Answering Casting Calls as a Mature Woman

Making a foray into the acting arena is an uncertain one for sure, earmarked by scrutiny and the ever-present risk of hearing, "Don't call us, we'll call you".
Attempting to be added to the Principal's Roster is a good example. The standard response is, "We have sufficient numbers of your type".  There are apparently 10 females to every male in the business, and the industry is not kind when it comes to aging either; so, for women especially-I guess it boils down to distinction. What will set me apart from the pack? I've been home raising kids for decades; forgotten how to read sheet music, my dance moves are rusty but I am determined to find out if there is a place for me, at least as a role model for my demographic.

Today I took a big step and posted my interest in several casting calls that were posted. Two are for commercials and one is for a print ad. The descriptions were for:

• 40-55 fit & athletic type with young adult children, warm approachable, (no lines).
• 70-90 (whoops) I applied anyways. For expressive granny-type face, (no lines).

So, it is official, I have embarked on an odyssey to engage work in the industry as an older woman.
It should be interesting to see how this plays out for me, if anyone should call. (August 2011)

AND IT HAPPENED! I got this notification to apply to audition in my mailbox:
_________________________________________________________________________________

AUDITION NOTIFICATION

A TV COMMERCIAL AUDITION FITS YOUR CRITERIA.

CENTRUM TV COMMERCIAL
CASTING FOR PERFORMERS BETWEEN 30 - 60 YRS FOR VARIOUS ROLES.

PLEASE LOG INTO YOUR www.castingroom.com PROFILE AND REVIEW THE BREAKDOWN.

SUBMIT YOURSELF FOR THE ROLE IF YOU ARE AVAILABLE FOR ALL DAYS OF WORK.

THANK YOU
CASTING ROOM

______________________________________________________________________________

Since this original post August 2011, I have had a small measure of success, and I've had some "lesson learned" take-aways;

• I auditioned for Centrum, a major vitamin company's TV commercial,  as mentioned above. I didn't think I was that nervous, but when asked what I do to maintain my fitness lifestyle, I negated my confident effort with a silly shrug and an aside of forgetting to walk my dog; never mind that I hit the gym at 5:30 am three times a week! It was, in essence a fail..."NEXT!" I forgot to focus on my "moment before"; about how I fit the audition criteria, and why I was auditioning for this part, which was as someone who subscribes to a health & fitness lifestyle.

• I was sent by my agency to an audition to sample a healthy new hot breakfast cereal from Kelloggs, served from a vending truck; and received an honorarium of $50 for my participation, to which my dad would have reminded me of the anecdote, "Well, that's better than a kick in the pants, lol!"

• I answered a casting call for a middle-aged woman and was assured it was not necessary to be a "singer", that the client was looking for moms bemoaning (in song) their son's coming of age while singing some crazy-sounding lyrics, intended to be funny, so off-key was OK. I was sent the lyrics & sound clip by email and after some practice, I thought I was ready to challenge the audition. Murphy's Law would have it that I was first up to audition. There was NO sound track available; my own agent was sitting in the front row, and then, the client changed their mind about "silly & off-key" and directed us to just sing properly, and sans music. I was kind of terror struck and blurted out, "I can't sing without accompaniment"! Cue to go; it was pretty obvious, "I can't sing without accompaniment", lol! When the commercial for Old Spice hit the airwaves it made a buzz online; I don't think my sons would have forgiven me if I had GOT the part, lol...they aren't that keen on that kind of mom attention!

• I was cast as a Camera Expert conducting an informative session in London Drugs Learning Lab; it helped having experience doing presentations! I did some hand modeling along with a close-up using an anti-aging cream and the session wrapped with a walk out to the parking lot as a customer with an arm load of purchases for the camera.

• I got bold and applied for a dance audition with Disney; it went swimmingly until the dancers were divided down to groups of four to do the routine for casting without the choreographer's prompting. I got lost on the Gangnam-style gallop and consequently blew the timing on the kick turns, but I give myself credit for landing the audition in the first place; it was an awesome experience for someone like me who has been out of "circulation" so long to go back and compete for a spot-exhilarating! I found out dance style has changed a lot since I was an Edmonton Eskimo Cheerleader and I need to brush up on the new moves.