How Do You Prepare Your Child for Interviews with Talent Agencies?

When my daughter first interviewed with talent agencies for representation, we really did not do anything to prepare her.  She already had a talent manager, and he told me to dress her in something cute and to tell her to be herself.

My daughter was not quite seven years old when we were looking at Los Angeles talent agencies.  She was very outgoing and confident and had no fear when talking to adults, so we just let her do her own thing.

It worked out well for us, and I’m sure my daughter’s talent manager knew what he was doing.  And I trusted him because I certainly did not know what I was doing.

If your child does not yet have representation, you may be wondering what you can do to help prepare your child for interviews with talent agencies and managers.

The technique of not doing any preparation for a child’s interviews is probably not the best for every child and every situation. It depends partly on the age of your child, your child’s personality and look, and how you got the agency interview for your child.

If you already have a talent manager with a good reputation and/or good relationships with certain talent agencies, the talent agents may be more likely to represent your child based on the talent manager’s recommendations. But they will still do their own evaluation to make the decision.

In any case, it is certainly not a bad thing to prepare your child for interviews with talent agencies and managers. The following are some things that you can do to help prepare your child for interviews:

• Help him/her learn and rehearse a short commercial.
• Help him/her learn and rehearse a short monologue (very seldom requested for young kids, but sometimes for older kids or teens or for theatre).
• Conduct practice interviews with your child. Encourage your child to answer questions with more than “yes” or “no“, and possibly even tell a funny, little story as part of an answer when it makes sense.
• Remind your child to look into the talent agent’s eyes while being spoken to by the talent agent rather than around the room or at the floor.
• For older children, have them practice reading the lines from a short script from a play or movie with you. Make sure they sound natural and not like they are reading.
• Have your child work with an acting coach prior to visiting talent agencies and managers, if possible, particularly if your child is timid or quiet. An acting coach can also advise you as to whether your child is ready to visit agencies to seek representation or needs additional coaching or training.

Most importantly, make sure your child knows to just be herself/himself and have fun. You want your child to be relaxed and comfortable so the talent agent can see her/his true personality.

Also, keep in mind that the talent agents will be interviewing and observing you, the parent, as well as the child.  Prepare yourself by letting your child answer questions asked by others rather than you answering, so you won’t be tempted to answer questions for them in front of the talent agents. You don’t want to appear pushy or controlling.

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