Earlier this month I had the pleasure of attending the premiere of a feature film I worked on back in early 2020, Lena. In this particular scene, I play Dr James Bennington, who is startled when Lena (Francesca Baccarella) stumbles into his surgery following a series of unfortunate events around her fifth wedding anniversary. She says she’s had a bad fall, but is she telling the truth? Watch the scene below and decide for yourselves!

The crew said to me afterwards that they could definitely tell that I worked as a teacher with the “Give me the scissors now!” line – life experience can help roles in the most unexpected ways! Another thing l enjoyed about this scene was going from being fairly strict into kind & caring mode quite smoothly – something else my teaching days taught me.

Meet the crew

Lena was my second time working with Hannah & Sam Suni from Courageous Films, after their first feature film Scarlett back in 2018, where I played the title character’s wronged husband. I still remember my audition for that role fondly, as it took place at the Red Lion in Barnet, where my mum worked as a teenager- and also where she first met my dad! It’s always good to arrive at an audition with some small talk handy, particularly about the location, and that certainly served me well here. If the audition is somewhere you’ve never visited before, say so – and how good it feels to be there. Makes a pleasant change from talking about the weather!

Conversations like this help put you at ease, alongside everyone else in the room, and that’s what leads to a better audition & better chance of success! Or at the very least, a better chance of being remembered for other roles.

Lena is currently on the film festival circuit, and will be available online later this year. I hope to work with Hannah & Sam again on their next feature film soon.
What’s your favourite way to ‘break the ice’ at an audition or interview?