How to Prepare for a General Meeting With a Casting Director

Your agent’s email is two lines long: “General with the casting office Thursday at 11. They saw your tape last month.” There are no sides, no role name, no breakdown. Just a time, an address, and a name you’ve seen in end credits.

That’s the part that throws people. An audition gives you something to prepare. A general gives you a chair and a person, and the material is you. It’s easy to spend the week rehearsing nothing, then walk in and talk for twenty minutes about the weather and your commute.

The short version: a general is a get-to-know-you meeting, not an audition. Research the office’s current work. Work out a one-line logline for how you’re cast, plus an honest reason you fit one or two of their projects. Prepare a 30-second answer to “tell me about yourself” (with a 60-second version in reserve), bring two printed copies of your headshot and resume, ask real questions about their work, and take five minutes after you leave to write notes. The goal: the next time a role like yours comes across their desk, they think of you by name.

Know what a general meeting is for

Casting director Ramani Leah, CSA, defines it plainly in her explainer on general meetings: a very casual meet and greet between new talent and someone in the industry. For actors that’s usually a casting director or associate, though generals can also be with studio and network executives. Her reminder: “It’s not an interview. It’s not an audition.”

So what is it? It’s the office putting a face and a personality to a name. Spotlight’s guide to networking as an actor notes that casting directors have fantastic memories and keep the actors they’ve met in mind for future roles. A general is a deposit into that memory. Nothing gets decided in the room. Something gets filed.

Generals are also rare. Spotlight’s interview with UK casting director Irene Cotton reports that meetings like this are very hard to get now, and that the actors who get them are already known to the casting director, have a really strong showreel, or have done a good self-tape.

It isn’t new. Back in 2009, casting director Bonnie Gillespie already called them “those oh-so rare casting director generals”. In her history of casting workshops, she describes a point in the 2000s when casting associates saw paid workshops as an efficient way to see actors outside the office, and money was to be made from them. Her summary of the mood: “No one wants to go back to generals.”

That last point is worth holding onto. If you got the meeting, someone already liked something. You aren’t there to prove you can act. You’re there to be a person they’d want to call in.

Research the office like you’d research a role

Leah’s advice is to research whoever you’re meeting, and to go further than one website: “Don’t just search IMDb, but also the trades.” Know their past projects, the genres they mostly work in, and the showrunners and directors they tend to work with.

Start with what they’re casting now or cast in the last year, because that’s the work your meeting is really about. Then look at the shape of the career (procedurals, indie features, comedy) and at who keeps hiring them. A director who brings the same office onto every film is a clue to the taste in that room.

Then watch one episode of a show they cast, with your type in mind. Look at the guest roles and co-stars: the nurse, the landlord, the coworker with three scenes. Those are the parts an office might bring you in for first.

Actor Douglas Taurel, in his list of questions to prepare for casting directors and agents, adds a useful step. Once you’ve found something worth talking about, rehearse it a little: have a friend ask you about it so you hear yourself answer out loud. Research you’ve never said aloud tends to come out as a list.

Decide where you fit before they ask

Sooner or later, a version of this question comes up: how do you see yourself being cast? Gillespie’s Pitch Clinic prepares actors for the moment someone asks “How do you see me pitching you” or “So tell me about yourself.” Her answer is a personal logline: a one-liner ready for when someone asks how they might best cast you or what you’re best at.

In the same piece she shares actor Helenna Santos Levy’s method for building one. Collect the adjectives people use about you again and again. Pick the strongest. Pitch the line to a group, hear what worked and what didn’t, then refine it. It’s not a slogan for the meeting. It’s how you stop answering with “I can play anything.”

Then connect that line to the office. Up-To-Date Actor’s guide to targeted introductions to casting makes a useful distinction: a real reason to fit a project is a language you speak fluently, a professional background you actually have, a special skill, or a place you know. “Simply wanting to be on a particular show isn’t.”

So for the one or two projects where you honestly fit, write one sentence each. “Your new hospital drama shoots in Atlanta, I’m local, and I was an EMT for four years.” It isn’t a pitch for a role. Keep it for when their projects come up in conversation, which they will, and say it as a plain fact about you. If you’re still working out your type, our guide to reading a casting breakdown shows how offices describe roles, which is the language you want to borrow.

Build one answer to “tell me about yourself”

This is the question people dread, and the one you can prepare best. Leah’s list of what to expect is short and specific: where you’re from, how long you’ve been acting, how long you’ve been in your city. Taurel, writing about agent meetings, suggests answering “tell me about yourself” with a story of about 60 seconds that covers your background, training, recent work, and what you’re aiming for next, and includes something personal that reveals your character.

Coach Amy Lyndon, writing in Daily Actor, tells you how to open it: with an interesting fact or story that also relates to your castability. She says she plays a gentle nerd a lot, so she tells about never taking her childhood Star Wars toys out of their boxes. The story is funny, it’s true, and it quietly pitches her type. She also notes there’s a 30-second casting director version of the whole answer.

Put those together and you have one answer in three parts. Open with a short, true story that hints at what you play. Give the background and recent work in a couple of sentences, not a credit list. Include one personal detail, as Taurel suggests; our advice is to close on something from your life outside acting. Build it at 60 seconds, then trim it to Lyndon’s 30-second casting director version, and keep the longer one for when they ask a follow-up.

