Film Courage: When you walk into an audition, what are you telling yourself? Even if you think “I have this idea about who this character is and I don’t think I’m going to get it [the role], I’m going to still show up and try to do what I can.”
Chad Lindberg: What do I tell myself?
Film Courage: Are you giving yourself any kind of a talk or no? Each situation is totally different?
Chad Lindberg: I don’t think for me talks really help in that instance. You know, if I have an audition that day, you’re thinking okay, especially if it’s a 5:00 p.m. because I hate later auditions because you have to hold onto that all day. It drives me crazy. I like a good, early audition in the morning, let’s get it done, you know? Because it’s tough. You’ve got to hang onto that all day.
I think preparation is key. A talk for me won’t do it because I’m so nervous and I’m like “Shut up, Chad. I don’t want to hear your bulls**t right now. Just go on and do it.” And I think you’ve got to just go in there and do it, you’ve got to be prepared. I like to have my sides here. I will memorize the whole entire thing, especially if it’s the next day.
And one thing I do to sort of help that…Actors, pay attention! It’s really a great thing. Every phone now has a voice recorder, right? So I will take the sides and I’ll read every line even if it’s not my line, I will read the entire scene out loud at a very monotone voice and then I’ll replay that over and over and over again. And you go in the next day and it will be memorized. So I think preparation will take away sort of any anxiety that you…well, you should be anxious and nervous but it’s going to take away that extra moment of fear because, look we’ve all…actors, sometimes we don’t prepare as much as we should. We’ve gone in…we’ve all been there…we’ve all been there. And you get called on it. You’ll go in there and you’ll be doing your thing and you lose your place and you’ve got to go back, it’s awful! Your face turns red and you know in that instance “I’m not getting this. This just went out the door.”
So you’ve got to be prepared and it’s tough to do because sometimes you’ll get an audition for the next day and you’ll get another one and another one, you’ve got three the next day and they’re all 15 pages long and they want to see every scene, so you’ve got to be willing to do that work.
Question for the Viewers: When Was the Last Time You Weren’t Prepared for an Audition?
BIO:
Chad Lindberg was born on November 1976 in Mount Vernon, Washington, USA as Chad Tyler Lindberg. He is known for his work on The Fast and the Furious (2001), Supernatural (2005) and October Sky (1999).