I recently booked a recurring guest star role. (YAY!) The show has been on my target list for years. The role fits my deep type perfectly. I've been proactively developing my relationship with the casting office and the show's producers for a long time. It's no coincidence that I went in on this role, and it's a GREAT feeling to have accomplished this goal. So I want to tell you exactly how it happened. I don't mean the audition, though that stuff - navigating the waiting room, going in with the right attitude, etc. - obviously matters. I mean the relationship. Let's go backwards, step by step, through the non-glamorous part of the answer to the question:
How do you get called in for the projects and roles you want to work on?
I met the casting director during my post-college showcase week. For the next few years, I kept in touch through postcards, but had no idea what I was doing in terms of marketing, didn't have representation, and didn't know how to audition. I was trained and talented, but that was about it. So we're going to fast forward to 2002, which is when I got serious about my career, started focusing on my business and audition skills, and started working.
- August, 2002 - I got called in by the casting office for a two-word role on a huge show, run by a big name showrunner, and booked it. Let's call it Show A. It was a SLAP Acting role, one of my first credits, my first network drama, and my first time booking a show on my target list.
- Sometime in 2006 - Called in by the same office for a small role on a pilot, Show B. I didn't know anything about the project, but it had the same showrunner, and this time he was in the audition room. Didn't book it.
- March, 2009 - Called in by the same office for a small role in a new drama they were casting, same show runner, we'll call it Show C. Not a show I thought I was 'right' for. Didn't book it.
- April, 2009 - Went in for another small role on Show C. Didn't book it.
- September, 2010 - Went in to the same office for a small role on a different new show with the same big showrunner, Show D. Didn't book it.
- October, 2010 - Got called in for another small role on Show C. Didn't book it.
- August, 2011 - Called in for another small role on Show D, which was now on my target list after having seen the first season. Didn't book it.
- January, 2012 - Got called in for yet another small role on Show C. Booked it - nearly ten years after my first booking with this office.
- July, 2012 - Called in for a small recurring role on Show D. Didn't book it.
- July, 2012 (later) - Called in for another small role on Show D. Didn't book it.
- October, 2013 - Called in for a major recurring role on Show D. Had an audition, a callback, and a chemistry read with the series lead and the show runner and producers in the room. It was down to me and one other woman. She booked it. I cried for three days.
- June, 2014 - Called in for a possibly recurring role on Show D. Booked it.
There are a few things I hope you'll take away from all of that.
- In the months and years between auditions for this office, I was marketing, staying in touch, and often assuming they'd forgotten about me. But looking at the big picture, it's obvious they believed in me, and my marketing was working all along. You career is a long-term project. Remember to occasionally take a step back and look at it that way.
- This is the safari story in action. I auditioned for Show D five times over four years before booking a recurring guest star role. Today, it's easy to see that they wanted to work with me, it was just a matter of finding the right role. But during those four years? It felt like no matter what I did, it just wasn't happening. Remember the safari. You don't get to know how all of your hard work and patience will pay off. Your job is to keep going long enough to find out.
- As the saying goes, you can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need. I now understand that I wasn't ready for a recurring guest star role in 2002. I thought I was... But casting knew better. Over the years, by auditioning for and booking smaller roles through this office and others, I got better. I got ready. I now see what a huge blessing it was that they didn't bring me in for a big role until more recently, because now I know things like how to deliver an audition with the showrunner and series lead, how to prepare to shoot a bigger role, and how to handle myself on set. Casting often understands things about us that we don't yet understand about ourselves. It's part of their job. Respect them for it.
- Finally, I was able to assemble this history and draw conclusions from it because I keep an audition log. It's not perfect, I probably missed a few here and there, but it does what it's supposed to do -- give me the power of perspective. It shows me that the longer this office knows me, the more regularly they call me in. That they've called me in for bigger and better roles over time. That I've booked one role for every four auditions there. Those facts tell a very different story than the one in my head that wants me to believe I've been going in there for years with little to show for it.
As your career moves forward, keep track of your work - even the things you perceive as failures. Put a reminder in your calendar twice a year to go back and look at how you've progressed and what you've accomplished in the long term. Look for trends. Give yourself credit for the slow and steady stuff you might not see day to day. Because over time, that slow and steady stuff is what big bookings are made of.