I’ve got a big audition next week with Vancity’s finest casting agents and I have to pick one scene from a film or tv show to wow (approximately 2 mins long). That’s all I get. 2 minutes to showcase all my acting abilities and “other” talents. How am I gonna fit my flaming baton routine and my rendition of the Star Wars theme on the nose flute in 2 minutes? Maybe I should cut out my Wookie call… That would free up at least 5 seconds.
I could really use your help in choosing a great scene from a tv show or movie (can be comedic or dramatic — I’m leaning more to the comedic side i.e. Naomi Watts in “I heart Huckabees”). What is your favourite role or scene starring a female aged 18-30ish? (I’d have a hard time pulling off a male character aged 60-85ish, although I’ve been told I bare a certain likeness to Donald Sutherland. Compliment taken!)
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And you bet there will be a pretty sweet Mostly Lisa video to capture every agonizingly sweet moment of this scene study.
Will
March 1, 2008 at 7:41 PMDepends on what they want. Dramatic or comedic, can you use bad language? There are some really great female monologues from the movie Closer, though they tend to be very intense and lots of bad words. I recommend it though because the movie is based on a play and so it has good monologues that were made to be performed live. For some good stuff on a more quirky note there is a great show called Wonderfalls that has a great lead female character. It was only on briefly but they did produce a 13 episode DVD you could rent somewhere. Also here’s a link to a site that has tons of movie monologues: http://www.whysanity.net/monos/index.html
xen
March 2, 2008 at 12:17 AMI’ve just woken up, but what about something from Girl Interrupted?
Dennis Bjørn Petersen
March 2, 2008 at 5:35 AMThat’s a tough one. My instant thought was Indiana Jones. The scene from the Lost Ark in the University Hall. The guys from the government tells Indy about the Ark and Ravenwood. Indy has a great monologue about the Ark. Harrison isn’t 60+ in that scene =P
A real suggestion could be Bridget Jones’ Diary? You’ll even get to speak British then ;)
micah
March 2, 2008 at 8:00 AMcan u do british?
Christina Warren
March 2, 2008 at 8:47 AMIs this for a specific type of casting (like, do you have any character sides) or just for the agent in general?
If you feel more comfortable with comedy, then I’ll try to think of some good female parts that haven’t been too overdone (or aren’t too linked with the actress that played that part).
As for drama, I would actually second Will’s suggestion of using something from Closer. The play is really fantastic (by Patrick Marber — I’ve got it lying around here somewhere if you need anything scanned/e-mailed your way) and for the film, Natalie Portman was robbed, IMHO, for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress — Cate Blanchett my ass — and the only reason she even got nominated was because she won the Golden Globe.
Actually, thinking of plays reminded me of Neil LaBute — I mean, granted his comedy is pretty, um subtle – and maybe not best suited for an audition, depending on who the audition is for, but his monologues are freaking awesome. Oh! Upon thinking of LaBute, I remembered he wrote Nurse Betty — which I thought was hilarious (it’s noir, technically, but it’s definitely a comedy) — that was Zellweger’s first award-winning role too, IIRC.
So, yeah – I say rent Nurse Betty and pick a scene from that.
Will
March 2, 2008 at 9:11 AMHere’s a fun monologue from “When Harry Met Sally”
Sally: When Joe and I first started seeing each other, we wanted exactly the same thing. We wanted to live together, but we didn’t want to get married because anytime anyone we knew got married, it ruined their relationship. They practically never had sex again. It’s true, it’s one of the secrets no one ever tells you. I would sit around with my girlfriends who have kids well, my one girlfriend who has kids, Alice, and she would complain about how she and Gary never did it anymore. She didn’t even complain about it now that I think about it. She just said it matter-of-factly. She said they were up all night, they were both exhausted, the kids just took every sexual impulse out of them. And Joe and I used to talk about it and wed say we were so lucky to have this wonderful relationship, we can have sex on the kitchen floor and not worry about the kids walking in; we can fly off to Rome on a moments notice. And then one day I was taking Alice’s little girl for the afternoon because I’d promised her I’d take her to the circus and we were in the cab playing “I Spy” I spy a mailbox, I spy a lamppost and she looked out the window and she saw this man and this woman and these two little kids, and the man had one of the kids on his shoulders and Alice’s little girl said, “I spy a family,” and I started to cry. You know, I just started crying. And I went home and I said, “The thing is, Joe, we never do fly off to Rome on a moments notice.” And that kitchen floor? Not once. It’s this very cold, hard Mexican ceramic tile. Anyway, we talked about it for a long time and I said, this is what I want, and he said, well, I don’t, and I said well, I guess it’s over, and he left. And the thing is, I feel fine. I am over him, I mean, I really am over him. That was it for him, that was the most he could give, and every time I think about it, I am more and more convinced that I did the right thing.
The Beta News
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Roland Hulme
March 2, 2008 at 12:36 PMHmmm. I would stick with the classics. Why not one of Holly Golightly’s monologues from Breakfast at Tiffanys? Or Ilsa from Casablanca.
“It’s about a girl who had just come to Paris from her home in Oslo. At the house of some friends, she met a man about whom she’d heard her whole life. A very great and courageous man. He opened up for her a whole beautiful world full of knowledge and thoughts and ideals. Everything she knew or ever became was because of him. And she looked up to him and worshiped him… with a feeling she supposed was love.”
Or one of my favourite movies has to be the original Ocean’s Eleven, in which Angie Dickenson plays Frank Sinatra’s wife.
“Oh, Danny. What a prize you are. The only husband in the world who’d proposition his own wife.”
Or Audrey Hepburn again from Charade:
“Oh, I love you, Adam, Alex, Peter, Brian, whatever your name is, I love you! I hope we have a lot of boys and we can name them all after you!”
Using scenes from classic movies is a great excuse to channel your inner movie-goddess and be elegant, stylish, beautiful, confident… just AWESOME all around.
Mostly Lisa
March 3, 2008 at 1:56 AM@ Will — It’s funny that you suggested “Closer” as it is one of my favourite movies. The language is harsh, but I don’t think the casting agent will mind. And I have the DVD set of Wonderfalls, was gutted when they cancel it.
@Xen — hmm. Well I guess i could channel all my craziness into one stellar performance. i’ll rewatch it and see if i can find a good scene. Do you know one of hand?
@Dennis — I might be stretching my acting abilities a wee bit. but Brigitte Jones is a good suggestion.
@Micah — totally. I was thinking of doing something from peep show. i love british comedy so if you know of a really good’un please lemme know.
@Christina — no character sides. just a pre-pilot season casting session for a bunch of parts. didn’t specify anything. but i really want to show my comedic side and i am sick of being cast as a hooker! i’ll give nurse betty a lookey loo.
@Will — Classic! Thanks for that.
@Dennis — i diiiid. i diiid.
@Roland — those are beautiful parts. i was thinking of a more modern part, but i would like an excuse to channel my inner movie-goddess, unless she turned out to be a selfish, nasty sour-puss!
Dan
March 4, 2008 at 3:45 AMYou remind me of Amanda Peet slightly but I can’t think of a film she’s been in that’s been good enough for you to want to use a scene from it.
Does it have to be a monologue? If not the “36!?!” scene from clerks could be a funny one. Although it might not be suitable if you’re auditioning for a role in a family film/program. ;)