I was talking with a very talented VO artist the other day, and she had something stuck in her craw. She had just been at an audition for a project she already auditioned for. Not a callback scenario, but an actual audition where the producers directly called her in to read, even though she knew she had read on the same role a week earlier through her agency. Instead of taking it personally and wondering why they didn’t respond to her first audition, this wonderful VO talent went in and knocked ‘em dead with her read.
The fact that she had to audition twice (again, not in a callback way, but two mutually exclusive first auditions), indicates that the buyer had been casting a wide net to find their voice over talents. When this happen, everyone from every agency may be reading on a role. A wide casting net means your audition might get lost in the shuffle. Or it might mean that your agent had 3-5 better auditions than yours, and yours may not have been submitted. Thems are just the breaks in this business.
If you are lucky enough to be called straight to producers on a project, then don’t call attention to the fact that you already read on it. Just go in and knock ‘em dead!
Possibly Helpful Confession: I was asked twice by my agent to read on a series narration, with the audition requests spaced 10 days apart. Apparently they hadn’t found their gal in the first round of auditions, but luckily, I was asked to read again. I switched my takes on my original audition instead of reading again. I booked it, and I kept my tactic to myself…until now.