Meet and Greet

[Caroline A-C]

My ds has been asked to a meet and greet with big casting director - has anybody any experience/tips to offer.

[pg]

That's really good news! It's quite rare these days for Casting Directors to hold this kind of session.

The advice I would offer to is to take great confidence from the invitation and to be yourself. Be open and honest and friendly and don't try to guess what the CD wants to hear. The only "wrong" answer is likely to be a dishonest one. Be ready for the "obvious" questions "What have you been doing recently?", " "What did you last see at the theatre/cinema?" "Which actors do you admire and why?" "Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?" and even the ghastly: "Tell me a bit about yourself". You don't need scripted answers, just be prepared that this sort of thing MIGHT come up (it might not!). This kind of thing (meet and greet) is a lot to do with finding out what you're like as a person, whether you seem bright, keen (but not desperate), know a bit about the business but have a life that doesn't just revolve around it. A CD will probably be trying to find out what you might be like to work with and how you are likely to come across in potential future auditions. You might be asked about other interests. Definitely, definitely go prepared to do an audition speech. You may well not be asked for one but every actor should always have 2 or 3 up their sleeve just in case. A CD wouldn't be very impressed if they said "Do you have a speech/monologue you could show me?" and the actor said "No, sorry, I didn't know you'd want one, no-one told me I'd have to do that".

[Caroline A-C]

Thanks for that - very helpful.