“I don’t think casting directors understand how much an actor obsesses about an audition.” – Leah Remini
While actress Leah Remini is better known today for hosting the award-winning documentary series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, she had a successful career as an actress, especially on television. As such, Remini has a lot of experience auditioning for many television shows — both successfully and unsuccessfully. Speaking with the Chicago Tribune, Remini talks about how actors feel about auditioning — and what actors need to hear about auditioning.
Remini speaks about the obsession that many actors feel about auditioning for roles, saying, “I don’t think casting directors understand how much an actor obsesses about an audition. It takes up your whole day. After the audition, you still have those sides next to you in the car or in your purse and you’re looking at them going, ‘Crap, should I have said it this way?’ And you’re obsessing: What did they think of me? And then you just hear from your agent, it’s not going any further, they’re going in a different direction. And you never get the truth — which is: You weren’t great.”
She also adds valuable advice that any actor ought to hear: “It’s OK to not be great at everything. You’re not going to be great all the time. That doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong or bad — it just means not everything is meant for you. And you can only do what you can do in the room under the circumstances. I used to say to myself, ‘If I get nervous, that has to be OK.’”
