Michael Laskin, Actor, Acting Coach, Author: The audition is the job, that is the job.
Film Courage: Let’s say you get a call right now from your agent and you have a big audition tomorrow, what’s the call like, what happens?
Michael: First of all, I don’t get a call, I get an email.
Film Courage So it’s not, ring ring?
Michael: No, there’s none of that anymore, it’s all impersonal I’m afraid. Interesting because now you have to self-tape everything so it’s not like Oh I have this audition I’m going to go to Warner Brothers at four o’clock to this building, to this room. That doesn’t happen anymore. I don’t know if that’ll ever happen again. I don’t know if everyone’s like this, I go Do I want to do this? This is something everybody may want to do because I don’t care anymore and I’m in a different place in my life. If I don’t want to do it or if it doesn’t feel right, I’m going to pass on that and they seem to be okay with that. But the first thing I do is that I freak out a little bit because I know there’s a timeline and I know that Oh I have to drop everything and I have to get this done. I don’t tape at home because I’m not good at it. I hire that out, I have a guy, I go to pay him whatever it is 40-50 bucks, he does it, it’s great and I don’t have to worry about that because that would drive me crazy. I’m not really good at that so then I just really have to think about what is this? How do I do this? How do I get off book for this? The timelines, as I said earlier, are very short so I really have to decide whether I want to do it…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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BIO:
Michael Laskin has been a working professional actor for over 40 years in film, television, and the theatre – from SEINFELD to BIG LITTLE LIES and a great deal in between. He has worked extensively off-Broadway, and at some of America’s leading regional theatres, including The Guthrie Theatre, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Geffen Playhouse, The Seattle Repertory Theatre, and The Mixed Blood Theatre Company.
Additionally, he was awarded a Fringe First Award at The Edinburgh Festival for playing “Richard Nixon” in TEA WITH DICK AND GERRY, which went on to a successful run at London’s Roundhouse Theatre. Michael also starred in the Canadian premier of the Pulitzer Prize winning drama “Talley’s Folly” and his most recent stage work was the American premiere of the one-person play, ALTMAN’S LAST STAND in Los Angeles. A recipient of a Bush Fellowship with The Guthrie Theatre, he was also awarded a Distinguished Alumnus Award from The University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts.
A graduate of Northwestern University’s theatre department where he received his bachelor’s degree, Michael also has a masters degree in theatre management from The University of Minnesota. Additionally he’s taught acting at USC, UCLA, Queen’s College-Cambridge (UK), The Actors Centre (London), Art Center College of Design, Kennesaw University, the University of Minnesota, the Hawaii International Film Festival, and South Coast Repertory Co. He’s had the privilege of working with some of the great artists in film and theatre, including Barry Levinson, Stephen Frears, Walter Matthau, John Sayles, Paul Mazursky, Bob Rafelson, Michael Langham, Robert Duvall, Roy Dotrice, and many others.
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