12:11 pm - Fri 10.29.2010
I'm \"Shameless\"

Had my third audition for Shameless on Monday.

If I'd had any doubts about Casting being on my side, they were erased as I signed in, and was told "We're going to get you one of these jobs, Jim".

(My response? "I like the sound of that...!")

When I was called into the room, there was a brief moment of awkwardness, as I made to sit down and was told, "You're actually standing in the scene" (For the record, I knew that - I'd read the scene, after all - but in my previous visits they'd had me sit when the characters in the scenes were standing, so I assumed that was just their casting M.O. But anyway...)

Things were going swimmingly...until I "went up" in the middle of my big line, and tried to cover, but had nothing in my head to cover with.

In the sitting/standing confusion, I'd set my script down, and thus didn't have it in my hand (Another mildly embarrassing "faux-pas" - It's S.O.P. to hold onto your sides during the audition, even if you think you have the lines down cold, which you should...because of just the kind of situation I'm describing).

Anyway, I grabbed my sides, took a quick look, and started over.

Happily, this was not the first time I'd ever needed a "Take Two" in a producer session - It happened with Mad Men, and that worked out pretty well (And I knew they liked me. And I was pretty confident with my "take" on the role), so I wasn't too "thrown" by having to start over.

And they were clearly very happy with my read - as I finished, everyone was chuckling and smiling.

(As I left, I said, in the depressed drone of my sad-sack character, "Well, it was really nice to be here...", and got more laughs.)

I knew it had gone very well - on my way out, I practically skipped past the other people auditioning (I wondered afterward if that had been intimidating to anyone) - so it was disappointing when I didn't hear later that day.

Or on Tuesday.

Or on Wednesday.

So by yesterday, I was struggling with depression and frustration, assuming that it hadn't happened...again (Making it doubly frustrating/disappointing was that I've been cast as a "Sad Sack" character a couple times before, so it's clearly a good "type" for me. "If they won't cast me for this role", I thought to myself, "what hope is there?").

In the afternoon, I was writing in here, an entry that was going to be all about the frustration of "hitting a home run" at the audition...and still not booking the role.

Then while I was writing, in an attack of Internet-related ADD, I decided to check my email...and found out I booked the role!

Which shoots later today (My call time is 3:30 pm).

There's (yet another) lesson here about the futility of trying to "control and predict" these things.

It's interesting that it's easier for me to assume I didn't book something than to deal with not knowing, even if "not-knowing" could have a positive outcome...like today.

(The other thing I think is "interesting" - and it will almost certainly be the subject of a future entry - is my decidedly ambivalent take on the possibility of being typecast as a "Sad Sack".)

And no sooner than I finished writing bout the futility of trying to "control and predict" things, I was about to guess at how long today's shoot will take.

It's just a short two person scene with me and the character played by Emmy Rossum, so you'd figure the answer would be "not that long"...but who knows if they're going to be "on schedule", or how they want to shoot the scene, or what other variables will factor in?

And it's not as if I have any other pressing engagements. so what do I care how long it takes?

I just wanna have some fun.

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