Last Thursday I held the auditions for my Indian characters, and the call-backs for the two main parts – Tom and Nathan. I finished the day with very mixed feelings as emotionally I had been through anger, frustration, annoyance, joy, and excitement… Quite a lot in the space of 8 hours!
The morning was a nightmare. Between 10 and 12:30, and then again between 1:30 and 2:30, I was supposed to be auditioning 12 Asian guys in groups of three. There were initially 16 people that showed an interest in taking part so I thought that I would easily be able to find three suitable actors. However, to cut a long story short, someone thought that it would be funny to fill out the sign-up sheet with all their friends’ names, none of whom had any intention of showing up. This resulted in me sitting in a tiny room on my own for almost the entire morning, and part of the afternoon. I couldn’t leave because for one thing there was around £6000 worth of equipment in there, and I didn’t want to miss anyone in case then did actually show up!
One guy came, he was called Mayur and was quite enthusiastic which was good. However he is not the greatest actor to say the least… Within a few takes and a little bit of direction his accent wasn’t too bad (I need a good Indian accent that is slightly flamboyant and a little bit camp), considering his natural accent is 100% English-sounding, but his acting was really quite bad. Top marks for effort and I really appreciate him showing up, however I don’t think I can even consider him for the main role of Elton. I will probably give him one of the other small parts that don’t really require any acting.
I was a little disappointed to say the least when it got to 14:30 and only one person had come, but I was really looking forward to the afternoon because I knew it would be much more of a success.
I was right! The afternoon went brilliantly. Everyone made it and enjoyed themselves, and I think I have pretty much made up my mind about who I would like to play who. I initially got Lucas playing ‘Nathan’, Oliver playing ‘Tom’, Peter playing ‘Pete’, and Ryan playing ‘Sam’. After a few takes and some specific feedback from me, everyone seemed to be fitting into their parts perfectly! Seeing as though we had a bit of time I decided to mix it up a bit and get Peter to play ‘Tom’ for a couple of takes. He was surprisingly good and adapted well to the feedback I was giving the others…just a shame he plays ‘Pete’ so well.
Since Thursday my worries over finding suitable Asian actors have been lifted slightly. I received notification from two of the guys who didn’t show up that they were sorry that they let me down due to several reasons, and that they would like another chance to audition. Great! I’ll see them this week…
