Characters

Is there opportunity to be a character (for example one without a costume suit like a princess) on the ICP? Also has anyone ever been a character, costume or otherwise?

 

No, your not allowed to be a face character on the ICP, only fur character, costumed. I do not know if i want to be a character, i would love it, but i am unsure at the moment, but need to wait for my reply from Yummyjobs.

 

I'm going to be a fur character on the icp program starting on the 17th of september
but regarding the face characters i think there pretty set on only Americans being them
i did hear of someone when i was there last (i was working in entertainment as a character attendant so i found out everything there was to know including that i wasn't in a hight range like first told!)
anyway, i did hear that if they want you bad enough you have speech classes to sound like the typical princess
but I'm assuming thats if you 100% look the part

but other wise i don't think so...

 

thanks guys that's cleared things up for me! ;D

I'd love to be a character but I doubt I'm stereotypically what they're looking for. :'(

 

They do accept icp's as face characters but you have to be there for a while (ie not on the summer programme). I know some people who were 'friends' with Mary Poppins and Alice.

 

So if you were going for a year would they let you audition?

 

i dont think its very liekely because if you're a face character you get paid more. every few months they have these open auditions and hundreds of people always show up so i think its a bit unfair on them if they want to do it full time and someone who's only there for up to a year gets to do it. plus theres like millions of issues with heights like if you wanna be mickey, minnie, donald or stitch you have to be under 5 foot and if you wanna be friends with goofy or pretty much everyone else you need to be like 6 foot! gor pluto i think the height was 5 "8. id love to be a character but having worked with them last summer (i was in costuming) it seems pretty nasty at times cos it is VERY hot if you're in the slightest bit claustraphobic its not a good idea!

 

Yeah I knew of someone to be Belle on the ICP too!

I think what usually happens is... you start as whatever characters go with your height then if they think your look matches other characters when you are in the audition they might ask you to try out. They don't tailor make the costumes obviously so a lot of the times that can be a big factor... that the costume fits you ok.

I know that's what happened with my friend who was friends with Tigger. He was on the american CP though. They are usually quite desperate for face characters so he was asked to try out for Snow Whites Prince, Prince Charming and then later Jack Sparrow. He used to do all three and Tigger aswell.

 

Thats not technically true. To be Minnie/ Mickey you can be up to 5.5. My friend who was 5.4 was Mickey though she was right up at the top of the hight range. Each character is a different hight. You can be Mickey hight but not Stitch hight for example because of the way that the costume fits.

 

I was told that the face characters are open audiitons in america and the disney website backs this up with their lovely introduction video, so you'd ike to be a character....(not the real name of it but i thought it sounded like one of those old goofy cartoons!!!)

I think in the summer the volume of guests that come through would require a higher demand of characters, face and costume....so i think that may affect it.

i guess those who want to do it (me included) will find out if we get a F2F interview.

 

Cool does anyone know what kind of clothing sizes you have to be to be a face character?

 

the princesses in the parade were 4, 6 and 8 though bear in mind that they were american sizes and even at that disney sizes are pretty crazy!

 

Coolness! thanks for the reply!

 

Hahaha
well, this is a very interesting thread.

I would love to be Aladdin

I think I have got the look, at least the skin color, hahahaha.

But hey, I once met a latin girl, and ask here what character did she played.
and she answered me Snow White, and I remain looking at her, like "u r kidding me"
and she told me, dont look me like that, Disney makes me white....

so, maybe being prince Eric wouldnt harm me at all.

 

Yeah that is definitely the case. You have to be lucky to be one on the ICP but if you stand out in the crowd they might pick you...

As the saying goes... desperate times call for desparate measures. They have the open auditions for the face characters but that doesn't necessarily mean Disney find enough of the kind of people they are looking for. You have to attend an audition even if they hire you as a regular character performer... so don't worry... there will be a chance to get spotted ;-)

And as for having the right *look*... I think it is quite loose half the time. I never once met a remotely middle eastern looking Jasmine. They were always very white haha. It's funny how a costume and wig can transform you haha.

 

I would quite like to be a character or maybe a character attendant.

 

Mmm yes, if someone finds a definate answer at their F2F, post it here =D

I'm tiiiny, 4'11", and I've heard that they can get quite short of short people... haha. I'd love to audition for Wendy, Alice or Tink, but I wouldn't mind being a fur character like Mickey or Minnie either. I've still got a while until I even apply though.

 

They wouldn't be able to tell you at your f2f interview if and what face characters you can be... entertainment is in charge of that. It's quite a big deal because especially with the face characters they want to assess your ability to be able to act and "stay in character".

The international interviewers are just given a list of roles to be allocated. Sometimes they don't even have character performer roles which was the case on my college program Best advice tho... don't tick too many roles... wherever they need labor most they will put you. If you are confirmed as a character performer you have to go to an audition when you get to Orlando and pass that. Then you'll find out who you are going to be friends with...

 

What do you tick to show your roles, is this done at the F2F interview?

 

Yeah at your interview you will be given a list of roles. I'm nto really sure what happens with the cultural programme because obviously there are only two roles...

but on ICP you will get a list of all the ones available to you. You have to pick the ones you don't mind doing and order them in preference.

So you might decide merchandise, character attendant, operations and guest relations

Then you would number them 1 to 4.

From my experience with it though you aren't guarenteed to get number one choice... so I would say think really hard about what roles you want to do. If you're determined to just do one... then don't worry if you just put one.

I really wanted to do character performer but it wasn't on the list so I didn't put anything haha.

Then when the interviewer told me she was sorry but hadn't been given any character roles to allocate I said either merchandise or operations.

The trouble is... if you put something like merchandise as your third choice and then the interviewer sees on your CV you have a lot of retail experience it's quite likely you will be put in merchandise because they do try to match you to your strengths...

Just be as vocal as you can. If you have a dream... tell them about it. They won't get a bad impression of you. They love to grant your dreams if they can ;-)