Jimmy Gilmore – Writer – Director

I’ve just spent the last four days watch­ing cast­ing for a series of videos we’re cre­at­ing for one of our clients. Every time I watch a cast­ing ses­sion it’s a mix of emo­tions — embar­rass­ment, awe, pas­sion, grat­i­tude, won­der, and of course, thanks. Usu­ally the ses­sions are all over the place. There are always some great per­for­mances and some that are just plain awful. But most of the per­for­mances are some­where in the middle.

What all the actors do is put them­selves out there in a way that offers them the pos­si­bil­ity of great suc­cess and great fail­ure every sin­gle work­ing day. For that, I will always be in awe of actors. They give so much in every audi­tion know­ing that most likely it will not pay off. Really, how can they not fear fail­ure when there are always 30 or more other peo­ple bat­tling for the same role? These folks do not deserve the stereo type they live with.

Would you be will­ing to put your­self out there and give it all you had every day? Even if you knew you had very lit­tle chance of accom­plish­ing your goal? I rarely have to. But I wish I had the kahones to do what they do almost every sin­gle damn day.