Kate Martineau Adams: Why You Need To Be More Than ‘Natural’ At Your Acting Audition

Casting directors often audition nearly a hundred (or more) actors a day. Assistant casting director (before As the world turns) Kate Martineau Adams gives us an inside look at what casting directors look for and how an actor can stand out from the crowd.

Susan Dansby: Can you talk about how many people you could see for a role in a soap opera?

Kate Martineau Adams: Well, for roles like Reid Oliver (a major recurring role), we would only see actors from New York in that case; or possibly people who live in Los Angeles but would be available as hires in New York. So in that case, Mary Clay [Mary Clay Boland, Casting Director for As the World Turns] I would normally see around 80 actors for that role.

For a contract role, she would be seen by more than 200 people from New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Canada, Chicago. We got tapes from everywhere. And, in the old days, when we had real money, she would fly to Los Angeles. But then after that, we started getting people to record themselves and send it out. It would be an exhaustive search for a contract role.

Susan Dansby: When you look at 80 actors who are reading the same scene, what is the percentage, in a ballpark alone, of how many of those people are giving you the exact same superficial reading?

Kate Martineau Adams: Probably mid 90%.

Susan Dansby: Exactly. So that’s where that training really comes in, in terms of adding texture and uniqueness.

Kate Martineau Adams: Usually we are setting up a great session; then, we will see maybe 60 people in one day. That’s a full day where we see the same five-page scene, over and over again. When you get the exact same reading, over and over again, at some point you just start to check a bit. So it really amazes you when someone walks in and does something a little different.

Many people don’t really make decisions when they get their scene, they are so focused on making it natural that it ends up being, it’s a natural delivery; but it is totally boring because there is nothing underneath. So you get exactly the same.

But when you have someone who thinks about the character, thinks about where that person comes from and what they bring as their own individual person, that’s when you have someone who makes these very specific decisions and has an answer for everything. what’s happening in that scene. Either an obvious question or something more subtextual.