearing as general atmosphere in motion pictures and in filmed television.

Under the Taft-Hartley law, a newcomer is allowed thirty days after his first professional performance before he is obliged to join one of the professional guilds or unions. The one he joins first becomes his parent union. There is a reciprocal arrangement among the four A's that acts in favor of the performer who works in the various mediums under their jurisdiction.

When an interview is over, leave. Don't drag it out, wasting the interviewer's time—and yours. If you've left pictures, or a list of credits, with the interviewer, tell his secretary on your way out of the office. Give her an extra word of thanks when you say goodby.

Secretaries fill a highly specialized position in show business. Often they are the trusted aides and "antennae" of their bosses. Besides, as guardians of "the portals through which you seek to pass," they can sometimes open the door to courteous and appreciative actors.

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