May 27, 2025 • 9 mins
If you're confused about audition sides, you're not alone. In this episode of Take Fountain, veteran talent agent Anthony Boyer and manager Jess Canty explain what sides are, how to use them effectively, and common mistakes actors make when preparing for auditions.
From whether or not to memorize your lines, to whether holding your script hurts (or helps) your performance, they break down everything actors need to know.
You'll also learn why posting sides online is a huge no-no, and how to navigate tricky systems like self-destructing scripts. This is essential advice for actors who want to deliver strong, professional auditions that actually book jobs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello from Hollywood.
My name is Anthony Boyer.
And I'm Jess Canty.
And today on Take Fountain,
we're gonna talk about audition terminology.
Can you talk a little bit about sides?
Yeah, absolutely. So, I don't know if
this is actually true or just apocryphal,
but supposedly the term sides comes from the,
(00:23):
in an ideal audition situation, you're supposed
to be given three different scenes
that show three different sides to the character.
Okay? So that, obviously,
these days is really only gonna happen with a guest star,
a series reg, where you're being given that much material.
But ideally, in those scenarios, those scenes should
(00:44):
be allowing you to show off sort of a couple
of different emotional arcs
for what's going on with the character.
It's still called sides no matter what.
And it might be given a set of sides with one line.
So, right. You're not going to be, you know,
you're not gonna be given those three opportunities to kind
of show off the range of the character.
Usually those will be sent as a, you know,
(01:07):
they'll be attached to your audition, either electronically
through, again, the casting sites,
or you'll be sent to them,
sent them an email from your reps.
Obviously, um, you're going to want to
download those immediately.
Right? I can't tell you how many people who have asked
(01:28):
for an extension on their audition
haven't downloaded their sides out of eco cast.
The eco cast expires,
and now they've been granted the extension,
but they don't have the sides.
Luckily, that has never happened to me. It has
Happened to me more than once. Okay.
And so it is an embarrassing thing to have to then
(01:51):
tell your rep that you didn't download the sides right away
when you got your audition.
So yeah, definitely.
If your sides are only available through that casting site,
download them the second that you accept the audition. So,
What is your opinion on holding your
sides during your audition?
Because I have strong thoughts on this.
I'm curious what you have to say.
Oh, I, I wonder if
(02:11):
they're different than what I have to say.
Might to say it might be all right is,
is gonna be our first argument.
I think if you need them to feel comfortable
and you, it makes it so that you are going
to perform the scene to your best ability.
It is absolutely okay that you're holding the sides as long
as they're not distracting from your performance.
(02:32):
So, you know, ideally
you don't want to be looking.
If they cause you to look down constantly, that's not great.
It, you know, there is a, there is a trick to learning how
to hold sides out of frame
and look down while the other character is speaking
(02:53):
for your next line, so
that when you're performing your line, you're back up
with, with the camera.
And actors that are really good at this actually manage
to make that almost look like a character choice.
Like they're looking down and thinking Sure.
You know, they're actually
maybe actually holding their sides down. That's
What I'm doing, by the way, when I'm looking off. I,
(03:14):
You know, but I also find that a lot
of time it's a crutch that actors don't need.
Yeah. Um, and,
and I think we should also point out that
with the latest SAG negotiations, um, the rule was created
that you, you do not, they have to say that you do not have
to memorize your sites.
Correct. Memorize your sides if it's at all possible.
(03:37):
I understand sometimes you don't have enough time.
Sometimes for whatever reason, it's just maybe it's a lot
of lingo, a lot of medical terminology or something.
I would highly encourage you to memorize your sides just
because it's so hard to act if you're reading, it's
so difficult to kind of be in the page,
not know what's coming and,
and kind of have to go back and forth.
(03:58):
Now, what I was gonna say about holding sides in particular
is I used to work for, for an actress
who made the observation that for her, she always liked
to hold sides, even if she was completely off book,
because it reminded them it was an audition.
Mm. I think there's something interesting about that.
