While posting to the "Audition Behavior" thread, I got to thinking of some of the actors I have worked with who bring a whole lot of baggage with them into the production-something that is rarely obvious during auditions. I'm sure all directors have run across this kind of situation-here's mine.

The following story is true-the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

During the casting of a show, I had difficulty casting a smaller role. A guy I will call Tom called me-he'd been out of town during auditions and asked if I had finished casting. I arranged for him to meet me at the theater and I read him for the role. He didn't have much stage experience but at this point if he could walk and chew gum at the same time I was going to cast him.
He could, and I did.
I started talking to him about the play and he said, "Yes, it's as if it was written by Sartre."
Well, I didn't agree, but what the hell. Then I spoke to him about his part and his relationship to another character in the play. He replied, "I've been thinking about that-they're like the two bums in "Waiting for Godot." Then the light bulb went off in my head-he was trying to impress me. I nearly said, "Dude, you got the gig-you don't have to woo me anymore."
Instead, I gave him the script and a copy of the rehearsal schedule and said I would see him the following day at rehearsal.

We'd already been in rehearsal for a week, so when Tom arrived, I introduced him to everyone and then took the time to give him the blocking for his character in scenes we'd already blocked. His inexperience with stage work was obvious, but I have never had a problem putting in extra work with an inexperienced actor. Tom's problem was that he wanted to leap into interpretation before he knew where to plant his feet. He also wanted to interpret what the other actors should be feeling. I felt as if he was still trying to impress me-and now, his fellow actors. I took him aside and talked to him about this, telling him to relax and get his bearings in the blocking first.
At the end of the first rehearsal with him, one of his fellow actors came to see me. She was annoyed because Tom had made a derogatory comment about another actor backstage. This I will not tolerate, because putting a play together is already a stressful situation without that kind of crap going on backstage. Rather than confronting Tom, I said to him that if he had any problems with my direction or with his fellow actors he should come to me and I would help him with it.

As I said, I don't have a problem helping inexperience actors. But Tom was not only inexperienced-he didn't listen. In fact, when I was speaking to him he would interrupt me. I talked to him about that, hoping he would stop. He didn't. As time went on, it became obvious that he was never going to be better that passing in the role, and he was beginning to alienate his fellow actors.

Everything came to a head one night. We had taken a break before running a scene again, and there was a line Tom was having trouble with. I told him I had an idea for how he could read the line. He said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "What-you're going to tell me how to interpret a line now?".
I'm a big girl-I don't react impulsively, so I told him we'd talk about it later.
Then it got worse. While rehearsing a scene that involved most of the actors, Tom made a suggestion that was actually a pretty good one. The primary action was taking place on stage left, and one of the actors on stage right(we'll call him Ed) made a movement that Tom felt might be taking away from the primary action. I agreed and told all of the stage right actors to be conservative in their reactions to the action on stage left. But that wasn't good enough for Tom. He said, pointing to Ed, "He steals every scene he's in."
I was stunned-so was everyone else. Before I could say anything, Tom said, "I don't mean *him*, I mean the part he's playing."

Too late. Now I don't vent at actors in front of their fellow actors, so I decided to table it and get through re-running the scene. But Tom had decided he wanted something else to happen. An actor who had been seated stage right had gotten out of his chair and walked away during the back-and forth. Tom, addressing him as his character, told him to come back and sit down-repeatedly. Finally yelling, "Sit the f^%&k DOWN!" All the while I am in the audience, yelling, "Tom? Tom. TOM, STOP!" while my assistant director is waving her arms trying to get his attention and looking like she's trying to land a plane at O'Hare. Finally, FINALLY-Tom did stop, and I suggested we re-run the scene.
"Well," he said, "Is Ed going to make that move he made or not?" He obviously had not heard a word I said. I told him again what I had said before, and we re-ran the scene and then called it a night. After notes, I took Tom aside and asked him to meet me outside. Not "Meet me outside" so I could beat the living crap out of him, but meet me outside so I can have a cigarette while I let him know that his behavior was unacceptable.
Luckily for him, I had time for two drags off my cigarette before he joined me. Here is how the exchanged went:
Me: Having a little trouble tonight?
Tom: Well, I'm having a hard time finding my character with all the changes.
Me: That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about your attitude in there.
Tom: (looking at me with a blank expression)
Me:I have been talking to you for weeks about interrupting me when I'm talking to you. You challenge me when I try to help you interpret a line. That's bad enough but tonight you make a remark about one of your fellow actors in front of the entire cast, then you YELL at another actor and use profanity. You don't seem to realize it; Tom-but you did yourself as lot of damage out there tonight. Now, you need to go home, think about what you did and think of a way to come back and make it right with them."
Tom: Well, I'm sorry-it's just that everything keeps changing!
Me: Well, that's what rehearsal is for-it's refining...
Tom: I mean when Ed slaps the toilet brush in my chest, sometimes it's high, sometimes it's low, sometimes it's to the left and sometimes to the right..."
Me(incredulous)Well, welcome to live theater! You've got to be prepared to things to be different every night, even after we open. But I don't think that's the biggest problem you face right now, Tom. Your biggest problem is your fellow actors are anger at you for your behavior. Go home now and think about that.
Without another word, I left him standing there outside the building and went in to talk to Ed about what had happened-and found out it was worse than I had expected.
Because Ed, who had been delivering a wonderful performance was now questioning the interpretation of his character. And his fellow actors were even more upset by Tom's behavior as I was.
I realized that it was now too late for Tom to regain their trust-I realized that I had to replace him. So, I took my assistant director aside and we decided to go to the cast and ask them to help us find a replacement. Their response was positive, in fact they were relieved. In fact, now that the decision was made, I heard several other "Tom stories" about things he had said or done backstage. One actor said that she was already dreading the Green Room because of his behavior.
Even though we had not found an actor to replace him yet, I decided to call Tom the next day and let him know my decision. As I will often do when I have something difficult to say to someone, I called up WordPerfect and wrote myself a script:

"Tom, I want to let you know that last night after rehearsal I sat down with my Assistant Director and my Production Manager to discuss what had happened. I am sorry, but we've decided that given the difficulties you've had, I have no other choice but to recast your part."
Then-I couldn't help myself-I wrote:
"Tom? Tom. Tom....TOM!", because I knew he would interrupt me.
I call him. I read from the script. He responded, "I know I've been having trouble with the interpretation of the part..."
"It's not that, Tom.", I said, "It's the way you've treated your fellow actors. I realized that I couldn?t expect them to be able to come back and accept you, given your behavior toward them."
And. He. Just. Didn't. Get. It.
I wound up the conversation by
telling him I would see to it that his theater membership fee would be returned, and I asked him to mail me his script.
We found an actor-the friend of one of the cast members and he was welcomed with open arms. He took that small role and created a wonderful quirky character. He became a part of that wonderful cast who had bonded so well-and ironically part of the bonding was because of Tom's behavior.
It was amazing to me how, by recasting his part, the positive energy among the cast and crew shot through the roof.
The post-script to this story is that when the script came back, Tom's copious notes were still in it. As I read it over, I realized that there was something more to Tom's difficulties that just being unable to connect with the cast or take direction from me. It was like a map he'd drawn, trying to understand very simple concepts-and hitting roadblocks at every turn.
With his role, with his relationship with the rest of the cast and with me.
He. just. didn't. get. it.