Etiquette for Interacting with Casting Directors

It’s an often unspoken truth: One thing that can make or break an otherwise talented actor is their demeanor when interacting with people who are in a position to hire them. First impressions are important, and if you make a bad one, it can take a lot of time for the damage to be undone. While many introductory VO classes teach studio etiquette, they don’t always cover how to present yourself when reaching out for jobs.



Approaching a Casting Director

NO unsolicited phone calls or walk-ins. Casting directors - just like agents - are very busy people, and they do not have the time or energy to deal with an actor calling them up while they’re in the middle of casting a rush job for a client, or heaven forbid, walking into their office unsolicited to drop off a voice demo. The ideal way to get on their radar would be through meeting them at a workshop or other industry event, but it can also happen via a personal introduction from a friend or by simply cold-submitting your demo via e-mail. Believe it or not, I have actually heard stories of people finding a casting director’s personal cell phone number and calling them up asking for job opportunities…unsurprisingly, those people were not hired!

Be smart about reaching out via Facebook. Sometimes younger casting directors or those who tend to conduct business more informally might be cool with it, but if you’re not sure, then err on the side of caution. If you don’t know the person, it’s best not to friend request or message their personal Facebook account to pitch yourself for work opportunities, as many people like to keep their private lives separate. If you’re already friends with the person and have a casual relationship with them, then Facebook messaging might be more acceptable. Some casting directors may occasionally post voiceover job notices on Facebook in which case it’s generally okay to reach out to them via that method UNLESS their post specifies to email them (always read and follow instructions.) Twitter is more public, so if someone has their DMs open and doesn’t specify another preferred method of contact, it can be permissible to reach out to them there. In fact, a lot of voice actors in the indie game world are known to network a lot through Twitter and Facebook! But unless you know someone conducts a lot of their business via social media, e-mail is often your safest choice.

Make sure your materials are up-to-date. A casting director may look at your IMDB, resume, and/or website to gauge how much work you’ve done in addition to listening to your demo, or when deciding between you and a few other top candidates for a leading role. This online presence is part of your first impression, so if your site hasn’t been updated in four years or your IMDB lists incorrect information, you might want to look into getting these things polished before submitting to casting directors. The same goes for your demo—-if your demo is outdated and you aren’t proud of it, it might be best to hold off on sending that e-mail with your big pitch until you get one you’re really happy with.

Keep your pitch short, polite, and relevant. Casting directors hear from hundreds of actors who are all hoping to get on their radar on a regular basis, and they don’t have time to read a novel about your life and how you got started in acting. A brief introduction, links to your materials, and a short closing statement is sufficient. If you enjoyed the casting director’s work on another project, you can mention it, but if you suck up too much you will seem insincere.

Here is a generic example:

Hello Shannon,
My name is Jane Doe and I am e-mailing you regarding the call you posted on Twitter looking to expand your roster. I am a professional actor with about five years of experience and have worked on titles such as “ABC” and “XYZ”. You may find links to my materials below:

Animation Demo: (link)
Game Demo: (link)
Website: (link)
Resume: (link)

I’m quite fond of your directing work on “Big Scary Zombies Strike Again” and I believe I’d be a great asset to your roster. I have a high-quality home studio and can turn around audio within 24-48 hours. Please let me know if you’d like to hear a custom audition for any of your upcoming projects, and I hope to work with you in the future.

Respectfully yours,
Jane Doe
www.JaneDoeVO.com


Don’t include unsolicited attachments…and if you DO attach a demo, please don’t put it in WAV format! Nobody likes large files they didn’t ask for bloating their inbox, and in some cases it could even cause your message to be sent to the spam folder. Unless you are specifically asked to attach your demos, send them as links instead (even if you don’t have your own website, you can use a service like Google Drive or Dropbox to host and share them securely. SoundCloud is OK too, but it’s better to give them the option of downloading your demos and saving them to a folder if they so desire.) And if you do need to attach, please, please, PLEASE make sure your demo is in mp3 format! This isn’t a final deliverable to a client in which you need to send uncompressed audio, so there is absolutely no reason you need to attach a bloated WAV file. A high-quality mp3 is virtually indistinguishable for demonstration purposes and won’t blow up their inbox.

Make it easy for them to listen to you. A direct link to your demo is best because it doesn’t require them to navigate around your site or (even worse) YouTube channel in hopes of finding your reels. Time is money, so the less clicks they have to make, the better.

Be forthcoming with your intentions. By this, I mean don’t attempt to befriend someone for the sole reason of hoping they’ll cast you in one of their projects. This comes off as insincere and opportunistic. It’s fine if you strike up a friendship naturally, but otherwise, it’s better to just approach them from the context of a business relationship. If you already know the person as a friend and aren’t sure how to broach the subject of wanting to receive auditions, you can simply ask them, “I heard you are doing some casting—-are you open to new talent right now, and if so, do you have a preferred method for how you’d like to receive actor submissions?” This shows that you respect their time and process and aren’t just asking for a handout because you happen to know each other.


Submitting Auditions and Work

READ AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS, INCLUDING LABELING. This bears repeating time and time again, because it is truly surprising how many people will be careless about following the directions. While it’s usually just a simple oversight, it is an extra annoyance for the casting director to have to spend time relabeling everyone’s auditions because they decided to put underscores instead of spaces or vice versa. (I know it probably seems arbitrarily picky, but these are actually for the sake of having everything organized uniformly by character and actor name once the files are downloaded so they can be reviewed accordingly.) Preferences will vary among casting directors so always double check how they ask you to name your files. If no preference is stated, a safe bet is usually “Role Name - Your Name.mp3”. (And yes, always send auditions in mp3 unless specifically instructed otherwise. Again, there is no need to bloat someone’s inbox with a large wav file for something that’s meant for demonstration purposes.)

