Self-tapes are Hollywood's new normal for auditions. Not everyone is happy

Joel D. Montgrand is having a banner year. 

The Saskatchewan actor from Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation near Prince Albert said up until recently, he was only recognized for bit parts, "one-liners" and fleeting moments in your favourite shows. But within the past two months, he's made his debut in HBO's smash hit True Detective: Night Country alongside Jodie Foster, and in what was one of the most highly anticipated Netflix series in recent memory: Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

He says that success likely wouldn't have come without the industry breaking down around him in a very specific way.

"Being Indigenous, where I grew up, I never dreamed that I would ever get to be an actor because you had to move," he told CBC News. "Nowadays, people are auditioning from all across the country from their own hometowns. There's no limit."

For better or worse, he says, the self-tape — when actors tape themselves auditioning at home instead of meeting in person with casting directors — is quickly becoming an entrenched part of the industry.

While self-tapes have always been part of the acting world, they've become a much larger part of it after the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered active projects, then forced casting agents to find ways to audition actors while still following social distancing policies.   

Montgrand sees it as a positive move that helped him land the role of Eddie Qavvik in Night Country, and one he says is helping actors score more opportunities.

"What has happened in the acting world, with me and a lot of my friends, is that auditions have skyrocketed," he said. "If someone say, would average maybe 50 auditions in a year, suddenly they're doing 100."

But as self-tapes are helping to change how auditioning works, others aren't so sure that change is a beneficial one.

While Toronto producer and actor Julian De Zotti does recognize the significant advantages that self-taping auditions can provide, he says the incursion is similar to labour issues in other industries where workers are expected to learn skills before landing a job.

"A lot of employers just think that 'Well, you can learn that on your own time, and you should be able to just show up and do it,' " he said. "That has always been in our business. And now it's just manifested itself in a different way — with self-tapes."

Both Montgrand and De Zotti say the increasing reliance on self-tapes can mean a bigger workload for actors since they have to tape themselves. And while actors who self-tape may double the amount of auditions they're able to attend, Montrgrand says it doesn't necessarily mean they automatically double the number of roles they land. Because as their capacity to audition increases, so, too, does their competition.

"If they booked say, four of those 50 or whatever it is, they would still book four out of that 100," he said.  

That leads to more chances but not necessarily to more work — and, in some cases, decidedly less money in their bank accounts, because they are now required to buy or rent equipment and software and invest in training just to tape an audition.