Just because you can’t watch MTV on campus doesn’t mean you can’t be on it. Bunim-Murray Productions, the company that produces The Real World and Road Rules, is currently accepting home videos and conducting open casting calls nationwide for The Real World Paris and Road Rules Season 12. There will be an open casting call in Boston on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at The Rack.
If you decide to trek down to The Rack on Tuesday, you might run into Jason Horowitz, senior casting coordinator for The Real World and Road Rules.
“I think open casting calls are the coolest part of my job,” he said. “[It’s cool to] see a thousand people lined up and you [don’t] have to talk to 300 or 400 of them, but you want to.”
Casting directors like Horowitz will see thousands of potential Real World and Road Rules cast members at open casting calls across the country which this year are being held in Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, College Station, Texas and Missoula, Montana. Bunim-Murray also receives up to 30,000 home video tapes.
“The people in the casting department are watching a lot of videos, seeing a lot of different people,” he said. “But it doesn’t really get monotonous because everybody is different in their own way. You rarely see two videos that are exactly the same.”
The open casting calls are not really as intimidating as they seem. Once inside, the audition candidates are placed in small groups of 10 to 12 people.
“A casting director will throw out a question,” Horowitz explained. “It can be about any number of things from political to social to sexual topics. It is something that will encourage a spirited discussion from the group.”
Anyone that stands out in the group interview or on a home video tape will be sent an application and will continue through the audition process, which includes more interviews with producers.
So how can you stand out of a crowd of MTV-hopefuls numbering in the thousands? Contrary to popular belief, Horowitz claims there’s no sure-fire approach that will get you on either show. Casting directors don’t have to cast a racially, socially, and sexually diverse group, they just find that a mixture of interesting people makes for better TV.
“It’s not really a prerequisite that we have people from different races or people with different sexual orientations,” he said. “It just more or less happens that way.”
Horowitz does have some advice, however cliche. “Be yourself,” he offered. “It boils down to who would be interesting to watch….We’re really just looking for people with interesting stories that we haven’t told yet.”
In fact, if you’re interesting and entertaining you will stand out. Horowitz still remembers Mike from The Real World Back to New York. “He was really spirited and in your face, and it was hard to forget about him,” he recalled. “He is so fascinating. You listen to him tell a story and you are totally into it…He’s one of a kind.”
Whatever you do, don’t fake it, even if you think you’re not interesting enough. “We can tell when someone is pretending to be something they’re not just to grab our attention,” Horowitz said. “That usually makes us steer away from that person.”
The Real World and Road Rules casts will be finalized by December. The “difficult process” is long and arduous, said Horowitz. If you’re cast you might end up on either The Real World or Road Rules. There are no specific requirements that would place an applicant definitely on either show.
“The end of the casting process is basically a whole bunch of executives from [Bunim-Murray], and from MTV, and the producers of The Real World and Road Rules, in a room deciding who they want to be on their shows,” Horowitz said. “[The deciding factor] is really just a feeling you get about someone whether they would be good on one show or another. Or you sometimes have individual producers [who say] ‘Oh, I’ve got to have that person.'”
The Real World Paris and Road Rules Season 12 will start taping in January. The deadline for videotapes is Saturday, September 21. Look for Horowitz on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Rack, 24 Clinton St. And, if you want some inspiration, you can always find a cable TV and watch Road Rules Mondays at 10 p.m. and The Real World Las Vegas Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
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