Why wasn’t I picked for the casting? We all know how disappointing it is to not get picked for a job you were hoping to book! Rest assured, “it’s not you.” Or it probably wasn’t you.
7 reasons you weren’t hired for the model casting.
- You just don’t have the right look. It’s simply that. The client has a veryy specific look they are hiring for, and you didn’t fit. Even if you’re blonde and they’re looking for blondes… Are you really the closest model to the vision they had in mind? Maybe. Probably not. This is the case more often than not.
- Your hair is just an inch too short. If you’re at a hair casting: first of all, they are very hard to book unless you are open to complete transformations. I’m a professional hair model, among other things. I almost booked a really great hair job once, but my hair was slightly too short. I had the right look, but they needed very specific hair.
- They found their model before you even came to the casting. I know this is especially common with hair castings. They found the perfect model already, but the client is still pretty much obligated to execute the rest of the casting. This is why it’s usually a great idea to come at the start of a casting, rather than the middle or at the end, if you can help it.
- They SOUNDED like they wanted to hire you, why didn’t you get the callback? I know this is disappointing, and it could be any number of reasons. Most commonly, they just found another model that for better. Maybe it was budget, maybe it was personality. Regardless, you can’t stress yourself over it. Nothing is ever a “YES” until you are actually ON SET.
- Your agency. Yes, sometimes your agency really doesn’t have your best interests in mind. They have models to take care of other than you! I’ve had screw-ups with jobs in fashion week before, where I’ve booked one job and was put on hold for another and ended up not doing either one because of something that happened on the back end of things.
- Personality. Sometimes you might not have booked a job, because it was you. Maybe you were tired and didn’t have energy and they were looking for bubbly personalities. Either way, just be you and this probably won’t be a problem. Unless “you” means being unprofessional and rubbing off on people wrong.
- Not wearing the right clothes, or looking too “fresh” to the industry. If are, or you look, inexperienced, it may be a turn off to the client. The only way to not look new is to get out there, build your portfolio, build your wardrobe, and gain experience.
There are a million reasons why you weren’t picked for a job. The only thing that matters is: you weren’t picked. That’s it. No need to overthink it. It rarely has anything to do with something you did or didn’t do.
As a rule, I personally say: expect the worst, but always hope for the best. It takes a lot of tries to get hired for a modeling job. Just keep at it, and the right one(s) will come along!
Be Fierce!!
Briauna Mariah (:
I definitely went through this phase myself, early on in my modeling career. To the left is an example of a poor Polaroid on my part. It should be obvious but to someone new to the industry, as I was at the time, I thought that all the agencies wanted was to see a picture of me. This is incorrect, they wanted to see me looking fresh, in a quality photo that enhanced my assets. Poor (especially indoor, like my example) lighting and low quality images are definitely a no! Compare the lighting of the two photos in this post (see above). See the difference in quality?