Auditioning Techniques???

[Angel of the Damned]

Does anyone have any good auditioning techniques for a director to audition actors?

[RedRaven]

A good exercise to see if someone can REALLY act is to give them a few lines of dialogue to say, give them no instructions, and just hear how they say the lines. THEN, you ask them to repeat the lines but with totally the opposite emotion. Then pick ANOTHER emotion and get them to repeat the lines again. If their performance sounds the same each time, even if it sounds good, they are not really acting and will not take direction well.

Too often directors just listen to the actor interpreting the dialogue themselves and base their decision on that - but you HAVE to give the actor some direction to see how they respond to it, otherwise they will just do what they want with the part and not as you would like them to do.

Also, make sure someone video-tapes the auditions, as people often come across very differently on-screen than they do in real life.