How to Do a Live Zoom Audition: Setup, Eyeline, and Reading With Casting

The email says 2:40 p.m., and under the time there’s a meeting link instead of an address. You’ve made dozens of self-tapes. But this time there’s no picking your best take, the casting director is watching live, and your reader is a face in a small rectangle with the internet between you.

A lot of Zoom audition advice is a 2020 tech checklist. That part is quick. The harder part is the acting, because a live read on a screen has problems a self-tape never does.

The short version: use a laptop at eye level with an earbud mic, and move the reader’s window to the top of the screen, right beside the camera. Play to a point next to the lens, not to the reader’s face in the middle of the screen. Expect late cues: pick up the instant you hear one end, and never stop to fix the rhythm. When casting gives a note, let them finish, say it back, and change one thing clearly. And know the sides well enough that your eyes never drop to find a line.

A live read is not a self-tape

A Los Angeles talent agent writing in a trade magazine notes that most film and TV auditions now happen on tape, but some clients have been asked to read live over video chat. One benefit, the agent says, is that casting can give you notes in real time.

That changes how you prepare. A self-tape is a finished product you control. A live read is closer to the room: casting sees the first take, gives a note, and watches how you change. Your setup only has to be good enough to disappear.

What doesn’t carry over from the room is the reader. On Zoom, they’re a small picture on a screen, their voice arrives a fraction late, and if you talk at the same moment, one of you can drop out. Most of this guide is about those three problems.

For union commercials, SAG-AFTRA’s tip sheet on virtual auditions says a producer who requires a live-remote audition must offer a virtual waiting room or another way to hear about delays, and a performer required to memorize instead of using cue cards or a prompter is paid a session fee. Other contracts differ, so ask your agent if you’re unsure.

Laptop or phone: set it up once, then forget it

Use a laptop if you have one. An acting coach’s tips for Zoom auditions is firm that Zoom auditions belong on a laptop, not a smartphone. You get a bigger screen for the reader’s window and a steadier camera.

A phone can work in a pinch. The same agent allows either, and asks phone users to start fully charged, shoot in landscape, and turn on do not disturb. Spotlight’s guide to auditioning on Zoom also asks for landscape on a phone or tablet. Mount it; never hold it.

Whichever you use, raise the camera to your eye level and leave room to move. Casting directors interviewed about remote auditions described actors who were perfectly framed for the scene but physically couldn’t move when it was time to slate. Test the frame standing and sitting before the day.

Sound: an earbud and one setting to know

A small earbud with a microphone is a good choice. It picks up your voice more clearly, and it keeps your audio from cutting out when you and the reader overlap. On a live read, that overlap happens all the time.

One setting is worth knowing about. Zoom’s support page on app settings says Zoom filters background noise by default, and that its “Original sound for musicians” option turns that filtering off; it’s meant for music. If you’re singing, turn it on. For a spoken scene, test it both ways on a call with a friend, whisper and shout included, and keep whichever sounds more like you.

Last, the connection. Spotlight suggests a wired ethernet cable to the router if you’re worried about the signal, Otherwise, set up where your wireless is strongest.

Where to look: the lens, not the window

The answer has two parts. Spotlight’s guide says to talk straight into the camera for the opening chat, so the people watching can meet you. For the scene itself, use the lens or a point just off to one side of it, and stick a small piece of tape beside the lens if you need something to focus on.

Here’s the trap. The reader’s face is often in the middle of the screen, a few inches below the camera. Play the scene to that face, and casting sees an actor looking down and away the whole time, and you can’t see yourself doing it.

So before you join, practice moving the reader’s window. Make it small and drag it to the top edge of the screen, right beside the camera, on the side you’ll play to. Now the face you want to look at and the point casting needs you to look at are almost the same place. Put your tape on that side of the lens, at the window’s height.

• For the slate and any chat, look into the lens.
• For the scene, play to the tape or the small window beside the lens, and keep that spot for the whole scene.
• If there’s a second character, shift your eyes a few inches to the other side of the lens for their lines.
• Hide your self view if it keeps catching your eye.

Lag: why every cue lands a little late

Conversation runs on very short gaps, and video calls stretch them. A University of Michigan study led by psychologist Julie Boland found that people take longer to start speaking over Zoom than in person. Conversation in general averages about 200 milliseconds between turns, the release notes.

The striking part is the size. In the study’s abstract, the same pairs of friends averaged 135 milliseconds between turns face to face and 487 over Zoom. The audio delay itself was estimated at only 30 to 70 milliseconds. The gaps grew far more than that delay itself, and Boland calls the disrupted rhythm one factor that makes video calls more tiring.

For an actor, that means quick exchanges suffer most. Read this short stretch of Chekhov’s The Proposal, where Lomov and Natalya Stepanovna fight over a meadow.

LOMOV. ... Oxen Meadows are mine!

