Name: Samantha Riepe
Height: 5’9″
Weight: 140 lbs.
Hair Color: brown. . .ish
Eye Color: blue
Previous Experience: I was in the background of a segment on the 11 o’clock news once.
My Tryout:
I got there just at 9:30, to a line that rivaled. . . probably only the one that would form for Charlie’s Angels 2 later that night. Seriously, I was expecting a mob a la American Idol tryouts, but without that poof Ryan Starfish or whatever his name is. Instead, there were maybe 40 random people there, about half of which looked familiar. . . a chick from the Sunsations, Katie from ‘Canes Gone Crazy, that kid who won 2003 Boy of the Year – all of them with more notable performance experience than I, whose only claim to fame is that I once stood on-camera behind someone being interviewed for the local news.
I skipped out around 10 for class. When I returned at 11, the line was really dwindling. These weren’t the hardcore hopefuls from earlier. One kid almost left when he found out there wasn’t free food. Such dedication.
I was grouped with my new friends (bonded by our crappy-muggy-line-waiting-experience) Katherine and Federico to go see the casting director, Ron. He was laid back in that I’m-judging-you-all-based-on-appearance kind of way. He confirmed that we all went to UM and then asked us the question we had waited upwards of 17 sweaty minutes to hear: Why had we come there? I think we were all wondering that by then. Katherine’s RA had prodded her into going, Federico was up to trying anything, I was a journalist by day, self-proclaimed drama queen by night – Ron listened to all our answers and tried not to fall asleep. He informed us when callbacks would be (I’m sure he was trying hard not to laugh), and we were off.
Name: Jorge Arauz
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 165 lbs
Hair Color: dark brown
Eye Color: brown
Previous Acting Experience:
I act like I like people sometimes.
My Tryout:
I got there late. I had to piss and I was sweating, but I waited in line anyway. As you can see from my headshot, I wasn’t really taking the whole thing too seriously, but a lot of people there were.
“This could make or break me,” I heard one girl say.
The wait was about an hour, but at least the staff and cast were cool.
When I went into Cosford to meet and interview with the casting director, he asked me why I had waited in line for so long.
“Well, because I like to stand in long lines,” I replied.
But I really wanted to be famous. I think he knew I was lying.
He looked at me. And he looked at me again. And I looked at the CBS 4 cameraman in my face, and I said, “Hi, Mom,” in my head.
Then the Guiding Light guided me right out the door.
But they kept my headshots.
Damn.
Better luck next time.