How to Prepare for a Callback: What Changes from the First Audition

The email says they’d like to see you again. Thursday, two o’clock, same sides, and “the director will be in the room.” For about ten minutes you’re thrilled. Then the questions start. Do you do it the same way? Do you need to be word-perfect now? Was it the blue shirt? And who else is going to be there?

A callback is good news, but it’s a different audition. The first round asked whether you could play the part. The callback asks whether you’re the one they want, in front of more people, sometimes next to other actors, and possibly with a note you didn’t see coming.

The short version: keep what got you called back, including the clothes. Add three things the first round didn’t demand: the lines fully learned, a scene that can bend when someone redirects it, and a plan for the room you’re walking into. Then use the last 24 hours to lock the words and rehearse a few likely notes, not to rebuild the performance. Here’s how each part works.

Start from what got you called back

The people casting liked something specific in your first read. You don’t know exactly what it was, so the safest thing is to give it to them again. Matt Newton, an on-camera acting coach in New York, advises in his Backstage guide to callbacks that you repeat what you did the first time unless you’ve been given notes. This is not the round to arrive with a brand-new interpretation.

That only works if you remember what you did. It’s easy not to, because the first audition was a week ago and three other auditions have happened since. So get in the habit of writing it down on the way home: the choices you made, where the scene turned, any note they gave you, and what you wore.

Wear the same outfit

Yes, the same one. Newton’s advice covers wardrobe too: unless they’ve asked for something different, wear what you wore the first time. The people who called you back have a picture of you in their heads, and part of that picture is the clothes. Showing up in something new makes them do the work of recognizing you again.

If the notes from casting mention wardrobe (a suit, something more casual, “dress for the period”), follow the notes instead. And if you can’t remember what you wore, that’s one more reason to write it down after every first round. For first-round outfits, see our guide on what to wear to an audition.

Find out what kind of callback it is

“Callback” covers several very different rooms, and you’ll prepare better if you know which one you’re in. Ask your agent, or reply politely to the casting office. These are the common ones. Whichever room it is, the basics of audition room etiquette still apply.

• A theater recall. Spotlight’s guide to recalls and casting callbacks notes that you may be given new material at a recall, and that the director or producer may be there. If the recall is in person, be ready for new material.
• A producer session. Casting director Marci Liroff’s guide to the four phases of pilot testing starts with a preread with the casting director, then moves to a callback with the producers and director, then a studio test, then a network test.
• A studio or network test. The Casting Director’s Cut describes the studio or network test as the last round in pilot casting, in front of the studio and then the network. Your deal may already have been negotiated before the test (the “test deal”).
• A chemistry read. You read the scene with one or more of the actors being considered for the role opposite yours, so the room can see how you work together. It deserves its own preparation; for now, know that it’s about the two of you, not just you.
• A callback self-tape. Some callbacks happen on tape. Under SAG-AFTRA’s 2023 TV/Theatrical agreement, which Backstage summarizes in its explainer on self-tape rules, a callback self-tape can ask for up to 12 pages, compared with 8 for a first tape. Under SAG-AFTRA rules they can’t require you to memorize a self-tape, but knowing it well still helps you take a note.

Ask one more question while you’re at it: are the sides the same? Newton points out that scripts get revised between rounds, so confirm you have the current pages. In episodic producer sessions, he adds, you may be asked to read a different part on the spot. If you have the full script, read it now if you didn’t before; directors at callbacks sometimes ask what you thought of it.

Be off book this time

At a callback the bar for knowing your lines moves up. Lucy Jenkins of the UK casting office Jenkins McShane says in tips published by Just Add Milk that her office may ask actors to learn lines for recalls even when it didn’t for the first round. Even when nobody asks, knowing the scene cold is what lets you do everything else a callback demands.

The reason is the note. In a Backstage column on memorizing sides, Liroff says she prefers actors off book even at a first audition, so she can give adjustments; at a callback that expectation only grows. Matthew Lessall, a former president of the Casting Society of America, calls the ability to take a note in the room the “mark of a truly gifted actor.” You can’t play a new direction while your eyes are hunting for the next line.

Still bring the pages and keep them in your hand. A rewrite, a different scene, or a sudden blank are all easier with paper nearby. Learn the lines by testing yourself from the other character’s cues, not by rereading. If a speech keeps slipping, our first-letter memorizer turns it into initials you can practice from, a step between the full text and nothing.

Rehearse the adjustment, not just the scene

Newton’s advice to repeat your first read comes with a warning: don’t lock it in. Newton warns that they may test whether you can take an adjustment, so be ready for a note. The way to do that is to have the scene learned so freely that you can play it several ways without the words wobbling.

Here’s a short exchange to practice on, the first two lines of Chekhov’s The Seagull:

MEDVEDENKO: Why do you always wear black?

MASHA: I am in mourning for my life. I am unhappy.

