I would love to be Lizzy Caplan, I mean have an amazing career like hers

Masters of Sex’s Lizzy Caplan talks Auditioning & Nudity with BGB Magazine
by Steve Braun
September 27, 2013

Lizzy Caplan has been doing tons of press for Masters of Sex, cast by Risa Bramon Garcia, done right here at The BGB Studio. The show’s started airing to stellar reviews and an enthusiastic audience. Playing Virginia Johnson introduces Lizzy to a new audience that is instantly falling in love with her. And her fan base is loving this new, complex role. Lizzy took a few minutes out of her crazy schedule to talk to Risa about audition process and getting through the rougher times.

RBG: Hey, Lizzy, how do you feel?
LC: Exhausted! And excited. And anxious. Quite a few things one after the other…

RBG: You’re doing a lot of press for Masters of Sex… how’s that going?
LC: So far, so good. I used to detest doing any press, in any form. I found it pretty tedious and boring, and never really cared for much for how I came across in interviews. But I must say, for Masters of Sex, the press has been mostly enjoyable, at least more attention-holding than it usually is. The subject matter of the show leads to questions about sexuality and feminism, and the world in the 50s vs the world of today. It leads to a far more interesting conversations than the expected ‘how did you get the part? can you describe the plot of the show?’ that make up the majority of most press tours.

RBG: Describe process of getting the role in Masters of Sex. It took a long time… What was that like?
LC: It was not the most fun process, as you know. It took a while to be officially signed on to the show. It remained unofficial for months. So I mostly walked around with the news that I was to play Virginia as a secret, since I didn’t want to suffer the humiliation of telling everybody I got the part, then having to call all those same people and tell them that it didn’t work out. Which I’ve had to do before. All actors and actresses seem to have their ‘firing story’. Pilot season happened while I was waiting to hear officially about Masters, and I didn’t have the easiest time convincing my agents and managers that even the POSSIBILITY of getting to do Masters of Sex was infinitely more appealing to me than the real, tangible pilot jobs that were being presented to me. But (somewhat miraculously), it all worked out.

RBG: Do you enjoy the audition process?
LC: Sometimes. Usually not.

RBG: Women – and men – have had to read for roles that include sex (alone and with a partner) and partial nudity. How do you deal with that? What advice would you give to actresses – and actors – who have to audition and agree to be naked or engage sexually?
LC: My advice would be that it’s much scarier anticipating shooting a sex scene for the first time than it is actually shooting it. You should feel protected by your crew and the actors around you. And remember, you’re surrounded by people who work very hard to light you well and find flattering angles of you. Your crew are your teammates, and everybody wants you to look good… unless, I suppose, the script calls for the opposite.

RBG: Describe the feelings you had about your career up to now. What kept you going through disappointment, slow times?
LC: I have no college degree. No skills in any other area. I think I needed to feel like it was all or nothing for me in this business, because of course there are periods when quitting starts to sound pretty good. Or the logical option. You just have to believe (during the hard stretches, the unemployed stretches) that eventually people are going to start picking up what you’re putting down — because this business has many varied and interesting ways of busting up your self-esteem. Every time I was told ‘no’ for a job I’d really wanted/needed, I used it as fuel for the fire. More incentive to prove them all wrong. I think in the past, I needed to get that dramatic about it in my head in order to keep going.

RBG: What would be one specific thing you’d say to young actors auditioning?
LC: Everybody in those rooms wants you to do well, not fail. And figure out a way to not be nervous for the big auditions. And when you figure that out, please let me know the secret.

This is an excerpt on Lizzy’s audition process for Masters of Sex from another interview she did with Alan Sepinwall: ‘Masters of Sex’ star Lizzy Caplan on nudity, the 1950s and typecasting.

Lizzy Caplan: Well the first time I met everybody was just a meeting and a conversation. I didn’t really do it there and then I read once with John Madden, who really had my back on this from the get-go. He really saw me in this role far earlier than I saw myself in it. We did a full like hair, make-up, wardrobe thing and read all of the scenes. And he was convinced I think before I was, but I remember walking away from that audition — it was several hours long — thinking, “That was one of the best auditions and one of the most enriching experiences of my career. At this point if I don’t get the part, I’m glad I got to do that.”

Check out more about Lizzy as Virginia Johnson here!

Thank you, Lizzy!

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4 Things Never To Say In An Agent Interview

It’s better to have a few things prepared that you want to ask a prospective agent than not to. Remember in many ways you are hiring them to join your team… Not the other way around. You make them money and they work to find you the best job opportunities. An agent is basically a head hunter. You want to be professional and make them excited to find opportunities for you. So, here is an article I found about what not to say in an agent meeting.

By Brian O’Neil
For Backstage
May 10, 2013

“Normally, I put most of my efforts into making suggestions about the things actors should do, but many actors make mistakes during an interview. Here are the most common questions to avoid asking.

1. Can you tell me who else you represent?
They can, but they probably won’t, at least not begrudgingly, unless they are courting you. In any scenario, actors should do their homework by researching the client list of an agency with whom they are meeting. This is easily done with the assistance of a free-trial offer on IMDbPro.com where each agency’s clients are listed. The client’s name is a link to his/her profile, which lists their credits in film and television. Often there will be a bio, which sometimes, but not always, includes theater credits. The east coast actor may want to do a broader search of any given client.

2. Do you have any clients who might conflict with me?
This one is designed to drive an agent up the wall, unless, once again, they are courting you. Even if this is the case, the best one can usually hope for is, “We don’t have anyone like you”, which may not be wholly true, but what actor doesn’t want to hear those words? Less polite is a slightly chilly, “If we had anyone who conflicted with you, we wouldn’t have called you in.” Either way, you won’t learn anything.

3. Which casting directors do you have relationships with?
Don’t worry too much here, because most of the time they’ll ask you first. In any case, if it’s a top-notch office, they’ll have relationships with anyone who can move your career forward. If it’s not a top-notch office, they’ll still probably have relationships to some degree or they wouldn’t be able to maintain an office. So the answer you’ll get is, “Most all of them.” In any case, no one is going to sit there and rattle off a laundry list of offices they do business with and they’ll resent you for having asked.

4. I’m going to make a lot of money for someone.
Yikes! Believe it or not, some actors really do say this. An actor’s ability to “make a lot of money” for someone is the agent’s call, not the actor’s. I’m not saying an actor shouldn’t think this way, only that he or she shouldn’t say it, because saying it doesn’t build the actor’s cache a whit. Aside from the fact that an agent only gets 10 percent of an actor’s gross and therefore an actor would have to make a ton of money before an agent could make a lot of money, the real problem here is that agents know that whoever actually says the words, “I am going to make a lot of money for someone” never does.

Brian O’Neil is a former agent and best-selling author of “Acting As a Business: Strategies for Success” which was hailed by Entertainment Weekly as a “show-biz industry bible.” An acting career coach and an audition coach, he teaches at many of the country’s top acting training programs including The Juilliard School. For more information, please visit http://www.actingasabusiness.com.”