That last part matters more than it looks. In the Spotlight networking guide, casting director Amanda Lenker Doyle, CSA, says she likes to get to know the person as a person, and Jeanne McCarthy, CSA, wants to connect with someone “in a genuine way. Not in an actory way.” A hobby, a strange day job, a family business: these are what make you “the one who restores motorcycles” in a casting director’s notes instead of one of forty actors seen that week.

What not to say

Don’t read your resume aloud. They have it, and the answer above already covers the credits that matter. Don’t apologize for having few credits; say what you’re working on instead. And don’t fish for a role (“Is there anything you’re casting I’d be right for?”). If they’re casting something that fits you, the meeting will get there on its own.

What to bring and what to wear

Bring two printed copies of your current headshot and resume, stapled back to back, even if they already have them on file. Offices pass materials around, and a fresh copy saves someone a search. Write down the names of everyone you’re meeting, and plan to arrive ten minutes early so you’re not walking in out of breath. If your resume needs work first, our free acting resume builder builds a one-page acting resume you can print or save as a PDF.

Wear what you’d wear to meet a director for coffee, in the color and style of your headshot, so the person they meet matches the photo they’ll look at later. For a video general, set up as you would for a self-tape: light on your face, a quiet room, the camera at eye level.

Have one piece ready, even though you probably won’t need it. Now and then a casting person asks to hear something. A minute-long monologue you can do cold on a Thursday morning is cheap insurance. Our guide to memorizing a monologue covers getting one solid, and running it once a week with your lines hidden, in Offbook or on your own, keeps it there.

Ask questions that show you were paying attention

A general is two-way. Leah says you’re welcome to ask questions too, and gives an example as small as asking where their current projects shoot. Spotlight’s networking guide suggests asking fellow actors about themselves to put them at ease; the same works across the desk.

Good questions come straight out of your research:

• Ask how a specific project came to them, or what was hard to cast on it. People like talking about the puzzle of their own work.
• Ask what they’re looking forward to in the next year, without asking for specifics they may not be able to share.
• Ask how they like to hear from actors after a meeting, and whether they prefer email or an update through your agent.
• Ask about the city if you’re new to it: which theaters they go to, which classes their office respects.

Skip anything the trades or their credits already answered, and anything that asks them to do work for you on the spot, such as introducing you to an agent. If the relationship grows, those things come later.

Your prep plan

Here’s the whole preparation in one place. Most of it fits into two evenings.

1. List the office’s projects from the last year and note the one or two where you honestly fit.
2. Watch one episode or a trailer of something they cast, paying attention to the smaller roles.
3. Write your logline and a one-sentence fit for each of those projects, then say them aloud until they sound like you.
4. Build your answer to “tell me about yourself” at 60 seconds (a short story that hints at your type, a little background, one thing from your life outside acting), then trim a 30-second version.
5. Write three questions about their work, drawn from your research.
6. Print two headshots and resumes, choose an outfit that matches your photo, and plan to arrive ten minutes early.
7. Run your ready monologue once, with your lines hidden, so you know it holds.

Write it down after you walk out

Leah’s most practical advice comes after the meeting: take five minutes, before you head to the next thing, to jot down anything useful you learned. The next time you’re in that office, you can refer back to it. Remembering a past conversation, she writes, shows you cared and that you’re a thoughtful actor. “We like thoughtful actors.”

Write down who you met, including the associate or assistant who greeted you. Write what they’re working on, what they asked, what made them laugh, and anything they said about how they like to be contacted. Keep it next to the rest of your career records. If you use our free audition tracker to log every audition, it’s the natural place to look back before you’re called in by that office.

Then send a short thank-you that asks for nothing: one line about something specific you talked about, and that’s it. Our guide to following up with casting covers format, timing, and how often to stay in touch, which comes down to sending real news, not reminders.

A general rarely leads to anything that week. It works on a longer clock. When that office does call you in, run the scene with a reader the night before, because the meeting got you in the room and the work has to keep you there.

Questions actors ask

Is a general meeting an audition?

No. It’s a casual get-to-know-you meeting with a casting director or associate, with no role being cast in the room. Expect conversation, not sides, but keep one short monologue ready in case someone asks.

What should I bring to a general meeting?

Two printed copies of your current headshot and resume, the names of the people you’re meeting, and a few questions about their work.

What do casting directors ask in a general meeting?

Expect questions like where you’re from, how long you’ve been acting, and how long you’ve lived in your city, plus some form of “tell me about yourself” or “How do you see me pitching you?” Have your 30-second answer and your logline ready.

How do I get a general meeting with a casting director?

Irene Cotton’s view is that the actors who get these meetings are already known to the casting director, have a really strong showreel, or have done a good self-tape. So the practical route is the work itself: strong tapes, a reel, and roles that get seen. A paid session with a casting director is a workshop, which is a different thing from a general.

What if the meeting felt short or awkward?

That’s normal for a casual meeting, and nothing is decided in the room. In her Spotlight interview, Irene Cotton says casting directors can see beyond nerves. Write your notes anyway, send a short thank-you, and let the meeting do its slow work.