People in charge of making decisions all have a similar quality that has a lot to do with how they landed that position. It doesn’t have anything to do with their circle of friends and acquaintances, and it even has little to do with how good they are performing their job.
Shocking but true!
Casting Directors fall into this group. It’s not only helpful if you think of how they got to be a CD, it’s necessary, if you want to build a long and satisfying acting career.
See there’s something called A Castability Index, that largely determines whether or not you will be booked for a role.
Few actors have ever even heard of the castability index and even fewer of them know what goes into it.
Since it basically determines whether you have a career or not, shouldn’t you learn what it is inside and out?
This is what the Castability Index is and how CDs use it to determine whether or not to book you…
The index takes several factors into consideration. All of the factors are weighted and a computerized system comes up with a “score” for how castable you are.
I know it sounds crazy, but remember that I told you about a similar system being implemented in the music industry to scout for talent. It too sounded crazy at the time, then CNBC did an entire show about it with a top music executive.
The industry is looking for ways to streamline everything and one of the biggest things they are focused on is the casting process. It’s incredibly time intensive for the Casting Department and for actors alike.
I like the idea of the Castability Index. For actors, it would help us save time by not being called in to audition for roles that we are simply not a fit for, allowing us to focus on the roles that we really are a fit for.
In its current form the index is highly subjective which presents a flaw in the system but also an incredible opportunity for you to “hack” the system.
This is why I mentioned decision makers a moment ago. Stick with me because there’re a couple of moving pieces to sort through.
The Castability Index relies on human input to determine a large portion of your score. The rest of it comes from things like your online presence, social following, history, etc. We’ll come back to that in a moment.
Because talent is subjective, the nature of the data that the CDs enter into the system is also subjective. This is why I said that talent only makes up a fraction of the casting decision…the proverbial stage is set before you utter a single line.
The way you enter the room and greet the CD will predetermine how they perceive your audition.
Let’s say you are up for a Miranda Priestly, or James Bond type of character: someone with a high level of importance guiding their actions.
If you walk in and excitedly greet the CD with the same tone of voice used by Chick-fil-A staffers to welcome you in, the CD will have a problem acknowledging your switch into character.
What will stand out most to them will be the switch, not how nice you were before you started, or even how you nailed the character. It will be how you were not in character, then all of a sudden, you were in character.
Our brains are wired to look for dramatic changes like this.
You probably have something you default to in these situations. Stop it! Modify it to fit whatever you are auditioning for.
There are 3 vocal tones in which to communicate when you are meeting someone. They are 1. Rapport Seeking (the Chick-fil-A greeter) 2. Neutral and 3. Breaking Rapport.
Your character will also have a vocal tone in which they default to. Use this tone when you enter the room and the believability of your performance will skyrocket.
This is incredibly important in casting decisions because the most successful actors play roles that are an extension of who they are. The Meryl Streep you get on screen is the same you get off screen.
This means that you have to be in character from the moment you enter the room. We all do this to a degree, we get mentally prepared, pick the perfect outfit to wear to the audition and then when we enter the room, everything goes out the window as we default to the Rapport Seeking Chick-fil-A greeter vocal tone.
If your character calls for this, then by all means use it. If you are reading for a character that has a certain status and air of importance, then the Neutral tone is what you should use. If the character is arrogant and talks down to those he meets, then you should use the Breaking Rapport tone.
Don’t overthink it. The Neutral tone is one where there is inflection in your voice but you end on a neutral tone, rather than on a high note.
The Rapport Seeking Tone has you ending on a high note, and hitting several other high notes throughout your sentence (CFA greeter style).
The Breaking Rapport Tone is neutral throughout and then ends on a down note.
This is how you become unforgettable to a CD. You will not have just read well for the part, you will have lived the part and the CDs will have no choice but to give you a callback.
It also adds a layer of experience and depth to you as an actor, so even if you only have a handful of credits to your name or if it’s been a while since you have added anything to your resume, you will be giving off all kinds of subtle signals that you are an actor with a lot of experience and that you know your craft.
The CD will gladly invite you in for a call back, but the other part of the equation still has to be a fit: the Castability Index.
That’s where this comes in to play.
Since the CI measures your online presence and combs through your social media you want to make sure that what is found is representative of your goals as an actor.
If you have 26 followers on Instagram and the only person liking your posts is your sister, this won’t bode well for you if you are auditioning against someone that has 30,000 engaged followers and gets hundreds of likes and comments.
The index will also take into account your industry reputation. Make sure that’s in good shape as well. Here’s how.
There’s so much that goes into your IMDb ranking now that casting departments can’t ignore it anymore.
It’s why high level agents and managers require a certain score before they even consider taking on talent.
It’s a measure of how the industry sees you as well as the experience they’ve had with you. Take what you learned here today about tonality and you will see your bookings increase, as long as you also do this to make sure your index is well rounded.
Use this on your next audition and then shoot me an email or hop into the comments below and let me know how it goes.
I’m always here to provide feedback and help however I can because my goal is to…
See you at the top,
Scott