Inappropriate.

I really don’t understand it, but sometimes actors like to bring friends/boyfriends/wives/children to auditions with them. In fact, I know one actor who swears his wife is good luck and refuses to read unless she’s allowed in the waiting room. True story. But the most bizarre experience of my career happened when I was working as an associate on a comedy pilot.

An actress brought her husband and small child with her to the audition. After she read, (and did a nice job) the director gave her a few notes. But she was distracted. The baby was screaming in the waiting room. She explained that the child was going through a separation anxiety phase and excused herself to ask her husband to take the child elsewhere. The producer then suggested that it was okay if she brought the child into the room with us while they gave her notes. So in came husband and child. The child ran up to his mother and buried himself in her armpit and the crying stopped. The producers and director cooed at how he just wanted his mother and proceeded to give her notes. 

Then everything sort of went into slow motion for me as the child reached down, pulled up the actress's shirt, and began to breastfeed. I froze. The casting director froze. The producers and the director froze. The actress, not batting an eye, continued the conversation like everything was normal. She was ready to give the material a try. The producer motioned for me to commence recording the audition, and she did the scene with the child still feeding away. I politely framed the shot so that the child could not be seen.

When she left the room, the producer asked if we thought she was any good because he just couldn’t tell. We couldn’t either.

LESSON: There’s a time and place ...