July 15, 1998
I've only been back in town from Club Med for 36 hours and already I'm back in the center of the storm. The first audition today was for a guest-star role on a new show, Conrad Bloom, for NBC. I had read for the lead role way back at the beginning of pilot season and it had gone well. (Not fantastically, obvously, since I didn't get it, but well.)
Our first topic of discussion was The Hanleys, of course, and the resulting deal. Ms. Stratton, with her allegiance to a couple of NBC shows, was not all sunshine and flowers about the deal. We talked about the pros and cons, me arguing that it's nice to have a network looking for work for you, her arguing that a great NBC show could come along and I'll be unavailable. We knew abnout that risk a month ago when we took the deal, and I'm still fine with it.
We read through the scene and I tried to pull off the slime-ball thing to the best of my ability. While I may actually be a slime-ball sometimes, I don't think I usually come off like a slime-ball. She seemed to buy it, though. Seperate from the whole audition, though, she was very complimentary in general, saying such things as, "Oh, you're going to do just fine. You're very funny and attractive and talented. You'll be OK." I thanked her for being so supportive and she wished me luck with my deal (and my Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place audition in the afternoon).
Go on to the... Callback.