On hold.

Your agent tells you you’re on hold.

Or they put a pin in you, you’re on the short list, you’re first choice, available dates.

If you’re on hold you’re working. You have plans that could include other work, family, health, holiday or study. But your future is up in the air until you find out if you’re cast or not.

That uncertainty of being on hold - which also means postpone, defer, shelve, suspend, delay, adjourn, mothball - can make you anxious. You’ll be making plans to see how you might juggle what is confirmed and what may change if you’re cast.

That’s work.

Unpaid work. Unrecognized and unspoken work. You and your colleagues all burn up energy preparing for a change – often on short notice – and living in uncertainty and worry.

Those close to you worry too.

You might be worrying if you’ll remember the lines especially if you’re booked on short notice. Getting put on hold might make you think, ‘Oh good, I did a good job.’ Putting you on a high, but then not booking puts you down into a low.

A roller coaster ride that you didn’t ask for.

Casting, agents, producers don’t go on that ride. You do.

You’ll hear if you do book, but not if you don’t. You can call your agent and ask, but that’s not considered proper protocol. That doesn’t earn your agent any money – taking the time to find out if someone else has booked the job. Casting doesn’t want to respond to that question.

It’s left to you to try and figure out when that job might be gone, so you can carry on with your plans.

Returning to normal.

When will you get paid for that work? Maybe add it on to the fee of your next job.

Some may describe this process as ‘just part of the actor’s life’, but it’s interesting to see what a thing actually is.