Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Fresh Off star Park recalls the soggy audition
For the past five seasons, Randall Park has played the endearingly optimistic, consistently upbeat husband, father and Florida steakhouse restaurant proprietor Louis Huang on the ABC comedy Fresh Off the Boat.
Park has also had a long-running recurring role on HBO’s Veep as Danny Chung, and he co-stars in the forthcoming Netflix romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe with comedian Ali Wong.
Headlining a broadcast network sitcom has been one of Park’s career highs. When asked to share a worst moment, he replied: “There’s one that stands out for me, and I’ve told it to friends before — hopefully I can tell you the story without acting it out and still convey the horror.”
“When I first started acting, I was doing a lot of these network showcases. Like ABC, NBC and Fox, they all had these diversity showcases where basically they were looking for talent and trying to help us get seen.
“I didn’t have any representation at the time, I was fairly new. So I did a lot of these showcases for all the different networks and one of these showcases went particularly well — so well that the network brought me in to meet all the casting people and some of the executives.
“This is huge for me at the time because my dream was to be on a show. So they started sending me out to auditions. I’d done a lot of sketch and theater, and I was doing stand-up at the time, but I didn’t know how to audition. And I didn’t realize that it’s a different set of skills that are related to acting, but different.
“So they sent me out to this one audition and it was a renowned casting director. All I remember about the pilot was that Nathan Lane was one of the stars. In the scene, I was an assistant at this company and the idea is that I come in, having run up the stairs, and I’m out of breath, drenched in sweat and I deliver my lines.
“The show was never picked up. But I didn’t know this at the time, I thought I was going to be a multibillionaire after I wowed this casting director. This was the opportunity of a lifetime in my head.
“I remember being in the waiting room and getting nervous. I’m this new actor and I’m seeing all the other actors and thinking: Gosh, all these guys probably have so much more experience than I do — I might have even recognized some of them from TV. I was psyching myself out and thinking, I really need to find a way to stand out in my audition.
“I notice that there’s a water cooler in the waiting room with these little cups. And I thought: I know how I can stand out. What if I get a little cup of water and bring it into the audition, and when the scene starts I just kind of douse myself with the water? I’ll literally be sweaty, like I’ve just run up a flight of stairs. I wanted to put on a show for this guy and the competition looked very fierce.
“So they call my name and I have my plan, I have my little cup of water, and I go into the office and it’s just me and the casting director and he’s sitting behind his desk. The office is tiny. I’m thinking: This is a tight space for an audition, but all the better, he’ll really get to see the nuances that I’m about to bring.
“There’s some chat at first, he’s very nice. And I’m nervous. And then he said, ‘Are you ready?’ I said, ‘Yeah, give me one second’ — and I took a deep breath and I pick up my little cup of water and I pour it on my face (laughs) and then I’m ready to go.
“But I look at him and I see that there’s also water on his face. And I look down at his tie and I see speckles of water on his tie. And then I look down at his desk and the papers have these droplets of water all over.
“I start the scene. I could tell he is not happy. I fumble half the words because I’m so in my head about what I just did. When I finished my last line he doesn’t say anything. He just looks at me. And I’m like, ‘All right. Well. Thank you.’ He doesn’t say a word. And I walk out.
“And I never went back in that office for another, like, seven years and I remember seeing his name — and at this point, my career had progressed somewhat — and I remember thinking, I wonder if he remembers? I went to the office and I was even more nervous than the first time. But there was no flash of recognition! I don’t think he remembered that it was me.
“And the crazy thing is, I booked the role.”
“Avoid gimmicks. At the time I didn’t think it was a gimmick, for some reason I thought water on my face would wow him. But really, what they want is just a sense of who you are and to see you perform. And the irony is, I did give him a sense of who I was at the time: I was a desperate, nervous and anxious new actor who wanted to make an impression.
“For years, that experience haunted me. With most careers there are ups and downs and especially at the beginning there is struggle. And there was a lot of struggle, a lot of times when I was broke and not working and not even auditioning, and I would think about that one audition and wonder if there was any connection. Like, did word get around about me? I was so paranoid.
“I’m sure casting directors see a ton of horrible, nervous first-timers. Or actors that just aren’t prepared. And I’m sure that casting director has seen it all and has worse stories. I mean, splashing a little water on his desk, not so bad. But it was on his face (laughs) I think that’s what really did it. And the look on his face while the water was dripping down it, that really got seared into my memory and I could not let go of that for many years.
“But in retrospect, it was not that big of a deal. And things turned out OK. I’ve made mistakes, I’m going to make mistakes — and I may feel like those mistakes define me in the moment — but with time they just become part of the journey.