Under widespread stay-at-home orders, performers are doing whatever it takes to try out for roles.
In late March, Broadway and TV actress Lesli Margherita (Homeland) got an audition from her agent.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders, the audition required her to put herself on tape.
Getty Images
The email also asked her to dress in Victorian-style costuming.
“I’m like, ‘Are you fing kidding me?’
It’s not like I’ve got that stuff in my closet.
I mean, Mafia princess and slutty, maybe, but this was the furthest thing from me.”
“Then I looked at Victorian hair and makeup online.
You basically have to become your own little studio mogul!
I just picture the casting people on the other side, scream-laughing at some of these outfits.”
ForBig Little Liesactress Merrin Dungey, the first obstacle to overcome was a relatable one.
“You’re asking me to put on pants?”
she says, recalling her initial reaction to a recent audition.
“The audacity that I’m out of my sweats!”
Luckily, she rediscovered a mini tripod she bought while working onOnce Upon a Time.
“you’re able to wrap it around a lamp or something,” she says.
“But, still, it’sreallyhard to do a full-body shot.
There was like a thousand instructions for this slate.
I was like, ‘Come on, lower your expectations.’
Getting the framing right is complicated enough, and actually shooting the audition can be trickier still.
After a few attempts, however, Margherita has it down to an art.
“I have the most elaborate system,” she says.
“I think most actors have those.
It just blows out any kind of virus or alcohol skin.”
It really gives a new meaning to studio apartment.”
“That’s the hardest thing,” she says.
Then my computer is FaceTiming a friend of mine who is reading the scene with me.
It takes three devices to do this!
I’m sure there’s a simpler way, but it seems to work okay for me."
“That’s just too stressful,” she says of the alternative.
Then comes the editing.
Dungey has found going to a third party for that step to be massively helpful.
“I use this great company called Intrepid for all my self-tapes,” she says.
“I always get my stuff within an hour, and the quality is phenomenal.”
“We can give them that.”
“Some people just want us to read with them.
For Dungey, their editing is key.
“They make it all pretty for you,” she says.
“I just organized a bunch more FaceTime cocktail parties that day,” says Dungey.
Remaining hopeful for the future of the industry also helps fuel their creativity.
“I feel eager to participate,” Dungey says.
“It gives me hope.
Hope for what is next.
That’s what this is.”
