Last Monday morning. Not only was it the day of The Young & The Restless audition but it was also the first day of Jayden's new school. Needless to say there was a lot going on! Though I had already registered Jayden the Friday before, there was still a process we had to go through and the clock was ticking. Once he was finally settled in his new classroom I made a dash for my car and headed out.
I dropped Stevie off at his daycare and made my way towards CBS. According to my GPS I had more than enough time to get there, find a parking space on the lot and head up to their office without breaking a sweat. Thankfully there was no traffic so getting there was a breeze.
I parked my car after circling the lot quite a few times and made my way up. The waiting room was filled with a handful of early twenty-somethings, black, asian, hispanic... all "ethnic" and all pretty good looking. I signed in, placed my headshot on the stack next to the sign-in sheet and found the sides that had my name on them.
"Brandi Ford... Hotel Clerk". I look over the sides. 2 pages. 5 lines. Nothing to freak out about. Easy peasy right?
Only when you only have 5 lines how do you really give them what they want in such a short amount of time?
Agh, can't think about that right now. Focus on the scene. So I do. I break it down the best way I know how from the different books I've read (because I haven't actually taken a cold reading class yet) and wait for my name to be called. Once it is I greet the cd (without shaking his hand of course) and we take a moment to chat. The first thing he tells me is that he's brought me in because they believe actors who take time out to mail them a headshot should be given a chance to be seen- nice! He says it's a great way for them to meet fresh faces, especially those who are unrepresented like myself.
"Why did you target our show specifically?" he asks.
"Because my grandmother loves it!" came flying out of my mouth before I could stop to even think about the question. Maybe I should have said because they use my type often and I'd love to work on a soap but I just told the first thing that literally came to mind. My grandma Rose really does love the show and watches it religiously and to think about how excited she'd be to see me on there {even with 5 lines or less} is awesome.
"Where are you from?" he asks.
"I'm a California-Las Vegas hybrid," I say. And ding, just like that the conversation switched to Vegas hotels for the rest of the way. Good ones, bad ones, those to try and those to avoid. Apparently he stayed at one of the
newer hotels for the emmy's over the summer and was given less than impressive service. You know what I told him, try the
Hard Rock next time! {Gotta stay cool with my former employers!}
Alright, enough with the small chat {which normally doesn't go on that long but this was a "general," a chance to meet & greet, not a regular audition} time to do the scene. And the irony wasn't lost on us that I was reading for a hotel clerk! We stand. He serves as the reader and we're done in all of 2 minutes.
"Very nice," he says. "You've got great energy. Thanks for coming in." Which means.........
I don't know. Could mean he'll keep my info for whenever he can use me. Could mean nothing and just be what he tells everyone when they leave. Who knows? The important thing is that I got a chance to make a connection with a cd that's on my target list and for that I am satisfied. Of course it doesn't stop here. Now it's time for me to send a thank you note {as soon as my new photo business cards come in} and make an effort to keep him updated via postcards on anything new that I'm doing but at least the initial connection has made.
And guess what? I can file him under cd's who are actor-friendly. Always nice to work with those!
This 3-D cake was designed by the super talented team at 
