Actors: YOU are what makes your self-tape interesting. If you erase your own point of view, personality, life experience, etc. then your tape is going to feel two-dimensional. Allow your uniqueness to filter into your choices, (within the tone of the piece.) #CastingLovesYou

Recently I cast a role where I received SEVERAL tapes that may as well have been carbon copies of each other. The actors didn't do anything wrong - they hit every beat on the page. But they didn't allow themselves to enter into the equation which resulted in near-identical tapes.

Again, they followed directions, they paid attention to every bit of the page (including stage directions,) they just didn't try to connect what was in the sides to their own experience/point of view.

The actor who got the role didn't remotely have the same life experience as the character, but she didn't allow that to stop her from connecting more deeply to what the character was experiencing/feeling. Her tape was instantly interesting, from her first moment.

You don't have to match a character's experience to be able to connect with them. You simply have to do the work to understand what they've gone through, what their relationship is to the person they're talking to, etc. and make sense of it in your own head/body. And then let go!