Perth Film School

A.C.T.O.R! Audition Tips for Child Actors.

These 6 things need to be in your child’s mind:

A – Attitude. – your child must have a confident attitude when walking into the audition room. They must walk in with all the confidence in the world. Their thoughts must be “I’m going to rock this and do it great and show you how I do this well.” They have to carry themselves well, stand tall and be proud of who they are. Consider having your child take a beginner modeling class where they teach how to stand and walk into a room.

C – Change. We are giving this one our own touch for kid actors. 80% of what happens in acting is listening. That’s worth repeating. Again, 80% of acting is listening. Your child needs to be able to change on the spot per a direction provided to them in the audition room and on set. They must be open to change. They also must be willing to not be so robotic each time they read their lines, and change it up, so they show they can do things different ways. Listen. Listen and Listen. To the reader and react. To your scene partner and react. To the casting director and do.

T – Tongue Twisters. Our child actor does this in every acting class she takes. This is huge for all actors, but especially important for children. It helps with fluency and articulation. Make sure they do some of these right before an audition, it gets their mouths moving and their minds going.

O – Outlandish (acting) – These are those over-the-top-choices that your child makes before going into the audition room. If your child goes in and does everything similar to the last 10 candidates, well, then they won’t stand out. But, if they go in and take chances, they will stand out and light up the minds of the casting director and others. Even if they don’t get the role, at least they stood out and maybe they will go on that casting director’s radar for another role. The outlandish choices need to stand out, but still relate to the role they are trying out for.

R – Real (acting). Our take on the “R” for child actors is to be “Real”, which means they need to be believable and natural in their role. Also, Really Pulled Together, meaning, they need to have solid clothing, no logos, and their hair should be out of their face. Their nails should be trimmed with no nail polish and they should not be wearing anything distracting to the eye.

! The Exclamation Point – Exclaim to others your successes. It’s good to let others know if you have any type of success as long as it’s tasteful. For casting directors, this can be done through your resume and submissions for other roles. It should never come off as bragging. You should just let others know your achievements when the time is right. A great place to share this type of success is on social media. By the way, these successes can be things like, I learned my first monologue. Or, I feel proud about how I did in my acting school showcase. Or even, I got a callback for X show. It’s not only about landing the role, it’s about the small achievements along the way. Celebrate the steps you take towards your larger goals. Parents, you need to celebrate these along side your kids too. It will fill them up with joy and pride.