How to Stand out in a Sea of Sameness

The light turns yellow as I speed through the intersection. I’ve driven this route down Riverside Drive enough to know I won’t make the next light at this speed. I curse myself for my morning blunder and punch the accelerator. Sesame seeds! I was supposed to get 24 hamburgers for today’s casting session, but thinking that all fast-food burgers look the same, I picked up burgers from a fast-food chain close to my apartment instead of going a little out of the way to get ones from the fast-food company that’s casting their latest commercial today. I forgot that one company uses sesame seeds on the buns, and the other doesn’t. It’s even in the jingle!

I glance at my Swatch. The session starts in 5 minutes. Now that I have 36 of the correct hamburgers, I wonder how long the smell of meat will stick in my car’s upholstery. I barely make the next light and screech into the parking lot.

I stop to wait while an actress crosses toward the lobby. She wears a 1950s-style waitress uniform, and her striking red hair is done up in a beehive. As I pull into a spot and roll down the windows, I see another redheaded waitress with a beehive hairdo rounding the corner. Whoa… Déjà vu? I grab the bags of burgers and bolt toward the door where I follow a third redheaded waitress into the lobby.

As the daylight hits the room, I’m amazed by the surreal nature of the sight. At least a dozen 1950s waitresses, red hair in varying interpretations of beehive hairdos, occupy the lobby. Some peruse the script. One touches up her makeup in a kitschy mirror mounted on the wall. Another, Midge according to her name tag, paces back and forth quietly running her lines. Midge sees me and suddenly shouts out, “Hey ladies, order up!” The other waitresses erupt in cheers.

I feel my face begin to flush. I smile awkwardly and hightail it toward the studio door to help get the session started. I turn back and take another look at the room of clones with wonder. How will anyone tell them apart?

The truth, which I will come to learn as the day goes on, is that despite their similarity in looks, wardrobe, and styling, they are all very different people, and some have prepared more than others.

This was a short while after I had started working as the office manager of a busy casting facility in North Hollywood. In the decades since, many actors have asked me how they can stand out in an audition, and some have admitted they feel intimidated when they walk into a lobby full of people with similar looks.

Those pre-audition jitters are amplified because they’re focusing on the wrong thing. They fall into the trap of comparing themselves to the competition – She’s like me with a better haircut; He’s like me but taller – when they should be continuing to prepare for the audition.

One successful actor-friend told me about a recent callback where he walked into the lobby to find it filled with, in his words, “a bunch of weirdos.” I found his take on it funny because he’s booked “weird” for years. He’s made a career out of playing the weird guy in commercials – The weird guy in the office break room; the weird lederhosen-clad customer trying to mooch free samples at the grocery store; the weird uncle at a family gathering. He gets weird. He said he looked around the lobby and wondered why he was called in because everyone else was “a different kind of weird.”

What my friend was missing was that he was called in for his performance skills. He’s more than a quick read. He knows how to play the weirdo. How does he do that so well? Preparation.

The quick read. In commercials there’s a very short amount of time to convey the story, and even less time to get to know the characters. With no time for backstory to help set up the scenario, characters must be instantly recognizable. That’s where the wardrobe and styling come in. Take the time to prepare for the role and make sure you show up looking the part. You want to make it easy for the creative team to suspend their disbelief when reviewing your audition. If you’re supposed to be a James Bond-like character playing roulette in Monte Carlo, don’t show up in a t-shirt and ripped jeans.

The redheaded waitress “Midge” went on to have a very successful career in commercials as well as television, landing series regular roles on more than one show, and her success was in large part to her commitment to every audition. To this day she still shows up to auditions looking the part because she clearly puts in a lot of thought about how the character should look and follows through with the effort to pull it off. The great styling, however, only goes so far. You’ve got to have the performance to back it up.

More than meets the eye. No matter how much you look the part, you have to be able to play the part. As in the example of my “weirdo” friend, the key to making a lasting impression is to gain a thorough understanding of the character you are portraying and how that character fits into the world of the commercial.

This comes down to preparation. Study the script to understand the character’s motivations and take time to develop a strong backstory. Although there’s rarely time to develop backstory in the actual commercial, developing a strong backstory can help inform the choices you make in your audition and will enhance your ability to stand out as a quick read.

In auditions it’s also common for casting directors to give actors a little more freedom to improvise than they will have in the actual commercial, so be ready to let a few nuanced details about your character shine through if given the opportunity. The more prepared you are, the more confident you’ll be in the audition. That confidence will help your performance stand out.

For an actor sitting in the lobby amidst a bunch of other people preparing to interview for the same job you are, a sea of apparent sameness can seem quite intimidating. For a guy learning about the casting side of things, though, it can be a lot of fun, and sometimes (get ready to cringe at the sappiness), even magical.

Before you judge, just imagine a lobby full of Santa Clauses auditioning for commercials in October. A lot of people think they’ve met the real Santa Claus, but I know I have. I saw him book a car commercial one year. He also told me where to find the best Philly cheesesteaks in North Hollywood. Those 1950s waitresses may have all looked the same, but like the real Santa, they all had something different to offer in their auditions.

No matter how similar everyone appeared on the surface, their own authenticity is what distinguished them. That’s why the most important thing to remember when trying to stand out from the others is to embrace your authenticity. That’s the one thing nobody else can compete with, no matter how talented or prepared they might be.

In the contest of being you, you’ll beat the competition every time, unless of course, you’re too busy worrying about getting noticed. Some burgers have sesame seeds, some don’t. It doesn’t mean one is better than the other. They look similar, but they’re just a little different. Sometimes it’s the subtle differences that make us favor one thing over another, but if you put in the prep work and remember to be your authentic self, you’ll stand out every time. And if you use a lot of air freshener, the smell of 36 hamburgers will dissipate from the upholstery of a 1995 Honda Civic in about two days.

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Over the past two decades Justin has cast many high profile, award-winning projects with some of the most creative and successful directors and creative teams in the industry. In 2014 Justin co-founded Camera Left / Stage Right, a collective of industry professionals committed to teaching actors how to improve their audition technique.