Mailbag: Did I Mess Up a Relationship With A Casting Director?

Just got this question, and for all the criticizing of voice actors I do on Twitter, I felt it was really important to answer this one publicly.

hey man...have a question for you.

I've gone to [Respected Casting Director] several times over the last few years. Specifically, the last 4-5 weeks i've gone in 3 times. The 2nd time resulted in an avail. I went in today and just did horrrrribly: I wasn't loose. Didn't really add much to the dialgoue script (improv-wise) Both times we read I flubbed a (different) line and had to restart it. And I had to sing 1 line in it, and the first time I sang horribly ([CD] even said "sing better").

As a casting person, do you think the tendency is to think "oh, he had a bad day / bad audition" or "oh, he sucks" ?

Thanks RL

Please don't beat yourself up about this. You're human, and you're allowed to have a bad day. The game we play should NEVER be that kind of tight rope act. It's just not fair to yourself.

From my perspective, my relationship with an actor changes with each experience we share. Considering that, you'd have to bone it pretty hard for me to write you off.

After a series of positive experiences it would take more than one off day for me to bucket you. You'd have to have a series of bad reads in a row, and even then you'd probably need to start actively disrespecting the process for me to stop bringing you in.

To be fair, what it might do is take you off the list for singing auditions for a while, but honestly, singing auditions are few and far between, so I wouldn't be too upset at losing out on a number of "opportunities".

If this CD is worth her salt at all she'll get it.