What a life

At 5:30 last night, as I was preparing to go to a SAG event for webseries, I got a BBM from my manager saying, "Ready for this? Pilot appt for you for tomorrow." Am I ready for this?? I was born ready! Bring. It. On. So I had to cancel my plans to go to the event, read the script, prepare my sides and then at 9:30 last night I met up with J. for coaching. We went over it for a bit, she gave me some good pointers and I left feeling like, ultimately, I had this character on lockdown. When I first read the sides, I thought, "Yes! I am this girl. All I have to do is go in and be myself." How hard can that be?

Well, there were two scenes that they wanted us to prepare but it said to focus on the first scene. I asked J. what that meant and she said that if they liked me, they would ask me to do the second scene. So I went to the Fox lot this morning and as I was trolling the parking garage looking for a spot, I saw Brendan Bradley. He is a guy that I used to work with at Outback in NY, who has been pretty successful since moving out here. He also dates a girl Cooper Harris, who is also a friend from NY, who has also been pretty successful since moving here. Small town, right? Well, he was on the lot to read for the role of my character's little brother. He had already had an appointment in the morning and they asked him to stick around for a callback. Pretty sweet.

I went up to the casting building and decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator, since it was only one flight. I turned right out of the stairway and suddenly I was in the annals of the production offices for How I Met Your Mother - one of my favorite shows. Oh, yes, the pilot is from the producers of HIMYM. So needless to say, it is hilarious. I was laughing aloud when I was reading it last night. Anyway, I digress. I ran into a guy and said..."I'm lost." And he was like, Are you here for casting? And I said yes. And he looked at me funny and I said, I took the stairs. Realization flashed on his face and he said, Ok, you go left and then left out of the stairway. Turns out the elevator opens right up into the casting office. I wouldn't have gotten lost if I had been a little more lazy.

So I signed in and waited and then the casting director came in and said to me, "You're here for the producers, right?" I said yes....but I wasn't really sure. Usually there is a pre-read unless the office knows you and this was my first time in for them. But I guess I must have the right look or something because I was being called in "directly to producers." That is a good thing. She said it was going to be a few minutes and I said no worries and then I eavesdropped as they were talking down the hall (where I got lost) about something to do with Barney's character and then the casting office started to fill up and I chatted with the other people there, like Brendan. And then I was called in.

I followed the casting director into a room about the size of a closet and heard, "Oh, good, you found it." Yes. The man I told I was lost is one of the producers. Of course. There were a ton of people I could have asked for directions and he was the one. Just made me laugh. So then we started the audition, which was on camera, I got a few chuckles and when it was done it was..."Thanks so much."

Let me tell you about "thank yous" - you can't trust them at an audition. They can mean, "thanks for wasting our time," "thanks for entertaining us," "thanks, but you're not right," "thanks for rocking our world." They can mean many things. I'm not sure what this one meant. At all. All I know is that they didn't ask me to do the second scene. Which made me think back to what J. said about, if they like you, they'll ask you to do it. But. They did say before I started that they were only doing the first scene. But maybe they say that so you don't get disappointed if they don't ask you to do the second scene. Maybe, maybe, maybe. This is what swirls around in an actor's head. All I know is that it is a great casting office to be called in for and I am thankful for the opportunity. My first pilot audition of what has been a "busy pilot season" to some of my friends. So I'm just glad I got a chance...and we'll see where that chance leads...

....in other news, I'm on avail for Pizza Hut. I must be doing something right.