After a lot of researching, printing, headshots and mailings, I secured my first official episodic audition since moving to LA, and I did it without an agent. The call came in Friday, and it took me a moment to get my bearings and understand what the assistant was saying before I realized what the call was about. Numb3rs is a very successful CBS show, sort of a book-smart procedural in the CSI mold. The audition was at 3:30pm today in downtown LA, where I don't often venture, and I was reading for about 3 different co-star roles.
Roles on a tv show go in a hierarchy. First, you have series regulars. That's self-explanatory. Then you may have special guest stars, which would be cameos like Bruce Willis on "Friends". Guest stars are roles with several different scenes and a "character arc" in an episode. An example of a guest star role would be the main suspect on an episode of Law & Order. You see him at home when he's first questioned. You see him confronted again by the cops, then interrogated and possibly tried. Guest stars and some co-stars may recur, meaning they show up in two or more episodes. Co-stars are the smaller roles...the cop who finds the body, the bartender who saw the victim last night, etc.
This morning, I got some peer coaching from a friend. Sometimes auditioning for smaller roles can be more difficult. There's a goal of being just interesting enough to serve the character without "overcooking" it. The show is about the series regulars, not the co-stars. It was good to work out some of the physical bits and to do the scenes out loud in front of an objective eye.
The pre-read with the casting director was good! So good, I got a callback (aka, "going to producers") on the spot for 2 of the roles 3 hours later. I went to a Starbucks/grocery store to pass the time since it would've made no sense for me to go all the way home. Each role is usually narrowed down to about 4 or 5 different actors for producers sessions. Since the session was running until 7pm or so, I expect they will notify the choices tomorrow morning. No matter what happens, it's all good news!
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