What’s been the worst audition you’ve ever been on? Where you’re like, “Oh man, what just happened in there?”
Tamlyn Tomita: I think that’s what usually happens. As an actor, what I try to do is I try to completely transform myself internally. This is an old school lesson I learned from my mentors way back when: try to walk into the room as the character. Because a lot of these writers, directors, and producers don’t have a lot of time to get to know you as the actor, as the person, and then see you turn on the character. They’d just rather see you turn on the character and walk in. It’s a little bit more efficient for me.
But sometimes I made such a bad mistake, I totally dressed up glamorously when they wanted a housewifey-looking girl. I came in with high heels and full on make-up. I go, “Oh my god, what did I do?” Because I didn’t think it out. But my mother happened to be very well kept together, so that was in my mind, what a housewife would be or a stay-at-home mom or a homemaker would be. It’s not delineated out sometimes in scripts, you know, “She’s a housewife”. But then what housewives look like a well together put person? And I go, “But that’s what my mom’s like”. It really changes the picture for some of them.
But then I go in as committed as possible and then when I leave the room after I see the reaction that’s when I go, “Oh, I think they wanted a really stereotypical person”.
I’ve made some harsh mistakes, but it’s all learning, and they’re funny stories to tell after I come home and crash into the couch with my little pint of ice cream and say, “Oh, I should’ve done this”. But then it’s a lesson learned, it’s a lesson learned.
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