Chapter 21: THE AUDITION!
December 8th, 2011
After lunch we decided to leave Downtown Disney, since our car was parked right near T-Rex.
LOOK! IT'S A DISNEY BUS! AND OLD KEY WEST! I miss both of those things.
We arrived back at the hotel room. I laid down for about 20 minutes and listened to Stacey on the TV. I could have fallen asleep right then and there, I was so tired!
But soon it was time to get up and get ready for the Disney Character Look-Alike Audition! I straightened my hair, sang through a song, and practiced a monologue in case they asked me to perform either. (I didn't end up needing them, though.)
My Mom and I headed over to the Animal Kingdom Rehearsal Facility around 3 o'clock. The audition started at 4, and there was already a HUGE line. I did not expect so many to be there... but I think the estimated total for that day was around 300 people?
I talked to the girl in front of me in line. She lived in the area and I think she was a Junior in high school. She had auditioned to be a Disney Character Look-Alike before.
One of the biggest tips she told me was that you NEVER EVER EVER want to let the Disney casting directors know that you want to be a specific character. They don't want anyone to be emotionally attached to a role before they are cast as it. You need to go in there and they need to see the character within you.
And now, here is quite the story:
This girl I was talking to got ALL THE WAY THROUGH the audition process. There were six stages. She got through the "looks" audition, she did some dancing, some singing, she read some lines, she got her make-up done, and she EVEN TRIED ON THE COSTUME! She was going to be cast as Ariel.
So, they told her that they would call her.
Two weeks went by and she never got a call. So, she called them and asked if something happened.
Want to know what they told her?
They couldn't cast her because she
had her belly button pierced. Since Ariel has a bare mid-drift, they couldn't hire her. They told her take out the belly button ring and come back in six months to audition again.
So, that's why she was there the day I auditioned. Want to know the saddest thing about this whole situation?
THEY DIDN'T EVEN CHOOSE HER TO GO PAST THE FIRST ROUND DURING THIS AUDITION.
So moral of the story: if you are going to audition to be a Disney character, you need to be as NATURAL as possible. Take out all piercings, make sure there are NO visible tattoos, etc. Bottom line is that they don't hire people unless they look EXACTLY LIKE THE CHARACTER.
That's why getting through the first round of the audition process is the hardest. It's all about "the look."
So anyways, she told me that whole story while we stood in line. Finally we got to the end where we started interacting with the Cast Members. They had us write down our names, whether we were male or female, and they measured our height. I was 65.5 cm.
Once that was done, I sat with the girl who I stood in line with. Her Dad actually works for Disney. He does a lot of engineering type stuff and he does a lot of work with Cinderella's Castle. Apparently he goes there at like 5 am and is on the team that does test rounds of the castle lights. THAT'S SO COOL!
We ended up sitting with a big group of people... I'll tell you all about them.
There was one girl who was a spunky red head.
There was a tan, tall, and heftier boy who was nice. I think he may have been gay. Him and the spunky red head were friends from school and they were big theatre fans.
There was a blonde girl who was VERY peppy, she was on the shorter side, and she was very talkative. She lived in Celebration, FL.
There was a blonde girl who was the only other college-aged student besides me in the group.
There was another dark haired boy with long hair who was pretty attractive.
And there was another girl who had dirty blonde hair, and she was on the quieter side.
That was our little group. We sat around for about half an hour and we just talked. We chatted about the most random things. One of the topics that came up was Johnny Depp. Apparently he never watches any of his movies or performances because he doesn't like to watch himself act. Ah the things you learn in Disney!
We also talked about Disney World, Chihuahuas, Braids, theatre, etc. (what random topics hahaha. I barely remember these conversations.)
The majority of those kids in our group lived in Florida. I realized that they had SUCH a different view on Disney than someone from another state. The ones that I talked to, anyways, seemed to take WDW for granted. They look at being a princess or a character as a "part-time job." Like... something comparable to my summer job at an ice cream place. Basically it's no big deal to them.
Like, I guess essentially, yeah it's a job. But to me... being a character seems like SO much more than that! It's a performance role! It's a huge honor! You would get to work in DISNEY. It just seems like the out of town people were there because they wanted to work for the company and wanted the experience, while the Florida kids (that I talked to) wanted to work there so they'd have a little side job and get some money.
Chatting with those kids made me think about where I'm going to live when I get older... because yeah, I want to work for Disney more than anything. But I don't want my kids to lack appreciation for Disney World. So, it'll definitely be something to think about when it's time to cross that bridge.
So anyways... it was nearing audition time. Disney split up the giant group into smaller groups of 50 people. They took the first group in right at 4 o'clock.
Then our group went in once they were done.
This is literally what happened:
You stand in five rows of ten. And then the casting director just LOOKS at you. They might call over someone to ask them a simple question here and there. Then after about 2-3 minutes, your line goes to the back and they look at the next line.
It's a very simple audition, but it's what the casting director called an "awkward" audition. Haha so true.
So the results?
Guess how many got through.
Out of 50 people..........
Only
4 PEOPLE made it to the next round.
ISN'T THAT INSANE?
One of the four people that got through was from our group. It was the little blonde, peppy girl from Celebration. I bet they were looking at her to be Tinkerbell. I wonder if she got it. She DEFINITELY had the right look.
So, we tried. I honestly think that you just have to be there at the right time. And you have to be what they're looking for on that specific day. It's nothing against anyone if you get rejected, because there were some BEAUTIFUL girls (and guys, too!) who got turned down immediately! You just never know who they're going to pick, I guess!
Sorry I didn't get farther in the process...I don't have much to report back on. But I did my best!
Overall, I wasn't disappointed because I didn't go in expecting to get cast. I am SO glad I went though... because I was extremely curious about the audition process. Getting the experience of that when I was only 18 was a really good idea.
It also showed me that I wasn't missing out on a role, and transferring colleges and following through with that was definitely the right thing to do! It could have been very complicated to try and move down there to work in Florida anyways at this point in time.
Once the audition was over, I met up with Mom and we went back to the car.
Apparently while I was in there, Mom was chatting with this other Mother. Her daughter few down from Indiana in the middle of her finals week to audition. She really didn't like college and was hoping to get cast as a character. Hopefully she got something because that's a pretty drastic thing to do!
We left the Animal Kingdom Rehearsal Facility, made a few wrong turns, and finally got back to POR.
I got changed back into my park clothes and Mom and I headed to Epcot!
Continued in Next Post
Best of luck with school and I look forward to reading more. Thanks for sharing.
Congrats on booking another Frump trip, can't wait to to read the TR! 
I wanted to also tell you we tried many new foods thanks to your wonderful dining reviews: and they were DELICIOUS! 
Tell Kristen, I am now a schoolbread fanatic thanks to her obsession! 
Whatever, I'm sure they'll come to their senses once you do the CP.
)
Then we have seen some of the princesses that did make us think how did they get cast for so-and-so princess. We just didn't "see it". 
4 our of 50!!???!!!???!!?? WOW! I'm glad you did it, though! It must have been a great experience. 
I'll have to convince them with the help of your TR! 
lol
