Years ago, it was pretty much frowned upon to dress up for an audition. It was known industry wide that you should show up as yourself, with a plain t-shirt and you wouldn’t DARE show up in *gasp* a COSTUME!

Of course, those were also the days of black & white headshots–and we know what happened to those.

Today, we want to make it as easy as possible for those casting us, to see us in the roles we’ve been called in to audition for. A very easy way to do that, is to dress the part. Now, I’m still not into the whole costume thing per se, but something that you already have in the closet that suits the character will work well to sell you in the role.

And yes, you are selling yourself.

It sounds crass, but we are a business and the product we promote is ourselves. Just as you wouldn’t show up to a corporate business meeting in jeans and a t-shirt (unless you’re Steve Jobs type), or to the gym in a suit. We all dress for the appropriate occasion or scenario. So if your scene is that you’re a nurse at work in a hospital–naturally you’d be in scrubs, or something similar to scrubs, right?

Or if you’re a groom at a wedding, most likely you’ll be in a suit. And further to that, if you’re auditioning for a groom in a Hallmark movie, you’d likely be clean shaven, with hair styled.

These aren’t really costumes, you are simply helping casting directors and producers see you in the project. Of course, you also need to fit the role as the talent–but thoughtlessly showing up in jeans and a t-shirt will just make it that much harder for them to picture you as the character.

A very simple way to do this is to Google the description of the character and see what wardrobe they typically wear, and see what you already have in the wardrobe that fits it.

For example, your character description is: “Young suburban mom”. You’d literally Google that and see what comes up. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Okay, what’d you see? Likely a variety of jeans to khakis, runner to Uggs, t-shirts to cardigans. Then you take a look at your own closet, and choose one of those options. Ideally in a flattering colour & something that fits your body nicely.

Now, if it’s a commercial, I would 100% look up the brand colours and see if I have anything that might reflect that, and likely avoid competitive colours. eg. TD Bank, I’d likely wear green, and avoid blue (RBC) or red (Scotiabank).

But, what if it’s a TV series like Abbott Elementary? Guess what I’d do? Look it up–that’s right, now you’re getting the hang of it. See what the moms dress like on the show and take a look in your closet to see if you have anything that resembles that tone, genre, and era of the show.

I do this for any audition, it doesn’t take long to do, and it just gives you one less thing to doubt yourself on.

Here’s a quick video I made where you can see how I dressed up for my own audition.

And–I know it’s been about 2 years since my last post–but I’m back baby! Expect my posts on the regular again.

Until then–break a leg!