The Seagull, Act 1, translated by Constance Garnett, in the public-domain Standard Ebooks text.

Say Masha’s line three ways, as if a director had just given you each note:

1. “She’s said this a hundred times.” Bored, flat, almost a joke she’s tired of telling.
2. “She wants him to ask more.” The line is bait. Leave room after “unhappy” for him to step in.
3. “She’s never said it out loud before.” The second sentence surprises her.

Same ten words, three different scenes. Do this with your own callback sides: pick the two or three notes you’d most expect (more, less, a different want, a different relationship) and run each one once out loud. Jenkins makes the same suggestion for any audition: try a few ways of playing the scene. That way your first choice doesn’t become the only one you can do.

Taking the note in the room

When the director gives you an adjustment, listen to the whole note before you nod. If it’s unclear, ask one short question about what they want, not about how to do it. Then make the change big enough to see. A frequent trap is a note taken so politely that the second take looks like the first. They’re not checking that you heard them; they’re checking that you can change.

If the lines go in the callback

Callbacks are higher-stakes, and stress is exactly when lines go missing. The fix starts before the callback, in how you learn. In a 2016 study at Tufts, reported by ScienceDaily, 120 students learned material either by restudying it or by taking practice tests. A day later, half were put through a stressful task before recalling it. Stress hurt recall for the restudy group, but not for the group that had practiced by testing themselves.

Practice testing held up under stress in that study, which is a good reason to run your sides from the cues with your lines covered, rather than reading them over and over.

If you blank anyway, glance at the pages in your hand and keep going. That’s what they’re for. If it falls apart in the first few lines, Liroff’s advice in her post on asking for a do-over is to say you’re going to start over and do it: “Don’t ask for permission, just start again.” Deep in a scene, take a breath and continue. If blanking under pressure is a pattern for you, our guide to what to do when you forget your lines covers recovery in more detail.

The 24-hour callback plan

Assuming the callback is tomorrow afternoon and you already know the material from the first round, here’s one way to spend the time. Stretch it over more days if you have them.

1. As soon as the email arrives. Confirm the time and place. Ask whether the sides have changed, who will be in the room, and whether they want you off book. Download any new pages.
2. The same evening, first. Find your notes from the first audition: your choices, any note they gave you, your outfit. If you keep them in our free audition tracker, they’re already waiting. Lay out the outfit now.
3. The same evening, second. Read the full script if you have it, or the breakdown if you don’t, so you know what happens just before your scene.
4. The same evening, third. Get the scene fully off book by testing yourself from the cues. Learn any new pages first; you already know the old pages, so test them last.
5. Before bed. Run the adjustment drill: the scene once as you did it, then once for each of two or three likely notes. Stop at a set time and sleep.
6. The morning. Test from the cues before you look at the pages. Fix the gaps, then run the scene once for the choices, not the words.
7. Two hours before. A light skim of the script or breakdown, nothing more. No new work now.
8. On the way. Pages in your bag, current version on top. Run only your first line and the beat changes.
9. In the room. Give them what they liked. Take the note fully. If the words go, glance down and keep playing.

Running new pages when nobody can read with you

The hard part of the night before a callback is that every drill above wants a second voice. Cue tests need someone to feed you the cues, and adjustment practice is far easier when the other line keeps coming at you the same way while you change. A friend on a video call works; so does a voice memo of the other character’s lines with gaps for yours. Our guide to the audition reader explains what the person reading opposite you is there to do.

Offbook is built for this. Upload the callback sides as a PDF or a photo, pick your role, and realistic voices read every other character. It listens through your microphone while you say your lines and plays the next cue when you finish, and you can hide your own lines while everyone else’s stay visible, so each run is a real test. Rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere.

Whatever you use, keep the order: what you did, then the words, then the notes. A callback isn’t a second first audition. It’s the first rehearsal they get to see.

Questions actors ask

Is a callback a good sign?

Yes. It means someone in the room wants to see your work again. New York casting director Gayle Keller, in a Backstage piece on callbacks, encourages actors to treat the callback itself as the goal and the booking as the icing on the cake.

Should I change anything if they gave me no notes?

Not on purpose. Give them the read they liked, with the lines now fully learned, and save your other versions for when they ask. Being freer with the words often makes the same choices clearer without you changing anything.

Should I bring another headshot and résumé?

It’s worth bringing one even if they have yours, since new people may be in the room. It costs nothing to carry. If yours needs a refresh, an acting resume builder can lay out a clean one-page résumé.

What if the callback is a self-tape?

Then the same rules apply, and the page count can be higher. Keep your choices and your outfit, learn the lines more fully than the first time, and if they sent a note, make it obvious on tape. Our guide to self-taping alone covers setup and finding a reader. To compare the apps that help on a short turnaround, see our round-up of the best apps for TV and film auditions.