For anybody thinking of taking their shot at stardom, considering themselves an unknown talent waiting to be found, and going to the open Star Wars auditions, I implore you don't. I have no bitterness or resentment towards my fellow auditionees, this is just my warning to you that the process is not what you think it might be or advertised to be. This is my personal account of the events in Manchester and I expect they were largely the same in Bristol and will be in future in London, Dublin and Glasgow. As a smart, handsome, semi-athletic 19-23 year old male with able acting talent, I decided to make the trip with the mindset that if I could past it past the first couple of 'rounds' I could be proud and consider it a job well done. The doors were due to be open at 7am (turns out this was falsely advertised and they opened at 6) for an 11am start. After a train and tram journey I arrived at 8am to see the incredible queue before me; winding round the entire stadium approximately a mile long. Picture every line you've waited in at a theme park and combine them all. It was later on that I found out I was actually number 999 and this was 3 hours before it 'began'. Things moved faster than I expected (I didn't anticipate moving from my starting position for at least a couple of hours), so I assumes they started early due to the mass of people and it wasn't until the end did I realise why things progressed so rapidly. After four hours of non-stop standing and cycling through my iPod catalogue, I finally arrived at the front of Old Trafford (the cricket ground). In my head I was visualising questions I might be asked; "why have you come today?", "do you have any experience?", "what's your favourite film/actor?" and thinking of ways that would impress the casting directors most. Just after entering, a security guard shouted "make sure you have your headshots and CVs at the ready". There were a lot of murmurs and confusion at this since the description never detailed needing a CV so we just dismissed it as the guard being unaware of the situation. I was handed a clipboard and pen and filled in my personal details, before my headshot was stapled to it. I was instructed to take off my coat, my scarf and any headwear before going into one final area with a lot of mirrors to 'check I look as good as possible'. Once through there I met a woman who took my profile and told me to stand to the left next to a lot of dumbfounded people. That apparently was the audition. I stood there for a while and watched as roughly 5% of those entering were sent upstairs for an actual meet and greet. There were no criteria of those being selected; I saw people of all heights, hairstyle, ethnicities and looks (not all were attractive) being chosen. Almost like a human sampling. I saw plenty of extremely good looking people completely looked over and sent the same way as myself. Don't quote me on this, but it seems only those with a professional headshot and/or a CV of previous professional acting experience were sent to the casting team. On the way out I saw a couple of girls crying over their 'rejection' and I can't help but question the logic of Disney. Surely filling out a form online, answering the potential queries and attaching a headshot would be a far speedier process to filter those with genuine acting interest, leaving only a few hundred people needing to be seen at each venue. For those theorising that the whole thing is a publicity stunt to create a buzz akin to Harry Potter, I can't help but believe you're most likely to be correct. If you're still determined to audition then I advise you to apply online. You actually get to demonstrate your acting ability and you waste less than 5 minutes. Sure, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't view a single application video, but at least you've saved yourself half a day. Good luck - you'll definitely need it.