Back in August, on a whim, I submitted to audition for Universal Studios Japan. They come through Chicago once a year or so on a round-the-world audition tour, casting assorted singers, dancers, actors, and stunt people for their shows. I'd seen the audition listings in the past, and generally laughed it off - what a crazy idea, right?
Lately I've been trying to learn to not reject myself for roles - if I'm not right, you can be sure someone will tell me, but if I never audition, I'll never know - so... I sent in my headshot and resume. There was only one part I was qualified for (since I'm not a Broadway-style singer/dancer, not a stunt person, and don't speak Japanese), and I'm at the bottom of the age range they were looking for, so I figured my odds were low, but:
1. I actually like auditioning. The worst they can say is no, there's no critics, and nobody's going to applaud you either way, so it's my chance to rock out and do things totally my way.
2. I try to test my limits. Every once in a while I push myself to audition for something one level up, professionally, from where I've been working.
3. To keep working as an actor, you constantly look for work. Say you get called in for 1/3 of what you submit for, and get called back for 1/4 of what you audition for, and get cast in 1/5 of what you're called back for. That's 60 submissions for 1 job. So I cast a wide net.
And, hey, they had me come in to audition.
There was a whole raft of dancers there when I arrived, who had just been through the miserable culling that, I gather, is typical of dance auditions. The surviving few were getting measured and interviewed. Three other actory types of varying degrees of awkwardness were hanging around, and we all had pretty low expectations of our chances.
And we did our Japanese language/British accent monologues, and a nice Australian woman interviewed me, and I got my measurements taken, and somehow in the space of an hour I'd been put on the short list of job candidates.
Whoa.
No idea how seriously to take this, at this point. They were holding auditions in, like, 15 cities around the world, in pretty much any country where people could pass for English. They had no idea how many jobs would even be open (returning cast gets 1st dibs). And then September, October, and November came & went with basically no word from them. Early December was the "casting takes a long time" email. I had pretty much written this off.
December 21, job offer. I can go work as a wandkeeper at Ollivander's. In Japan. For 13 months. No wife, no cats. Three days to reply & return signed paperwork if interested.
Now, far be it from me to judge this whole process, but that's not something you dump on people who are already in the midst of Christmas travel stress. Really, now.
Skip ahead a week: after lots of talks with my wife, sharing the news with immediate family, and letting the idea sink in a bit, the official announcement:
More details will follow in later posts. We'll be in Chicago for a while yet, so don't panic. Just wanted to let you all in on the fun.
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