What to wear to auditions - tips for aspiring actors

00:00:

Look, I don't know about you, but when I get an audition, I think the most stressful part for me is knowing what to wear. It sends me into a tailspin, and in more than one occasion I have spent hundreds of dollars just trying to put together the perfect outfit for that audition, and I don't think it necessarily helped. Today we're going to talk about what to wear to auditions, and how not to have a meltdown around something that is, well, important, not a life or death situation.

00:29:

Welcome back to Beginners Luck, I'm Kat. If this is your first time here, you should know that this is a one stop shop for all things, marketing, mindset and mentoring for actors of all ages and experience levels, and if you think that, that sounds kinda awesome, and might be helpful then consider subscribing so you don't miss any future videos.

00:48:

All right, so audition outfits. It's a really important part of planning for your audition, because if you are not wearing something that you feel comfortable in, well, that's already gonna put you in the wrong head space, and you're starting off behind, but also if you show up wearing the wrong thing, or maybe the same thing as everyone else, that could also be a problem. Here is my sort of process of elimination, I guess, to come up with the right outfit for any particular audition.

01:15:

First of all, you need to think about, okay, what am I actually auditioning for? And, did they give me any specific instructions? There is a very big difference between the little notes that the casting director gives you, and mentions of outfits in the script. Please don't worry about what the script says. It's actually not as relevant as you'd think, but if a casting director tells you that the wardrobe, the dress code is this, you need to listen, because by ignoring it you are automatically disrespecting them, and they're probably gonna be just a little bit annoyed when you walk in the room.

01:48:

First things first, check the brief, and if you can't find anything, double check with your agent to make sure that they weren't told anything that they haven't passed on to you. Next step, you need to think about what kind of genre that you're auditioning for. Obviously, you've got TV commercials, which is one kettle of fish, and then, you've got TVs, and you've got movies, and they're gonna be broken down into genres too. Use your common sense here. If you see it's a certain kind of TV show, and they always seem to be wearing this kind of thing, well, that's already gonna give you a really clear indicator of what you need to wear.

02:20:

But, then you're also gonna think about, okay, what age am I playing? I need something that is age appropriate. What profession do they have? Again, that could narrow down what your options are. Are they a parent? Are they mentioned as being particularly butch, or sporty, or girly, or trashy? All of those things are going to help you choose the right outfit. Next step, please just choose something that's really comfortable, and non-restrictive. I mean, unless, of course, you need something restrictive, say if, like they, it's a period piece, and you're meant to be actually sitting in a corset, well, then you would try, and embody that kind of feeling, so maybe something more restrictive is fine.

03:00:

The rest of the time, you wanna be free to just move, and take direction, and not be fiddling with anything, so please no boob tubes that you have to pull up, or a button keeps popping open. Just don't wear those, leave them at home, or in the beam, because even in real life, no one likes to see you pulling up your boob tube. Now, I'm totally breaking my own rule here, but don't wear anything busy near the face. It's best to keep the patterns for the bottom half if you really wanna wear a pattern, and at the top it should be nice, and clean, a block color that does fly to your face. If you know that a certain color is gonna make you look sallow, make you look washed out, and a little bit sick, I'd probably avoid that unless you're actually meant to look sick for the casting.

03:42:

Nice clean collars a really good as well, so if you've got a collar that sort of chokes you a little bit, or flaps open too wide, that can look a little bit messy, so a nice clean, you decide what suits you, but keep it really simple, and make sure that when it's sitting it just stays there. It's not gonna move around. A fantastic thing to do if, especially if it's a really big deal audition, or if you're new to this, and you don't sort of have your go to audition outfits yet, do a camera test, put your iPhone on, and either film, or take a photo, and just see what you look like in the outfit, because sometimes what we see in the mirror is not the same as what we see when we're moving around on a camera. I had that yesterday. I sat down to set up my interview, and realized that the top I was wearing made me look like I had really bad roles, so I ditched that outfit, and move right on.

04:34:

If you're going to wear a jacket be prepared to take it off, because they tend to like to see your body shape in most cases. I have worn really cute little jackets, and I thought I just like finished off the whole outfit, and I just looked awesome, and then, as soon as I walked in they went, "Yeah, can you take that off." And, I was wearing a singlet, and you could see my bra strap which they hate, and that was an automatic fail on my part, so please learn from my mistake on that one.

05:01:

The other big mistake I made was spending heaps of money for an audition, especially a first round audition. It's just not worth it. If you can possibly make, do with what you have, or borrow something from a friend, and if you absolutely have to just buy a really cheap accessory from Kmart or from Vinny's that's fine. You shouldn't need to go beyond that, especially in the first round. Okay, if you're down to like a final camera test, and it's a really big deal, and they've said, "We'd really like you to show up wearing something like this." Fair enough. You might consider that an investment, but the times that I've spent money on first round auditions I've actually never got through. I'm sure it's not associated, like I'm sure it's not connected, but still a lot of the times the auditions when I've just thrown something on, and just made, do with it, I've ended up getting the role.

05:55:

Keep your money. It's really hard, like come on, we're all [inaudible 00:05:58] artists here, just keep your damn money. Put it towards acting classes, or new head shots instead, not for an outfit for an audition. Look. I'm sure there's plenty more things to talk about. If you have any of your tips for choosing the right outfit, or any audition outfit disaster stories, we love those, please leave a comment below, and let me know about it, and if you found this video helpful, give a little thumbs up, and make sure you subscribe for future videos. Thanks as always for watching, and I'll see you on the next one. Bye.