If you slate, keep it short. Some casting directors may ask you to slate something specific such as agency name or take number, but otherwise, keep it quick—-your name only, or your name + the role you’re reading for (ex: “John Smith, Superman.”) Don’t talk about how many takes you’re going to do or include a rambling monologue about what made you decide to read for this project. Every second counts, and if a casting director is listening to hundreds of submissions, they may turn yours off if you don’t grab their attention within the first 5-10 seconds. Some actors have even mentioned a newer trend of “tail slating” where they slate their name at the END of the file to avoid wasting precious time that could be used to listen to their audition, which can be an interesting idea, but again, always follow instructions if a slate preference is stated.

Don’t straight-up ask someone why they didn’t send you an audition or why they didn’t put you on their roster. It’s rude, awkward, and… honestly none of your business. Ask a mentor or teacher what you can improve upon in your home recordings if you routinely find yourself not making it into casting pools. (For example, perhaps your skill level isn’t competitive enough with the other talent on the roster yet, or your recording setup has a lot of excess noise.) Continue to work hard and excel at what you do, and it’s possible that door may open again in the future. And even if it doesn’t, there are always other opportunities.


Don’t brag on social media about the audition you just got. It looks unprofessional to both other actors and other casting people. “If you're cast, great! You can gush about it all you want when the NDA lifts. If you're not cast, great! You can easily move on to the next one without getting too attached,” says Milan Saunders. Even if you don’t explicitly sign an NDA, assume a closed audition or a casting is confidential unless stated otherwise.

Respect the audition process. “Do not go up and beg a casting director for roles after the auditions are closed,” says Patrick Mealey. Think of it this way: Casting directors want to hire people who are skilled, experienced, and will make their job easy. If someone pleads to “just be given a chance” rather than auditioning like everybody else, it gives the impression that that actor is desperate and therefore probably not very good.

If the job records from home, keep your audition quality on par with that of your final record. “Make sure your audition is representative of the kind of quality you will be able to deliver on,” says Michael Malconian. In other words, if you submit an audition from a friend’s soundproof booth with their fancy microphone, the clients won’t be happy if the files you turn in for the actual project come from a USB mic in your echoey room at home. On the flip side, if you’re away when the auditions come in, make a note that you’re recording the audition from your travel setup and, if possible, include an audio sample from your regular home studio.


If you get cast for a role, remember that your behavior reflects on the person who hired or referred you. If you miss deadlines for no good reason, are notoriously difficult to work with, break NDAs or ask for more money after payment contracts have already been signed, the end client may go back to the casting director and say “what were you thinking, hiring this person?” If the end client is being unreasonable, a good casting director will often be willing to go to bat for a good actor, but if you’re the one being unreliable or demanding then it puts whomever hired or referred you in a negative light, and they may hesitate to do so again.


General Etiquette

During a casting call, avoid going behind the casting director’s back to pitch yourself to the client directly. Many times, clients will outsource the casting process because they don’t want to deal with listening to a million demos and audition files and reading a bunch of emails from actors—-they want to hear a few selects for each role that have already been screened for quality and fit the specs appropriately. If they have trusted a casting person or studio representative to handle the bulk of this process for them, it comes off as rude and inappropriate to attempt to “sneak in through the back door”. Sometimes networking directly with clients will happen naturally in places such as an in-person setting, which is fine, but if you deliberately attempt to bypass the people whose job it is to find the right actors to pitch to the client, you risk making both of you look bad.

If approached directly by a client whom you previously worked with through a casting director or studio, stick to the same rates. If a client doesn’t care much about being ethical and just wants to save a few bucks, they may go to actors they like directly in hopes they’ll undercharge. Please remember that the casting director or project manager likely fought to negotiate the proper rate for their actors and if you’re willing to go cheaper simply because the client approached you directly, it teaches them that this type of behavior is okay. Not only do you end up hurting the casting director who worked to get you your fair pay (and they may not work with you again if word gets back to them), it can hurt the other actors on the project who don't care to underbid.

Always follow proper protocol for referrals. Don’t forward auditions or give out the casting director’s e-mail address to your other actor friends unless you have permission to do so. If you see an audition that you think a friend would be great for, you may include a note in your e-mail to the casting director with something like “If you’re open to referrals, I think my friend Jane (www.JaneDoeVO.com) would be a great fit for this role as well. Her e-mail is jane@janedoevo.com in case you’d like to send her an audition.” If you are new to working with a casting director who is already very established, it may be best to hold off on the referrals until you build some kind of rapport with them. And of course, keep in mind that referring a friend means you are vouching for said friend's skill and professionalism.

Think very hard before you decide to “name and shame” a bad client or casting director. It’s not fun to be recast without being told or have to e-mail someone three times to chase down payment, but do your best to handle professional business behind closed doors. “Unless a contract is signed or work or compensation has been exchanged, nobody is obligated to anything,” says Steven W. Hunt. Other potential clients and casting directors may be hesitant to work with you if they see you badmouthing other clients on your public social media. Public callouts should be considered an absolute last resort, and keep in mind that once something's on the Internet, it can't really be taken back.


In Conclusion