Mm-hmm. I'm not sure that I fully agree with it,
but I like the psychology of it.
(04:19):
Yeah. So all that only really just to say like,
it doesn't really matter.
Right. The more important thing about holding sides
or not holding sides, having sides
or not having sides, is really just like,
you don't want anything distracting you from
being the character in the moment
during the audition. That's,
And I've, I've actually heard casting directors in the
(04:40):
room say that they get nervous when
the actor isn't holding the side.
Yeah. Because they're concerned
that the actor isn't fully memorized and then is
therefore going to, if they make a mistake,
gonna like freak out that they've made a mistake. So
Yeah, I think it becomes an audition
about the sides right.
(05:00):
At that point. So I think that,
you know, it's, it's like being late.
Like you want to make, just let
the audition be the audition.
Mm-hmm. Um, one additional thing I would like
to say about sides is earlier we said,
don't post your videos publicly.
Do not post your sides. Absolutely.
Don't post them, don't post a screenshot. Don't post.
Just don't, just don't, just don't post them at all.
(05:21):
Yeah. And again, same reason.
This is not material that you own. Right.
It is copywritten material.
Sometimes millions
of dollars have gone into creating the thing
that you're holding in your hands
and, uh, you don't want to run the risk of ruining
those millions of dollars.
Yeah. Now, I will say you may run into a scenario where
(05:45):
that that sort of protection against posting
sides and sharing them, in my opinion, sort
of has gone too far.
There are a couple of companies
that first will make you sign an NDA,
which is fine, that's normal. But there was a couple
The self-destructing sides. Yeah.
Oh, okay. I can't, I can't do it
(06:06):
with the self-destructing sides.
It's a lot. If, if I, if I had a soapbox,
because, so you may encounter that.
You have to download your sides from a, from a service
that only lets you download them one time to one device.
And that is the only device that you are allowed
(06:26):
to access them on.
Which begs the question,
how are you supposed to have a reader? How
Do I have a reader? I have
never understood the answer to this.
How do I coach? Yeah.
Um, if you take a screenshot from that,
it will self-destruct if you try to forward
or whatever, it will self-destruct.
Um, we're not fans of that. We do our best to.
(06:49):
So I would say if you're in that scenario
and you need creative ways
to help get your reader the material they need, talk
to your agent or manager,
and we will help you figure out a way around that.
Yeah. Yeah. We're not gonna tell you in this video how
to do it, how to get around those protections.
Yeah. Because it is their right to protect their material.
(07:09):
However, I think they do it at the cost of,
of a good audition sometimes.
Yeah. And so it behooves them for you
to have a good audition.
So work collaboratively to make sure that you are
as prepared as you can be.
Um, even if it means like, Hey, you know, these auditions,
I, I need some way to like, coach this or whatever.
Just talk to your reps and, and, and they'll talk to casting
(07:32):
and, and figure out a solution.
Yeah, absolutely.
But don't post, don't post your sides.
So one last thing, just
to touch back on the memorization aspect of all of this.
Again, do what works best for you as an actor.
Yeah. If you give a better performance when you're
(07:53):
memorized, memorized, if you
have a really hard time memorizing, you always have,
and you need a lot of rehearsal
and time with the sides to get memorized
and you've never been able to do it for an audition,
don't worry about it.
Hold your size and get really good at that sort
of performance where you're, you actually are glancing down,
(08:17):
but it's not impacting your performance.
I think a cold read class is a really good way if you need
to kind of brush up on that specific skill.
'cause it is a skill you can learn. Yeah, absolutely.
And I think it's important to remember that
auditioning really is the job.
Yeah. Um, if you book something great,
obviously that's the goal.
Yeah. But the job really is auditioning,
(08:39):
and so making sure that you audition as well as you can.
Um, whether that means memorizing
or not memorizing, whether
that means holding the script or not holding the script.
Do your job as effectively as you can do your job.
Thank you so much for watching.
Uh, again, I'm Anthony Boyer. This is Jess Caney.
