Q: I dropped a word, do you think casting will notice/care
AKA
my hair is out of place, do you think that’s distracting
AKA
I did a weird eye thing. Do you think casting will notice?
I get this type of question a LOT. 9/10 as your reader, I don’t even notice what it is you’re fixated on. SO, let’s tackle I dropped a ‘the’ or I said ‘and’ instead of ‘but’. Generally speaking, as long as you’re not blatantly rewriting the story during your audition casting will not notice or hold against you a dropped or misspoken word. I say generally because again, as with all things, there are a FEW exceptions. If the dropped word does in fact change the meaning of the line/story or if the project is a multi-camera comedy. Multi-camera comedy should generally be treated as word perfect because of the structure of the jokes within this genre. My hair’s out of place, is that distracting? My umbrella statement on both of these types of questions is this: if casting is more worried about you dropping a word or where your hair is, you probably have some more room for growth with your auditioning.
I’m not completely off-book. Can I hold my sides? Do you think that will hurt my chances?
Look, if you’re not off-book you’re going to need to grab your lines from somewhere. Because we all have lives outside of acting it’s not always easy to get off-book for your self-tape. Should you try to be? Absolutely you should. But if you’re not memorized, refer to the first sentence in this answer. Casting won’t dismiss you simply because you need to use your sides for your tape. However, if you must use your sides, then it becomes a matter of using your sides effectively. This means you’re not buried in the page and reading every. Single. Line. You’re familiar enough with the work to at least know what’s coming next story-wise.