You got put on hold! 

HELL YEA BABY! 

And now…what the actual fuck do you do? 

This is a really good question and one that I am still figuring out. I spent 2017 referring to myself as the “Queen of Almost” because I was put on hold for a shit ton of stuff! It was amazing…and awful. 

Let’s start with the process, if you haven’t dealt with it before, here’s whats up. When you go to an audition and possibly a callback, if the producers want you to potentially keep dates of the shoot available, they will put you on “hold” or “avail”. Sadly, this is not a booking. It’s not even a guaranteed 50% chance of a booking. It’s basically a way production buys time to make their final pics. 

My first 2-3 holds I ended up getting the job, so I though it was just a formality in the process. HA!

Then I had my first drops. The one up side (if you want to call it that) is that if you’re put on hold, you will get a call releasing you, unlike the usual “I have no idea what happened after that audition” routine. But regardless, this shit sucks. Nothing feels oh-so-close as being put on hold. You can really tear yourself apart on this one. 

True story, I was once in the waiting room of a casting office and I heard the associates chatting about a separate job they were working on. Basically I found out they were putting every single person who had been called back…on fucking hold! So 20 people were told to save a shoot date…and inevitably they were casting ONE. And this is not that uncommon. 

I don’t want to invalidate anything here. I lived on holds last year as it was some of the only proximity to work I was getting. I just want you to have all possible info here. Nothing is certain (remember THIS one?!) so take it all with a grain of (appreciative) salt. 

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So what do you do when you get put on hold? Well first, CONGRATS! Congratulate yourself and your hard work. All about those small victories. Then depending on how soon the shoot date is, think about letting your jobs know. If it’s within a week or two I let my employers and my other reps know there is potential of a shoot. If it’s more than a week or two I usually wait it out a bit…call me a rebel. And I like to use it as motivation to eat clean and take extra good care of myself (not just to be “camera ready” but also to keep my immune system up!).

Beyond that…I kinda try really hard to put it out of my mind. Easier said than done, I KNOW! You have to find a way to meditate, get busy with other work, pet a dog. Whatever! But you can’t harp on this. There is no set time for this to last, commercially usually moves faster than theatrical (especially features, I’ve been on hold for a month for a feature before) so find your way to relax into the situation. And leave your reps alone, you trust them, they want to nail this down as much as you do, trust me. When they know, you’ll know. 

And if it comes back a yes? HELL yes. And if you get released? Well then be sad for a little while. Validate your sadness, don’t shove it away! But find a way to let it go within a day or two. Don’t let that build up because it’s harder to shake the more you let it stick! And email me and tell me all about it (a little sympathy goes a long way in getting that off your chest).