Success Story: Audrey Del Prete Discusses Her Last-Minute Audition for Sundance Hit ‘The Looming’ and More

August 16, 2024 | Chris Butera
Photo Courtesy of Audrey Del Prete.

Audrey Del Prete may have grown up in a small Rhode Island town, but she’s making big moves on Casting Networks. The actor, now Los Angeles-based, scored a role in a short horror film called The Looming at the 11th hour.

The Looming won accolades at last year’s LA Horror Film Fest and this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and now is being transformed into a feature.

Del Prete shares her story on how she booked the gig, reveals a Scooby Doo-themed role and more.

How did you get started as an actor?

I’ve been acting since I was a kid in Rhode Island. There was a lot of community theater. Once I was in high school, I started doing some professional theater and kind of took a break when I was in college and grad school.

When I moved to California, I started doing community theater again, and then some professional theater, and the acting bug just wouldn’t go away. Even though I also have a full-time career in social work, I’ve now been pursuing acting professionally in Los Angeles for about two and a half years.

How did you first discover Casting Networks?

I’ve known about Casting Networks for a long time. I can’t remember exactly how I came across it—maybe in a Google search or through word of mouth. But I’ve been using it more seriously since moving back to LA about two and a half years ago. I used to have an agent in the Bay Area. I think that’s what kind of brought me back to Casting Networks, because my agent had me on there.

Audrey Del Prete in a black sweater looking serious. Photo Courtesy of Audrey Del Prete.

You mentioned that you booked a short film called The Looming, directed by Masha Ko, that wound up winning accolades at the LA Horror Film Fest 2023 and at this year’s Sundance. Tell me a bit about the film, and tell me the story of how you booked it.

It also received enough attention to have to get funding to turn that short film into a feature now, so that’s the update. I don’t know anything else other than that right now, and kudos to the director for making all of this happen. So, we’ll see what’s next.

The story is about how we face our inner demons as we get older and how people ignore older generations sometimes. The elderly are kind of the forgotten population.

I submitted to their casting notice on Casting Networks, which came through my email as a match for me. Maybe two hours later, I got a notice through Casting Networks that the director had reached out and she wanted to audition with me that afternoon on Zoom.

I didn’t receive any sides in advance. She sent me the sides over Zoom as screenshots, and she’s like,“OK, ready? Go!” It was the coldest cold read I’ve ever experienced—I had no time to look at it beforehand. I’m navigating by setting up the two different screenshots with the Zoom screen and everything, but apparently, she liked it.

About 20 minutes later, she texted me like, “Hey, can you hop on again real quick with the producer?” I did another reading with him there and that was it. I was on-set two days later.

I’m so thankful for the notifications Casting Networks sends.

Even though I was at work, I was able to see that someone reached out to me [and say,] “Let me respond to that real quick.” Because of those notifications, things can move fast. That’s in everyone’s best interest.

What was your experience like on-set?

It was a great experience. It was a really well-organized set.

Funny story, I’m from a small town—Cumberland, Rhode Island. I’m on-set with some other actors and someone overhears me say that I’m from Rhode Island. He’s like, “I’m from Rhode Island.” I’m like, “That’s so funny. Where in Rhode Island?” “Cumberland, Rhode Island.” [It turns out] he went to school with [and knew] my sister]. We’re like, “What are the odds of that happening at all in Los Angeles?”

Not only was it a really good experience professionally, but it was just so funny that I met another actor from the same small town as me on that set.

What are some other successes that you’ve booked from Casting Networks?

The other really cool gig I booked from Casting Networks was a passion project for this director and producer, Kyle Klubal. He made a new story using the Scooby Doo characters and ideas. It’s called Whisper If You Dare Scooby Doo. It’s just on YouTube.

I loved Scooby Doo growing up as a kid. I was like, “Cool. I’m definitely going to submit to this. Let’s see what happens.”

It was for the role of the villain. I thought, “I don’t usually play those types of roles, but let’s just see what happens.” I got the request for the self tape, got the callback request and then I booked it.

That was really cool and exciting for me. It was my first overnight shoot as well. That was a new challenge, but the biggest new and fun challenge for me was that I had to wear this silicone headpiece.

My entire head was in this mask all the way down to my chest. It went over my eyelids and my lips a little bit, so as an actor, I had to adjust because I had a whole monologue. I had to learn how to speak clearly with this thing on my face and even on my lips, and they put body paint on me and everything.

I got home at, I don’t know, 3 a.m. or so, showered real quick and got the body paint off as much as possible. I slept for like, three hours, and by 9 a.m. I was in the office going to work. That’s kind of the life of living as an actor right now.

What about Casting Networks keeps you coming back and what features do you find to be the most helpful?

Sometimes an email gets missed, so having the text [notifications] set up has been really helpful, especially because my agent wants to send me notifications. I get it directly to my phone, so I never miss a beat, especially in my busy life, managing a full-time job and acting classes. That’s been the most beneficial feature for me.

I’ve also realized that there’s a Role Tracker component. That’s really cool to see too, because I started tracking my own auditions. I realized that Casting Networks is also doing this now, so I can see exactly what I’ve submitted to and everything.

What would you say helps a fellow actor succeed on Casting Networks?

The notifications that you can set up to be specific for you have been helpful. Also, I can further customize it for what kind of jobs I’m looking for. At first, I was receiving everything, but I was able to go back and uncheck certain things. That helped narrow things down a little bit.

As an actor, that’s really helpful, and I think [it’s great] for my fellow actors too, because it takes a lot of time to weed through all of these different casting notices.

Audrey Del Prete in a snake costume with a green dress and white cape. Photo Courtesy of Audrey Del Prete.

What audition tips or advice do you have that you could share with your peers?

What I’ve discovered for myself—at least this is what has started working for me and I hope this works for others—is to remember to have fun with it.

We have all this pressure of booking the job and then feeling rejected when we don’t book it. At the end of the day, I feel like when I’m doing a self tape, I still get to do what I love. I’m putting it out there and who knows who sees it.

As the saying goes, “Don’t worry about booking the job. Book the room.” That still applies to self tapes because you never know who’s watching. Maybe you don’t book this job, but maybe it leads to your next job.

Remember to still have fun with it and take some of the pressure off because you’re not going to book every job. It’s a numbers game. The more auditions you submit, the more self tapes you submit, the more likely you are to book something. So have fun with it, take the pressure off, and book the room, not the job.

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