Sweet

Wednesday night I attended a workshop at TVI with Ben Harris, the casting director of The Office, among other shows and some features (including the next Judd Apatow film). There was some discussion about the audition process for The Office. One of the other women in the class had a friend who auditioned and had been told "do less, do less". What does that mean? Keep it simple, don't act, just be. Ben talked about the style of the show being very "real" - basically, you've got Michael (the Steve Carell/Ricky Gervais character) behaving bizarrely and everyone else just reacts to him. So the casting process is really about finding the person that fits the role perfectly, without "acting". They'll see SAG and non-SAG actors in their search for the right fit, and have Taft-Hartley'd several actors (that effectively means, paid the necessary fees to SAG to allow them into the union).

With the emphasis on "being real" and "doing less", we got a lot of very subdued performances in the cold reads, although I don't think there were any Office scripts used. In fact, there were two scenes I recognised from the movie Knocked Up. Some people were asked to do less/simplify while others were asked to lift their energy level a little. My scene partner Melinda and I scored a script from the short-lived Aaron Sorkin show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip which was about the behind-the-scenes of a TV show. It was Sorkin's next project after The West Wing, but I gather it only lasted one season. Anyway, our scene was a bit of a face off between two executives, the old guard (Melinda) and the new (me); not laugh out loud funny but had some moments. The dialogue was quite brisk and logical so after reading it over a few times we almost had the whole thing memorised which made it easier to keep eye contact during the scene. After all the discussion of "being real" I considered whether or not I should adopt an American accent or stick with my own, but decided to go American. I'm proud to say that Ben held us up as the perfect example of the naturalistic style he had been talking about. Sweet, go team! He didn't say a word about my accent, which I also took as a good sign. In wrapping up the class, somebody asked about sending him showreels and he said actually right now is a good time as they are in a bit of a lull until casting for The Office picks up again in December. So today, I posted him a copy of my reel on DVD. Oooh, I would LOVE to be on The Office!

When I got home last night, I found Emily had left some groceries out on the bench, comprising almost entirely of breakfast cereals. When it comes to cereal, she is the female Jerry Seinfeld; just loves the stuff, eats it any time of the day as a snack. Well, this lot looked more like candy than anything else: Marshmallow Mateys, described on the box as frosted (that means covered in sugar glazing) whole grain cereal - so, healthy, right? - with marshmallows; Cinnamon Toasters, described as sweetened whole wheat and rice cereal with cinnamon; Raisin Bran (aka Sultana Bran - ok, I recognise that as breakfast cereal); and Caramel Popcorn with Peanuts. It's possible the Caramel Popcorn is in fact candy, not masquerading as cereal, but then again it's hard to tell.

Yesterday afternoon I recorded the narration for Ginger, the student film I worked on over the weekend. Into the booth, a few takes per section, in and out in 30 minutes. The director and the sound guy love my voice. Actually, a number of people have commented on my suitability for voiceover. I need to put a voice reel together - it's time I started getting paid!

Pussy cat update: Pilot and Pearl are making some progress, and have even deigned to share the same couch occasionally (under Emily's watchful eye). However, Emily still thinks Pilot will take any unsupervised opportunity to bully Pearl, who continues to hide out in Emily's room most of the time.