Uh, leave a comment below.
(09:01):
Tell us, you know, if you have any thoughts about
auditioning, do you like to memorize?
Do you like to not memorize?
Do you like to hold your script?
Do you like to not hold your script?
Let us know in the comments below.
Let thanks so much for watching.
Hello from Hollywood.
My name is Anthony Boyer.
And I'm Jess Canty.
And today on Take Fountain,
we're gonna talk about audition terminology.
Can you talk a little bit about sides?
Yeah, absolutely. So, I don't know if
this is actually true or just apocryphal,
but supposedly the term sides comes from the,
(00:23):
in an ideal audition situation, you're supposed
to be given three different scenes
that show three different sides to the character.
Okay? So that, obviously,
these days is really only gonna happen with a guest star,
a series reg, where you're being given that much material.
But ideally, in those scenarios, those scenes should
(00:44):
be allowing you to show off sort of a couple
of different emotional arcs
for what's going on with the character.
It's still called sides no matter what.
And it might be given a set of sides with one line.
So, right. You're not going to be, you know,
you're not gonna be given those three opportunities to kind
of show off the range of the character.
Usually those will be sent as a, you know,
(01:07):
they'll be attached to your audition, either electronically
through, again, the casting sites,
or you'll be sent to them,
sent them an email from your reps.
Obviously, um, you're going to want to
download those immediately.
Right? I can't tell you how many people who have asked
(01:28):
for an extension on their audition
haven't downloaded their sides out of eco cast.
The eco cast expires,
and now they've been granted the extension,
but they don't have the sides.
Luckily, that has never happened to me. It has
Happened to me more than once. Okay.
And so it is an embarrassing thing to have to then
(01:51):
tell your rep that you didn't download the sides right away
when you got your audition.
So yeah, definitely.
If your sides are only available through that casting site,
download them the second that you accept the audition. So,
What is your opinion on holding your
sides during your audition?
Because I have strong thoughts on this.
I'm curious what you have to say.
Oh, I, I wonder if
(02:11):
they're different than what I have to say.
Might to say it might be all right is,
is gonna be our first argument.
I think if you need them to feel comfortable
and you, it makes it so that you are going
to perform the scene to your best ability.
It is absolutely okay that you're holding the sides as long
as they're not distracting from your performance.
(02:32):
So, you know, ideally
you don't want to be looking.
If they cause you to look down constantly, that's not great.
It, you know, there is a, there is a trick to learning how
to hold sides out of frame
and look down while the other character is speaking
(02:53):
for your next line, so
that when you're performing your line, you're back up
with, with the camera.
And actors that are really good at this actually manage
to make that almost look like a character choice.
Like they're looking down and thinking Sure.
You know, they're actually
maybe actually holding their sides down. That's
What I'm doing, by the way, when I'm looking off. I,
(03:14):
You know, but I also find that a lot
of time it's a crutch that actors don't need.
Yeah. Um, and,
and I think we should also point out that
with the latest SAG negotiations, um, the rule was created
that you, you do not, they have to say that you do not have
to memorize your sites.
Correct. Memorize your sides if it's at all possible.
(03:37):
I understand sometimes you don't have enough time.
Sometimes for whatever reason, it's just maybe it's a lot
of lingo, a lot of medical terminology or something.
I would highly encourage you to memorize your sides just
because it's so hard to act if you're reading, it's
so difficult to kind of be in the page,
not know what's coming and,
and kind of have to go back and forth.
(03:58):
Now, what I was gonna say about holding sides in particular
is I used to work for, for an actress
who made the observation that for her, she always liked
to hold sides, even if she was completely off book,
because it reminded them it was an audition.
Mm. I think there's something interesting about that.
Mm-hmm. I'm not sure that I fully agree with it,
but I like the psychology of it.
(04:19):
Yeah. So all that only really just to say like,
it doesn't really matter.
