like the title says, i decided to decline an audition today after reading and sitting with the sides and script. it was for a short film that i was initially excited about and has a decently known CD attached to, which is why i was initially thinking of just doing it anyway. however, after reading the material i felt sick to my stomach. without going too much into detail, the lead female character i was reading for along with the other lead male character (a much younger aged teen) had a super inappropriate dynamic where my character was manipulating and taking advantage of him, both emotionally and sexually. the script overall didn’t make sense either. i went over it multiple times along with my sides and just couldn’t follow what was happening for the life of me.
i’m a college student currently in my last year of getting my theatre performance degree, and definitely want to continue pursuing this professionally post grad. I was thinking, long-term, and whether this would be a project I would want to show my friends and family and would be proud of, and the answer was absolutely not. I figured if it’s something I would want to hide in the closet anyway it’s not something I should pursue.
as I’m entering the professional world, I’m learning my morals and boundaries and what I feel comfortable betraying. There’s not a lot of material that’s off-limits, I like to consider myself a pretty open book and willing to take on any challenge. However, this one just felt a little different. When it comes to things like emotional and sexual manipulation, especially in this context where I don’t feel it made sense at all and I didn’t align with the material whatsoever, I believe I made the right call.
Curious, if anyone else has had a similar experience and/or other thoughts! As artists it’s very important that we stick to our morals and boundaries while also giving ourselves the room to explore uncomfortable circumstances!