What's your worst job interview? Came in with a hangover, waited at the front desk for half an hour only to realise you are in the wrong building?
It happens to the best of us.
Auditions are like job interviews, but worse. You aren't being asked about you're biggest weakness and your five-year plan, you have to give them 'more intensity' or 'move better.' All strangely indeterminate qualities that make you amazing if you do right, but an over excited fish if you get it wrong.
Anyone seen Ed Sheeran audition for that show Britannia High? He is literally one of the most successful musicians in the world and once had to dance to Justin Timberlake for Arlene Phillips.
The world is a cruel, cruel place.
In an 'Actors on Actors' video for Variety, Riz Ahmed (of The Night Of, Star Wars and Four Lions fame) and Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men, Handmaid's Tale and The One I Love) sat down to have a good ol' natter about the world of acting.
They spoke about how they dealt with fame that came with both of their TV hits as well as the finer details of realizing their characters in The Night Of and The Handmaid's Tale.
But it was near the end of the video that we (finally) got past the thespian musings, to the gory details of acting humiliations.
Moss explained that 'all auditions are terrible', which seems believable, and then went on to explain her audition process for Top of The Lake in which the character has an Australian accent. She hadn't trained for an Australian accent, so offered to do it in a British one, but bailed last minute, performed in her own American accent and got the role.
Riz totally trumped her story.
We already know Ahmed can be somewhat overzealous when it comes to auditioning.
Remember when he sent in fourteen audition tapes for his role in Star Wars? And he was completely certain he wouldn't get it.
Well, this time, he was going for what would end up being Dev Patel's role in Slumdog Millionaire. Danny Boyle (Slumdog's director) told Riz that part was right for him, so he should go for the brother role, 'because he was a bit more of a rough kind of guy'.
He had to do a scene where he shouts in Boyle's face. In the second take, Boyle really encouraged him to go for it, Riz explains,
He said,'you know what Riz? You can do whatever you want, you can't really get up in my face, don't worry the camera guy will get everything, it's handheld he can get everything' the camera guy is like ' yeah I got you'. So I'm all g'd up and before you know it I've got him against the wall, and I'm screaming in his face, spitting in his face, and I've ripped the seams of his shirt open and I'm spitting into Danny Boyle's naked chest. And the camera guys isn't getting any of this, he's like no, pressing a red button on the wall. Then Danny looks at me and says, 'ok cut, thanks for coming in.' And the thing is, I walked out of that audition thinking, 'I nailed that, he could feel my passion.'
Obviously he didn't get it, but it didn't work out too badly for him, did it? Anyway, that passion was what got him the Star Wars role, and our hearts.
Check out the whole interview below:
Daisy Murray is the Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, spotlighting emerging designers, sustainable shopping, and celebrity style. Since joining in 2016 as an editorial intern, Daisy has run the gamut of fashion journalism - interviewing Molly Goddard backstage at London Fashion Week, investigating the power of androgynous dressing and celebrating the joys of vintage shopping.
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