Killing Your Career

HOW TO KILL YOUR CAREER:

(in no particular order):

Belittle or dis the network, director, show or script at the session.

Make the show creators feel bad about their show.

Prima donna behavior.

Show up habitually late or sick.

Act like a screw up or creep.

Unwanted advances or offensive jokes.

Lie to your agent. Whine to your agent.

Display a complete lack of gratitude to those working with you.

Show up unprepared.

Waste everyone’s time and money by talking too much in between takes.

Resist taking direction.

Bring your personal baggage into the studio.

Post cast, photos or script info to social media without employer’s approval.  This goes for auditions as well as paid gigs.

Actively lobby to have someone else’s role reassigned to you.

You can also kill your career if you start auditioning from home before you’re ready:

Switching to auditioning at home could be the worst thing to happen to your career! True, it can free up a lot of drive time to and from your agent. But it can kill your ability to produce a good audition. Many aren’t yet ready to take the reins as not only actor, but also director and sound engineer.

Switching to home auditioning can lose you valuable input from your agent’s booth operator. Reading solo at home means you must now “diagnose” your audition copy, self-direct, record and edit yourself without feedback. The ability to do all this well is something that few newbies yet possess. This often results in a significant (even catastrophic) drop off in audition quality. Be very careful about making this transition! Seek a lot of feedback from your agent to make sure your performance is as good as it needs to be. I still do! Home auditioning is a terrific convenience and freedom for those ready for it, just don’t let it kill your career!

Thanks to voice-director Donna Grillo for suggesting the “perils of home auditioning” theme!