Right. The more important thing about holding sides
or not holding sides, having sides
or not having sides, is really just like,
you don't want anything distracting you from
being the character in the moment
during the audition. That's,
And I've, I've actually heard casting directors in the
(04:40):
room say that they get nervous when
the actor isn't holding the side.
Yeah. Because they're concerned
that the actor isn't fully memorized and then is
therefore going to, if they make a mistake,
gonna like freak out that they've made a mistake. So
Yeah, I think it becomes an audition
about the sides right.
(05:00):
At that point. So I think that,
you know, it's, it's like being late.
Like you want to make, just let
the audition be the audition.
Mm-hmm. Um, one additional thing I would like
to say about sides is earlier we said,
don't post your videos publicly.
Do not post your sides. Absolutely.
Don't post them, don't post a screenshot. Don't post.
Just don't, just don't, just don't post them at all.
(05:21):
Yeah. And again, same reason.
This is not material that you own. Right.
It is copywritten material.
Sometimes millions
of dollars have gone into creating the thing
that you're holding in your hands
and, uh, you don't want to run the risk of ruining
those millions of dollars.
Yeah. Now, I will say you may run into a scenario where
(05:45):
that that sort of protection against posting
sides and sharing them, in my opinion, sort
of has gone too far.
There are a couple of companies
that first will make you sign an NDA,
which is fine, that's normal. But there was a couple
The self-destructing sides. Yeah.
Oh, okay. I can't, I can't do it
(06:06):
with the self-destructing sides.
It's a lot. If, if I, if I had a soapbox,
because, so you may encounter that.
You have to download your sides from a, from a service
that only lets you download them one time to one device.
And that is the only device that you are allowed
(06:26):
to access them on.
Which begs the question,
how are you supposed to have a reader? How
Do I have a reader? I have
never understood the answer to this.
How do I coach? Yeah.
Um, if you take a screenshot from that,
it will self-destruct if you try to forward
or whatever, it will self-destruct.
Um, we're not fans of that. We do our best to.
(06:49):
So I would say if you're in that scenario
and you need creative ways
to help get your reader the material they need, talk
to your agent or manager,
and we will help you figure out a way around that.
Yeah. Yeah. We're not gonna tell you in this video how
to do it, how to get around those protections.
Yeah. Because it is their right to protect their material.
(07:09):
However, I think they do it at the cost of,
of a good audition sometimes.
Yeah. And so it behooves them for you
to have a good audition.
So work collaboratively to make sure that you are
as prepared as you can be.
Um, even if it means like, Hey, you know, these auditions,
I, I need some way to like, coach this or whatever.
Just talk to your reps and, and, and they'll talk to casting
(07:32):
and, and figure out a solution.
Yeah, absolutely.
But don't post, don't post your sides.
So one last thing, just
to touch back on the memorization aspect of all of this.
Again, do what works best for you as an actor.
Yeah. If you give a better performance when you're
(07:53):
memorized, memorized, if you
have a really hard time memorizing, you always have,
and you need a lot of rehearsal
and time with the sides to get memorized
and you've never been able to do it for an audition,
don't worry about it.
Hold your size and get really good at that sort
of performance where you're, you actually are glancing down,
(08:17):
but it's not impacting your performance.
I think a cold read class is a really good way if you need
to kind of brush up on that specific skill.
'cause it is a skill you can learn. Yeah, absolutely.
And I think it's important to remember that
auditioning really is the job.
Yeah. Um, if you book something great,
obviously that's the goal.
Yeah. But the job really is auditioning,
(08:39):
and so making sure that you audition as well as you can.
Um, whether that means memorizing
or not memorizing, whether
that means holding the script or not holding the script.
Do your job as effectively as you can do your job.
Thank you so much for watching.
Uh, again, I'm Anthony Boyer. This is Jess Caney.
Uh, leave a comment below.
(09:01):
Tell us, you know, if you have any thoughts about
auditioning, do you like to memorize?
Do you like to not memorize?
Do you like to hold your script?
Do you like to not hold your script?
Let us know in the comments below.
Let thanks so much for watching.
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