Before recording my 'Homeland' audition on my iPhone in my bedroom in Streatham, I hadn't worked or had an audition in the U.K. for nine months.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I can record auditions from my office in my home.
I couldn't even get an audition for network TV at home in Ireland.
Back 20 years ago, I was recording with Bruce Springsteen, and his producer called me and said I had to be in the studio the next day to finish the sessions, and I couldn't. I had to be in court, in California. All this took like 10 years out of my life.
I used to audition like crazy - I would go on a hundred before I got anything. It took me a long time to get any jobs at all. It was hard until I booked 'Galaxy Quest,' and then it started to get easier.
I once did a three-hour interview with Radio Oxford only to be told the microphone hadn't picked me up.
Well, this week for example, I was just in Los Angeles making a documentary for German television on whales. They had tried to get me in England where they missed me.
I'd gone through periods where I didn't work live performances for probably seven or eight months at a time.
I had sent out 100 audition tapes within 365 days, and then I got the 'Dope' audition. When I sent that out, two days later my manager called me and said they wanted to fly me out to L.A. to audition.
I auditioned for 'Pitch Perfect,' and I had to sing. It was terrible.
I remember being unemployed and walking the East Village streets for many years, constantly checking my voice mail on pay phones, hoping for an audition.