by Alyssa LaVacca. @alyssalavacca.
MANHATTAN, NY – Speaking from a joint press conference held in the lobby of Ripley Grier this morning, multiple casting agents confirmed their general consensus within the casting world: the only thing that matters and will be judged in an audition is raw, committed talent and having over 20,000 Instagram followers.
“The audition starts the minute you walk into the room – you need to have a sense of presence, and that presence needs to be young, hot, and with an army of younger and hotter people at your beck and call,” notes casting director Elissa Meyers. We may be looking for someone who can belt a G or land a triple, sure, but many times if someone is verified on Instagram for no discernable reason, that will work too.”
Other casting directors appear to follow a similar mantra.
“People don’t want to see a nobody with perfect diction explore the intricacies of Hamlet’s text for three hours every night,” said Pat McCorkle. “People want to see @hudabeauty play Gertie in Oklahoma and post a ton of backstage content to their story. Regardless of the trends, I am proud to say that I only see classically trained influencers.”
As the crowd of actors grew increasingly agitated (but not so much so that they’d get a bad name for themselves at an audition), casting director Bernie Telsey was quick to step in and assure everyone that even though it’s essential for an actor to have a following, talent also matters to his office.
“Working on NBC’s ‘RENT Live’ was an exciting way to return to the original search – not caring about names or celebrity, just looking for raw talent - since the entire pool was people who coincidentally happen to be extremely famous with a large Instagram following, the pressure was off.”
As the press conference ended and the audience began to trickle out, Broadway Beat was able to snag a word with one of the few actor-turned-influencers who was at the event.
“We live hyper-capitalist hellscape where storytelling lost in favor of profit” said actor Katie McElroy. “If it weren’t so bleakly capitalist, it would be almost Brechtian, in that the existence of the influencer-as-draw perpetuates a continuous breaking of the fourth wall, as the audience is never able to completely experience a true catharsis because they’re consciously aware that they are being specifically pandered to,” she added with championed confidence.
“That being said, can you follow me on Instagram? I have an audition for a commercial next week and the breakdown says if I have a million followers, they’ll pay me $75 for the day’s shoot.”