'Rashomonk'

Most auditions are emotional pressure cookers that allow only a few minutes to make an impression -- and the impressions go both ways between auditioner and auditionee. There can be as many opinions about what occurred in any given casting session as there were people in the room. "Rashomon" has nothing on the perceptual fractures that result.

So last week when actor Matt North told "Wicked Little Town" that his recent audition for the role of a garbageman on USA Networks' "Monk" was, in his view, cut short and then soured by an apparently sarcastic quip from star/producer Tony Shalhoub, it didn't take long for the show's producers to call and refute his verson of events. They had the audition on videotape, and I went to watch it to try to cut through the contentions and judge the documentary evidence.

The tape shows two actors -- North and the scene partner he'd met minutes before, as is standard practice -- reading a brief scene as two garbagemen with the offscreen voice of Shalhoub, in the role of obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk. The other actor has the majority of the lines, and North has just a few; the scene closes with Shalhoub saying, "God bless you and God bless your work," and the tape ends.

North says he was miffed because he'd been asked to prepare both garbagemen roles, but was only allowed to read for the smaller part; hence his sense that the audition was cut short; however, the two actors did perform an entire reading. North then interpreted Shalhoub's "God bless" as a patronizing post-audition kiss-off to the actors.

However, the "God bless" comment is actually a line from the script, not an ad-lib jab. And on the videotape I viewed, it does sound like it's delivered as part of the scene, not as a post-scene comment.

Now, could North perhaps have received some vibe from the producers that the audition was essentially already over by that point? And did it thus seem that Shalhoub was dismissing the actors with the line, scripted or not? It's possible, but since the producers are unseen on the tape and it all goes by so quickly, it's hard to say what non-verbal messages, if any, were being conveyed in that room. Indeed, the very quickness of the exchange may be part of what rubbed North the wrong way and made the experience feel sour. But many seasoned actors feel similarly rushed through the unforgiving grind of the audition process, and in most cases it's no one's fault but the clock's.

Everyone involved with the show affirmed that Shalhoub is among the "most giving and generous" actors (sub. req.) they've worked with, citing his reading with guest star auditioners as a case in point. (And I should say that I interviewed Shalhoub and his wife, Brooke Adams (sub. req.), in their home some years ago, and they were nothing less than gracious.) Amy Britt, the casting director who brought North in, said she was puzzled by his version of events but unswayed about North's talent. "I love Matt, Matt's great, and I've called him in on many things," she said. But if she doesn't call him in again for "Monk," safe to say he probably won't mind.