THE TRAP
You might be stealing the joy out of acting without realizing it.
TL;DR: This Week in Lead Actor Weekly
- The trap: There's something actors do before they say a single line that can steal the joy from an audition. Are you doing it too?
- The 5-Pack: What if your next five auditions came with someone in your corner, and saved you money?
- AuditionOS: What if the most valuable part of your next coaching session happened before you even arrived?
From the Desk of Joey Freddy Larsen:
Hey {{ first_name }},
There's a quote from Wayne Dyer that I love: βWhen you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.β I've been thinking about it lately, especially when it comes to auditions.
Imagine an audition lands in your inbox. Nine pages, due tomorrow. You've got work, errands, maybe another audition to finish, and suddenly you're thinking, Ugh. This is going to be hard. How am I going to learn all these lines? What if I get it wrong?
Before you've spoken a single word, you've taken an opportunity to do something you love and turned it into a problem to solve. That's the trap.
The way you see it changes everything
The way you SEE something influences how you FEEL about it. How you feel influences the ACTIONS you take. And the actions you take influence your RESULTS. It's not a guarantee, but it's a useful place to start if you want a different experience, and different work.
How excited are you to rehearse something you've already decided is difficult, overwhelming and full of chances to get it wrong? Now imagine the exact same pages as an opportunity to meet a new character, explore a relationship, make someone laugh, surprise yourself or discover something you hadn't considered. Nothing about the deadline has changed. Your relationship to it has.
When did acting stop being fun?
Most of us fell in love with acting because we loved pretending, playing, telling stories and making people feel something. Nobody had to force us to do it. Then somewhere along the way, we started worrying about making the right choices, being good enough and giving casting what we imagine they want.
We turned play into work, joy into obligation and expression into evaluation. We took something we loved, stripped the joy out of it, and then wondered why we weren't enjoying ourselves anymore. Isn't that ridiculous?
I'm not saying discipline doesn't matter. I love preparation, and I take the work seriously. But taking the work seriously doesn't mean taking ourselves so seriously. Some of the most alive performances I've seen have come from curiosity, humour and the courage to make a mess.
Nobody owes us the role
An audition is an invitation, not a promise. This is a competitive business. Most auditions won't end in bookings, often for reasons we can't control. So why hand over our enjoyment of acting to a casting decision?
You can choose to love the work today, even if you never hear back. You can make choices that are uniquely yours instead of guessing at a supposedly correct answer. Your humour, your experience and your odd, wonderful way of seeing the world belong in the work. Nobody else can bring you.
In 2026, with so many tools to polish and standardize what we put on screen, I think there's real value in seeing someone who is unmistakably human, genuinely playful and relentlessly themselves.
At Actors Audition Club
This is part of why I created Actors Audition Club. At first I wanted to solve the practical headaches of recording auditions: lighting, camera, a reader, editing and delivery. We still do all that. But the best part of the job is helping an actor rediscover the love, joy and humour in their work and find choices that are personal, surprising and alive.
A little more room to play, for less.
If you have auditions coming in regularly, I want it to be easier to get the help you need without deciding from scratch every time. Our 5-Session Pack is $388 for five 60-minute sessions, which saves you $97 compared with booking each one separately. It's also a lovely way to make consistent coaching part of your preparation.
Choose the version that works for you: Get the in-studio 5-Pack or get the virtual 5-Pack. And if you only need one session right now, you can book that here.
The work before the work
There's something I've noticed in our sessions. Whether you've booked 30, 60 or 90 minutes, the preparation you bring makes a huge difference. If we're still figuring out the lines, who you're talking to or what you want, we're spending coaching time on early rehearsal. That means less time to experiment, play and take an already interesting choice somewhere new.
That's also why I'm building AuditionOS. I want to bridge the gap between the moment the audition arrives and the moment you come to work with us, or record at home.
You add your audition and get help organizing the project, creative team and technical requirements; exploring the scene and relationships through guided questions; and rehearsing in a way that fits the time you actually have. Over time you'll also be able to track auditions and notice patterns in your work.
It does not make your choices for you. It's meant to make preparation clearer so you have more room for the fun, human, creative part. Iβm giving actors on the priority list the first chance to access AuditionOS before it opens to the public.
To get in early and help shape what comes next, join the AuditionOS priority list here.
But what I really hope you'll do this week is catch the story you tell yourself when the next audition lands. Are you looking at a burden or an invitation? A test to pass or a chance to create?
You are where your attention is. Put more of it on the things you love about acting.
More love, more joy, more humour, more you.
See you out there,
Joey
P.S. Next time you hear yourself say, βI have to work on this audition,β change one word: βI get to work on this audition.β Same pages. Different perspective.
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