Casting: An Actor's Experience

Hey everyone! Courtney here. So I realize I'm a couple days late here, but oh well. So, I went with Antoine to see our call-backs for Zach and the Zane auditions. It was really exciting. I love that I get to be such a big part of this project! Reading with the Zachs was really fun, even though I felt like a huge dork. Really, just on a totally superficial level, think about the situation I was in: a nineteen year old girl who gets to sit in a room and have a romantically-tense conversation with about 5 cute boys. Not to mention we're probably about 3 inches away from each other the entire time, so needless to say, it was kind of hard to stay as cool and collected as Jade. Not that I had any bad thoughts or anything, I was very good and very professional, I just giggled a lot on the inside.

Anyway, not the point. I really liked auditioning the Zachs. Especially as an actor it made me realize a lot about the casting process that I already kind of knew, but had never seen in play. One of my teachers at AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy- graduated Dec. '08) used to always tell us when talking about auditions, "just don't be bad". And it's kind of true. As long as the auditioners weren't rude or outright bad, we really liked them and wanted them to be the one. That's the thing about casting that makes me, as an actor, feel so much better, that every person who walks in the door, you WANT that person the be the best you've seen.

The Zanes were exciting to watch too and (I really hope no one takes this the wrong way) they showed me that it doesn't matter how old you are, you can still be a bad actor. That sounds awful and mean, but I think sometimes actors forget that. I always worry that I'm getting a late start as an actor, but then I see these guys and I know I'm fine.

The Zanes that were good though, and I really got a lot from a couple of them. It was just so exciting to actually be feeding off another actor with this script that I've been working on by myself for so long. I keep talking with Antoine about the other characters and what they're supposed to be and what they mean to my character. But nothing beats having another actor right in front of you to actually feed you emotion and interact with you. It got me way more pumped for this project, even more so than before. I can't wait to start working with the other actors and actually be filming!

I have to send my Thanks to Antoine for really letting me be a part of this project. I know he needed to see chemistry and everything, but I just feel real special being able to sit there with him and talk about OUR favorites... It's been great and I suppose I'll post again in a couple weeks.

- Courtney Case (Jade)