TL;DR: This Week in Lead Actor Weekly
- Your impact reaches beyond the roles you book. My dad reminded me what showing up for people can mean.
- You can build momentum before the next audition arrives. This newsletter is back to help you do that.
- A first look at AuditionOS, built to help you submit stronger auditions faster, plus a commercial booking to celebrate.
From the Desk of Joey Freddy Larsen:
It’s been a long time since Lead Actor Weekly landed in your inbox.
A lot has changed. In my life, in the business, and in what I want to do with the time I have.
As many of you know, my father, Fred Larsen, passed away on August 31, four days after his 84th birthday.
To everyone who sent a DM, a text, a message, a comment, or picked up the phone: thank you.
Social media can feel remarkably anti-social. All that “connection,” and somehow you can still feel alone.
But your messages reminded me how many incredible people are in my life. I felt your support, and I appreciate it more than you know.
A little grief-titude
There is grief. There is also an enormous amount of gratitude.
Or, as I’ve been calling it, grief-titude.
My dad was a great husband, father, friend, teacher and community leader.
One of my measures of a person is this: If more people were like them, would the world be a better place?
With my dad, the answer is a resounding yes.
I know many of you have great dads. But I might have had the best.
That’s right. The world’s number one dad. I’m standing by the ranking.
Four days before he died, we celebrated his 84th birthday. We weren’t sure he would have the energy, but he rallied. Somehow, he found enough to welcome roughly 40 people into the house.
Family. Friends. People who had known him for 50 years.
They sat with him, shared stories and wished him a happy birthday. Most meaningfully, they got to say thank you and goodbye.
We don’t always get that chance: to look someone we love in the eyes and tell them what they’ve meant to us.
I got that with my dad. There was nothing left unsaid.
At his celebration of life, hundreds of people came out. Some were strangers to me, telling me how he had supported them, encouraged them or changed their lives.
The same theme kept coming up.
He showed up for people. And it mattered.
He’s still in the room
We’ve added his picture to our Wall of Excellence at the Actors Audition Club studio.
You may not know that in the 1960s, Dad performed in a singing trio that toured the Catskills and the Borscht Belt in upstate New York. Think a little Rat Pack, a little vaudeville.
Later, there were choirs, musicals and theatre productions in our hometown of Orillia.
So now he joins us in the studio.
He always supported my creative career. Never made me feel I should choose something more sensible. Never questioned why I wanted to perform.
Maybe he understood because he’d followed that same pull himself.
He encouraged me to choose my own path.
Now that I’m an orphan, I’m still looking for a foster family, by the way. Know anybody?
Humour aside, losing him has brought a lot of reflection.
What do I want to do with the time I have?
Actors act. So why all the waiting?
One thing that frustrates me about this industry is how thoroughly it can train you to wait.
For your agent’s email.
For the audition. The callback. The pin. The hold. The booking.
Then you book it, arrive on set, and wait some more.
It’s always struck me as ironic that so many actors also work as waiters. We get enough practice in this industry already.
But there’s a word sitting right there inside actor.
ACT.
You can’t decide when casting sends the email. You can decide what you do before it arrives.
You can rehearse the scene. Reach out to a collaborator. Update the reel. Write something you want to perform. Make the short. Build the relationship.
Your agent and casting can be important partners. But you can’t hand them the entire responsibility for your career.
That’s the spirit I’m bringing back to Lead Actor Weekly.
Book more roles. Earn more money. Create a career without gatekeepers.
Each week, I want to give you something you can use: a sharper approach to your audition, a useful tool, a specific move that helps you become more visible or create an opportunity.
There’s a strange truth in my life right now: I’m grieving my dad, and I’m also excited about what I’m building.
Both are true.
His support is part of why I get to do this. His example is a reminder to make it useful to somebody else.
So here’s my invitation this week:
Choose one action you can take without waiting for a yes.
And if someone has helped you become who you are, tell them.
Thank you again for showing up for me.
With grief-titude,
Joey
Community Wins 🎉
Sandra Cardinal just booked a commercial!
Congratulations, Sandra! We’re celebrating with you.
Booked a role? Had a callback? Finished a project you’re proud of? Hit reply and tell me. I’d love to celebrate more of what you’re creating here.
Your Next Move: Meet AuditionOS
Submit stronger auditions FASTER
(without the last-minute scramble).
Here’s a first look at something I’m building for you.
Your audition arrives. The sides are in a PDF. Some instructions are in an email. Other details are on Actors Access, Casting Workbook or Casting Networks. Your notes are somewhere in your phone.
Before you’ve made a single choice about the scene, you’ve spent half an hour finding files and figuring out what goes where.
I want you spending that time acting.
AuditionOS is the all-in-one audition app I’m developing to bring your preparation, rehearsal, submission and audition history together.
OS stands for Operating System. Here’s the idea:
PREP
Keep your sides, details, links, deadlines and requirements in one place. Use focused prompts to develop specific choices and get to rehearsal sooner. You make the artistic decisions.
TRACK
Keep your submissions, callbacks, pins, holds and bookings connected to your notes and the people involved. Build a useful history of your casting relationships.
GROW
See patterns in your auditions and outcomes. Carry useful discoveries into the next opportunity, instead of starting from scratch every time.
After 17 years as an actor and more than 7,000 auditions coached with my team, I’ve seen how much energy gets lost in the scramble.
I’m building AuditionOS to make that process easier, more consistent and more useful to you.
Be among the first actors inside
When access opens, I’ll invite a founding group of 50 actors, with special founding member pricing.
Why 50? Because I want to be hands-on. I want your feedback on what helps, what feels clunky and what would make your next audition easier.
Join the priority list to hear first and get the first opportunity to claim founding access before the wider public release.
Joining the list is free. It gives you priority notification, not a reserved paid spot.
JOIN THE AUDITIONOS PRIORITY LIST →
Keep Your Career Moving
Have an audition coming up?
Get personal coaching and a professional reader at Actors Audition Club, in our Toronto studio or virtually.
Ready to build beyond your next audition?
Your Next Lead Role is my upcoming premium group program for actors ready to strengthen your craft, sharpen your materials, build relationships and create your own opportunities. Join the priority list to hear when enrolment opens.
Take the conversation with you.
Inside the Audition explores the craft, career decisions and relationships behind memorable performances and bigger opportunities.
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Lead Actor Weekly • Joey Freddy Larsen
Book more roles. Earn more money. Create a career without gatekeepers.
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