NATALYA STEPANOVNA. It’s not true, they’re ours!

LOMOV. Mine!

NATALYA STEPANOVNA. It’s not true! I’ll prove it! I’ll send my mowers out to the Meadows this very day!

LOMOV. What?

NATALYA STEPANOVNA. My mowers will be there this very day!

LOMOV. I’ll give it to them in the neck!

NATALYA STEPANOVNA. You dare!

Anton Chekhov, The Proposal, translated by Julius West (Project Gutenberg)

In a room, this is a tennis rally. Over Zoom, every return arrives late. If you wait to be sure the reader has finished, the gaps add up and the fight goes slack. If you jump in early to keep the pace, you talk over the reader, and one of your voices may cut out.

How to play through it

1. Know every cue cold, so the line is ready the instant you hear the last word. Your own thinking time is the only delay you can remove. Our guide to learning fast, overlapping dialogue shows how to drill a rally like this.
2. Come in the moment you hear the end of a cue. Don’t add a beat to check you heard it.
3. Keep the energy up through the gaps. Stay in the argument while you wait; the silence is the connection, not the scene.
4. Never stop to fix a late cue. A stopped scene costs you more than a late one.
5. If a take truly falls apart because of the connection, say so simply after it ends and ask to go again.

The reader is dealing with the same lag from their side. Our guide to being a good self-tape reader shows what that job looks like over a video call.

Taking a redirect on a screen

The note is the point of a live read, so plan for it. On Zoom, the casting director may be a small, slightly frozen face, and lag works against you here too. It’s easy to start answering before they’ve finished, and then you both stop and both start again.

So when a note starts, stop moving and listen to the end. Wait a beat after they finish, in case the rest of the sentence is still on its way. Then say it back in one plain sentence: “Got it, less angry, more hurt that he forgot.” Ask a question only if you truly don’t understand.

Then make the change clear enough to read in a small window. You don’t need to play it bigger, but the new choice has to show from the first line. Don’t explain or apologize for your first take. A clean, visible adjustment is what they’re testing.

The best preparation is rehearsing a second version before the day. Our callback guide covers how to prepare an adjustment without losing what got you called back.

Be off book enough to stay off the screen

On a self-tape, an occasional glance at your sides barely registers. On Zoom it does. If they’re open on the same screen as the meeting, every look pulls your eyes off your spot. If they’re on paper in your lap, every look is a drop of the head. Either way, casting sees you leave the scene.

Unless you’ve been asked to memorize, keep the sides nearby as a safety net. But aim to know the scene well enough that you don’t need them, especially the quick exchanges where lag already costs you time. If the pages arrived the night before, our plan for an audition tomorrow shows how to learn them fast, and the free line memorizer turns your lines into first-letter cues for a quick test.

Rehearsing on the same laptop you’ll audition on helps. In Offbook, you upload the sides, pick your role, and realistic voices read every other character; Offbook listens through your microphone and plays the next cue when you finish your line. You can hide your own lines while everyone else’s stay visible, then hide the whole script for a final run, so you find out which lines you know before casting does.

If a line goes anyway, the fix is the same as in the room: stay in the moment, and look at the page only if you have to. Our guide to recovering from a messed-up line covers what to say and what not to.

The ten minutes before you join

Treat the setup like a call time: done early, then left alone.

• Plug in the laptop, or plug in the phone (charged fully beforehand) and turn on do not disturb.
• Close every other app and download that uses the internet.
• Set your Zoom display name to your full name.
• Put the earbud in and check the sound.
• Move the reader’s window to the top of the screen beside the camera, and put your tape by the lens.
• Check the frame standing and sitting, with room to slate.
• Put the sides where you can reach them without leaving your spot, and keep water nearby.
• Run the first and last lines of the scene out loud, looking at your spot.

Then join on time. If the session runs late, you may sit in a waiting room for a while, so keep the scene warm and don’t wander off. Our guide to audition room etiquette covers the parts of the room that still apply on a screen.

Questions actors ask

Where should I look during a Zoom audition?

Into the camera for the slate and any chat. For the scene, play to a fixed spot just beside the lens. Move the reader’s window to the top of the screen next to the camera so their face and your eyeline are in nearly the same place.

Should I use my phone or laptop for a Zoom audition?

A laptop, if you can. It gives you a bigger reader window and a steadier camera. If you use a phone, mount it in landscape at eye level, start fully charged, and turn on do not disturb.

How do I handle lag when reading with the casting director on Zoom?

Know your cues cold and come in the instant you hear the end of one, without an extra beat. Keep the scene alive through the gaps and never stop to fix a late cue. If the connection breaks a take, ask to go again once it ends.

Can I hold my sides in a Zoom audition?

Unless you’ve been asked to memorize, yes, and keep them nearby. But looking down at paper or across at another window reads as leaving the scene on camera, so learn the scene well enough that the sides are only a safety net.