You know, being a model SOUNDS like it’s easy, but take it from me, it’s not as easy as it seems. I agree that it’s not that difficult to stand in front of a camera and smile when a photographer says “CHEESE,” but the “castings” and “options” game can be heart-wrenchingly tough. (Side note: why do some photographers say “CHEESE”? It always just makes me crave a cube of cheddar or at least a sliver of brie.)
I didn’t really know what a “casting” was when I signed with Wilhelmina. Little did I know that castings were going to consume random patches of my time during weekdays and come unexpectedly on a regular basis. My first casting was kind of a blur, but after awhile I realized that “casting” meant a few things: 1) a quick meeting with a client where they looked at your book, gave you the up and down, snapped a few shots of you from different angles, and took your comp card… 2) a potentially endless wait – never knowing how long it would last or how long you’d have to sit in the hallway of a studio or production office to be seen by a client… and 3) an awkward place where you actually got to see all of your competition. The other thing about castings is that they’re usually quiet. You’d think that with 20-50 girls waiting in a small room, it’d sound like a zoo…but it doesn’t. Girls from similar agencies seem cordial with one another and greet each other with quick hellos, but apart from that, it feels like an empty back alley where you could be attacked for any reason at any moment. These “castings” are the gatekeepers to booking the job and making the big bucks.
For me, in the beginning, castings were not only intimidating, but also overwhelming. You can’t just goto a casting in your beat-up sneakers and your favorite pair of jeans. At a casting, you have to look your best – and I mean, your best. I’d even go as far as to say you need to look like some big-shot celebrity. You have to knock the clients off their feet with your fashion-forward choices and your no-nonsense attitude. You have to be confident and yet demure. You have to make sure that you look like a blank canvas as well as a finished Monet simultaneously. Dressing for a casting is an art and a skill (and usually comes at a tres cher price). It took me a long time to learn this, and trust me, I’m still learning everyday. I think as a model, you have no choice but to be a constant fashion piece in progress. The best thing I learned very quickly was that to stay on your game, the most valuable thing you could do was devour fashion magazines, blogs, and websites that give weekly or daily fashion and beauty tips or showcase up and coming designers and trends.
The other thing about castings is that they can do a number on your self-esteem. One second you can believe you have skin as tough as an armadillo’s and the next feel like a wrinkly 80-year-old woman. When you’re sitting in a hallway full of beautiful girls, it’s virtually impossible not to think, “Should I be here? Am I pretty enough? Are these girls from other planets? Because they certainly look too beautiful to be real.” Having to sit there and look at them for extended periods of time can be unbearable sometimes. But, if you want to be a model and you want to be successful, there’s just no way to get around going to castings.
Even worse than castings…being on “option.” Being on “option” means that you’re in top standing to get the job (aka, you’re on the client’s short list of choices). This is when my brain has a tendency to go absolutely bonkers. The thing about being on “option,” is that although your odds are good (and much better than not being considered at all), there’s still no guarantee that you’ll book the job. So, you can spend hours, days, or even months scrutinizing over whether or not you got the job, only to find out that they “released you” the day beforehand.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times this has happened to me since I started my modeling career. I’ve been on option for some amazing catalogs and clients and then left completely devastated. This, my friends, is just the nature of the business. There’s no way around the rejection or the uncertainty. Somehow, though, I always manage to pick myself up, go to another casting, and continue to hope that the stars align at the perfect moment and that I book the job of my dreams (and of course, get paid ridiculously well for it).
So, whenever someone tells me that they think models have it easy, I tell them “You try having multiple interviews a day, being judged solely by your appearance, and never knowing if you’re going to be able to make ends meet. Imagine that as your 9 to 5.”
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