I recall hearing stories of famous actors who went out to Hollywood on a whim and got cast their first audition/day there. Is there any creedance to any of these stories? I had always believed auditioning in Hollywood for major network shows (say, 24… Lost… those kind of shows) or major movies required a lot of time, an agent, luck, etc. So what is the real lowdown? If someone wanted to be holding a gun to Keifer Sutherlands head and it not be a robbery, wouldn’t it take longer than a weekend trip to LA?
[note: I don’t advocate violence to Keifer Sutherland… it’s a joke about how his character in 24 always has a gun on him.]
Bit parts are often cast in a matter of minutes or hours. The producers have to weed approximately nine billion headshots and resumes down into a few dozen to invite in for an audition, and one of those will surely be able to utter “Give me the secret nuclear codes or I will blow your brains out, Mr. Bauer” convincingly enough.
For major parts, there’s usually a wider talent pool and a couple rounds of callbacks.
Jeffrey Hunter, famous for playing Jesus in King of Kings (1961) and Captain Pike in the first pilot for Star Trek, was spotted in a play at UCLA in May 1951 by talent scouts from 20th Century-Fox and Paramount. Within a few days, he made a screen test at Paramount, was put under contract by Fox, and sent out on location in New York for a supporting role in a movie shooting there. All before the month was over.
I remember reading that Susan Ruttan went to Los Angeles and on her first audition, got the role of Roxanne on L.A. Law.
A friend of mine who was a fairly well-known actor in Chicago went to LA and got several minor roles in big sitcoms within the first month of arriving in the city. Sadly, that was the beginning and end of his television career and he has since moved back to Chicago (and doing quite well again.)
So yeah, there are cases where someone is at the right place, at the right moment, and does get the role of a lifetime.
Just like some people actually win the lottery every once in awhile. The odds are about the same.
OH, forgot to mention Lisa Kudrow…she also got cast right off the bat in the role of a lifetime…a great sitcom…and after two episodes, they FIRED HER! (She was cast as the original Roz on the show Frazier.)
But things worked out for her later (Mad About You and Friends - doing both shows at the same time!)
