What not to do in an Audition

Paul Newton October 25, 2019

I have been to a few auditions, and I have held quite a few auditions. One thing that I know is what not to do.

When I was eighteen, I saw an ad in the paper (yes, the paper, that’s all we had and stop judging) soliciting for actors to be in a film. It was in the basement of a church in Fayetteville. I was suspicious about it and unsure about what I was walking into. I thought about all the news stories I had heard over my youth about abductions and the like. It made sense to me to feel that way; after all, it was Arkansas in the ’90s. No one around here made movies, at least not ones you could show to the public. But, I am pretty much not afraid of anything, so I went anyway.

Making short films always seems to turn into something bigger.

Paul Newton September 19, 2019

I love making films. If you didn’t know that already, well, now you do. Sometimes we have a fleshed-out script, and sometimes we don’t. The real fun of making films sometimes comes from not knowing what I am going to film and figuring it out as we go. I know that sounds dumb, but it always seems to work out.

This last weekend, we did exactly that. We had outlined a few scenes and practiced some stunts with the actors. It worked out alright; it was one of those times when working on a wing and a prayer just felt right.

My Audition and the real threat from the River Valley flooding.

Paul Newton June 2, 2019

So, I just spent almost four hours and fifty bucks in a car to attend a meeting that made me want to give up acting forever, and now I have to drive back home.

Now, we have had a lot of rain recently, as we all know. The River Valley (Fort Smith Arkansas) has flooded, levees have broken, and roads are closed. The water from the Arkansas River hit record levels, and here I was driving through it. Another reason for a rental car.

Three things a new actor can do to win the audition.

Paul Newton April 6, 2019

We have all heard it and just shrugged it off at least once in our lives. When we went for our first job interview or trying to get up the nerve to ask someone out on a first date, that was probably the advice. It’s no different in an audition.