Sitting in the waiting room, my eyes wandered throughout the room to see the anxious faces of other actors. I wondered how many of these actors were like me; new, fresh and absolutely terrified for the forthcoming moments. The receptionist called my name, and I was ushered into the dreaded audition room. Performing my audition scene, I was so nervous my eyes didn’t leave the page. Halfway through the scene, the casting director stopped me and said, “I need you to get your eyes off of the paper and onto the other actor.” Little did I know I was engaging in line reading, and this auditioning technique does nothing but create an invisible wall between you and the other actor, and the casting director.
As an actor, you must learn how to perform cold-reads without burying your face into the script, which is also known as line reading. Line reading can mean the difference between getting a callback and simply thanked for your time.
What is Line Reading?
To my surprise, the majority of new actors I’ve worked with didn’t know the difference in line reading and sight reading. Basically, line reading is just that – keeping your eyes on the lines of a script instead of grabbing a few lines and delivering them while actually looking at the other actor.
Line reading is one of the most detrimental ways of auditioning as it creates a wall between you and the other actors, which will immediately distract from your performing ability. When a casting director sees an actor who is line reading, he immediately recognizes the lack of auditioning maturity, and will likely send you on your way without a second thought.
How to Break the Line Reading Habit
If you were like me, the main reason why you engaged in line reading is due to a mixture of nervousness and inexperience. At the aforementioned audition, I hadn’t spent time working on my sight reading ability, and simply kept my eyes on the script instead of engaging the other actor.
One of the greatest ways of eliminating line reading from your list of auditioning skills is to practice at home. Grab your favorite book, and practice sight reading by grabbing one or two sentences and then looking out of the book and into a mirror as you deliver the lines. This will seem odd at first, but as you get better at sight reading you’ll be able to grab a sentence and then dip your eyes back to the page to grab the next sentence.
