My Skins Casting Experience

Your very own Webmiss's report from the Casting Search in March 2008 for the award-winning British teen drama, Skins. The risque content of the series revolving around the lives of teenagers from Bristol have made the drama a controversial hit, so when the makers of the series announced they were looking for new characters for Series 3, and were holding Open Castings, every one (including Olivia!) jumped at the chance.

How Olivia got involved

The Official website, Skins Life.Com announced that they would be holding open castings for new faces in major cities around the UK. The first open audition was based in Bristol, and you can also see some video footage of the day. You had to live around Bristol to be considered, however the makers also stated that there were looking for significant characters, such as a pair of identical female twins and a Polish teenage boy, for which you could be audition separately.

I am an identical twin indeed, so after getting my sister's permission, we decided to email some basic information and photos that were half-way decent to the Casting Office with the email address the website provided. We got a reply the very next day asking for us to come in to the London Offices for a meeting. Although very excited, my twin and I knew that we weren't strikingly similar, a trait the makers were probably looking for, so probably not perfect candidates for the roles. I was looking forward to meeting the casting director and checking out the production offices nevertheless.

So, about two weeks later, after an hours train journey into London, going down the wrong road and nearly being late, we arrived at the production offices for Skins. The series is quite art-based so the office was pretty amazing - the rooms were covered with artwork, scripts, pictures and doodles by the production staff and cast. Another pair of twins were in there already, and we got chatting. Most auditionees hadn't done that much professional acting before, so it seemed as though the company were looking for a raw, natural style that you wouldn't get with trained actors.

The casting director, Jane Ripley, then called us in to a small but devastatingly cool room with a sofa and spray painted decorated walls with pictures of the cast all over them. She sat us down and explained that the twin characters we were auditioning for were meant to look the same, but both had different personalities. They were looking for twins who were the same on the outside "but once they started talking, you realised they were completely different". She then asked us to pretend we were just "at home, on the sofa, watching the telly," and for us to start talking - and for the differences in personality to become apparent. She filmed us while we just "chatted", improvising of course. Being a member of a drama club I'm used to improvising - but only on stage, where everything is enlarged. I tried to tone it down, look natural, and not be obviously "acting", which is actually a lot more difficult than I had previously imagined. I think I was trying too hard because she stopped us and told us to continue with "more energy". Whoops!

Jane then gave us each a script to have a look over, whilst she called in another pair of twins to film. It was quite surprising to have been given a script right there and then, because at other film castings I've attended they've usually provided a script before the audition to prepare. However we had a lot of time to sit down and look over the script with another pair of twins who very very chatty and lively. (In my opinion those two should have got the part there and then!)

After a while, we went in for the script reading. Again, we got filmed by Jane, asking us in turn to perform the role of Emily, the un-social, shy twin who didn't know how to make friends. The scene consisted of Emily talking to herself in the mirror, practising a routine like "Hi! I'm Emily. Can I sit with you?" before attempting to make some friends. It was awkward pretending to talk to a mirror whilst reading a script, and trying to sound natural at the same time! But this time, Jane didn't stop us or ask us to do it differently, and I felt I did it well. She told us after we were very good and natural. 

I had expected to be given another script with dialogue from the role of Kate, Emily's wild, drug-dealing twin, but Jane let us go. The other twins who we liked (and incidentally, Jane liked as well, nick-naming them the "curly-wurlies" with their curly hair!) had been given the second script, whilst we had not. To be honest, my twin and I aren't as strikingly similar as some other twins to achieve the aim that Jane had explained. It was obvious from the fact that Jane had let us go and not given us the second script that she wasn't interested in considering us any further.

So after an hour of casting, we left, glad that the other girls had been so chatty and friendly, and that we'd seen the casting offices. It was a lot of fun to see what different productions like Skins look for in a teenage actor. The casting director we found to be slightly eccentric though. She had a really bizarre, spaced-out laugh..

We stayed in touch with some of the twins we met at the auditions, and we were shocked when we discovered that they were not asked for a recall. If you're ever going to act, you have to take rejection in your stride. Statistics show that if a typical actor has ten auditions in one week, he'll be lucky to land just one role! I certainly don't want to be a professional actor (merely from just watching my entire family in the business!) but I don't think that should stop me from checking out what casting is like, from the view point of an actor. I wish I'd taken some pictures though! At the end of the day we had a lot of fun, but all I'm annoyed about is that I forgot to ask the casting director if I could have some work experience with her! Maybe next time!

Date of Casting: Monday 17th March 2008
Date Written: 29th March 2008