There is a wonderfully insightful interview with Tom, Stephen Burke and Jade Yourell for IFTN.ie. Read the full interview on the IFTN website.
So far so straightforward, but what was the experience like on the other side of the casting couch, that of our actors?
As Tom explains, being told to channel Jack Lemmon in his twenties is slightly daunting: “Terrifying! I mean I love Jack Lemmon, ‘The Apartment’ is one of my all time favourite films ever but you watch the video and say ‘I can’t be as good as you, you’re so good, I can’t do that’.“
And Tom’s problems don’t stop there, as he admits “I’m crap at auditions, they’re my Achilles heel. I’m really bad except when I’m with another actor. It’s a terrible trait to have because once I get through the door people want to work with me again but it’s just that first time they say ”No”.
It’s usually because when you sit opposite a casting director and there is just the camera there, they are reading with you and they are constantly checking whether the camera’s on you and forgetting their lines and they have a very tough job - they see a hundred people, it’s understandable. So when you go in and it’s someone like Sally and she is just acting with you then you can do it. Also, I knew that Sally would be fine so I was a lot less nervous that I normally would be which is probably why I got it.”
