Commitment

Sometimes, you’ve just gotta go for it. You may feel crazy and stupid and off your rocker, but just throw it all out there anyway.

Case in point: I recently had a commercial audition for a multivitamin. The spot was a girl running around, being all happy and athletic with a healthy, multivitamin-infused glow about her while the voice-over raves about the benefits.

Here’s how the audition went…

“Okay, so we’re just going to have you run in place to the beat of the music and, you know, be happy and throw a few dance moves in there. Then pretend that you’re, like, running along the beach and have to jump over a branch or something. In the spot, you’ll actually be jumping into an animated world.”

"Okay… Can you clarify 'dance moves' for me??"

“You know, graceful, kinda ballet-ish. This one is all about personality, so just go for it.”

Right.

So I did. I threw it all out there. I convinced myself that it was the most exciting and fantastic thing in the world to be running in place with "dance moves" to weird music in a cramped little office with hot lights and 3 dudes watching me. Even when my brain was racing when they asked me after a couple minutes, “Do you have any… other moves?” I just kept throwing whatever I had out there. And when they bet me that I couldn’t do a cartwheel in such a small space, I took that bet. And I won. I made damn sure those guys were laughing as I said thanks and walked out the door.

Then I walked to my car thinking, “What the f was that?!?”

The next day I was put on avail.

Just go for it. I didn’t ultimately book it, but the casting director did email me with a big thanks and a, “You made three fans in that room.” I'll take that.