Acting : Don't get hung up on breakdowns! by Matthew Cornwell

Today, I got a cmail through Actors Access (USA) for a new episodic project. A short time later, the Casting Director followed up with a note (attached image). It is SO IMPORTANT to hear this directly from casting. Actors come into our taping service DAILY, confused or even ANGRY at the fact that the breakdown for their character has the "wrong" age.

What most actors don't realize is that what the writer wrote initially (in terms of age/sex/ethnicity/etc) changes by the time there's an approved network/studio draft, and changes again after they start to put together some of the casting puzzle pieces, and will KEEP changing throughout the entire process until everyone is cast. Given that fluidity, often times casting doesn't have the bandwidth to be able to update the breakdown. And if they did, there's still a high probability you didn't get the latest info.

As stated in the graphic, you must let Casting do their job by trusting that if you were selected to audition, it's because they WANT TO SEE YOUR TAPE!