• Insider spoke with people who've auditioned for jobs at the Disney parks about their experiences.
• Some former Disney parks performers said it was hard to know what the judges were looking for.
• Although some said taking rejection was hard, others highlighted the overall friendly environment. 

Disney performers go through multiple rounds of auditioning for a shot at playing beloved characters in the parks.

Insider spoke with successful and unsuccessful Disney parks auditionees. Some last names have been withheld for privacy reasons. Insider verified their identities as well as their employment at the Disney parks. 

Read on for their least favorite parts of the audition process — and a few highs.

Auditionees rarely know what the judges are looking for

When participants attend open-call auditions for the Disney parks, they usually don't know what characters they're even aiming for. The listings on the Disney Careers site are typically vague, sometimes only disclosing a height range for the characters being cast. 

"The worst part is just going in and having no clue of what they're looking for — what their needs are," said Sarah Daniels, who started working as Mickey Mouse at age 16 and later went on to play other characters like Alice and Ariel. 

Melanie said that's part of the reason she auditioned 13 times before landing a role as one of Cinderella's stepsisters at Disneyland.

"They would say like, 'Oh, you could show up and be the perfect Ariel. But today we're actually only hiring for Tinker Bells.' But they wouldn't post any of that online," she told Insider. 

Things can get awkwardly up-close-and-personal at character auditions

Some former auditionees recalled Disney casting directors looking very closely at their facial features during the audition process. 

Jessica Tremmel, who portrayed around 20 different characters in the parks, said the "personal awkwardness" was one of the worst parts of her audition.

"They're getting really close up in your personal space to see your bone structure, to see how your skin is, to see your eye color, to see your eye shape, to see all these different things about you," she said. "They don't say anything. So it's really, really awkward."

Melanie said she had a similar experience during her auditions.

"They line you up in a line and they put on some music so they say that it's less awkward — but it's so you can't hear them talking about you," she said.

The casting directors don't usually give auditionees much feedback once they're cut

Helen Planchet, a former union equity performer who played Princess Elena, told Insider she auditioned for Disney around 60 times without getting any feedback.

"Even though I was rejected a bajillion times, I never heard like, 'Oh, you're not good enough for this thing.' I just didn't hear back," she said.

After her 12th failed audition, Melanie said she directly solicited feedback from the casting directors. When pressed for an answer, she said, they told her that her "eyes were too round."

"If you say, 'Oh, your eyes are too round.' I can't change that, right? That's just how my eyes are," she told Insider. "But if they'd been like, 'Oh, well it's your nose' or 'It's your teeth.' I mean, I was a 19-year-old girl. I probably would've gone out and done something about that, right? I mean, I was obsessed with trying to get this job."

It can be difficult not to internalize the rejection of a failed audition

For many people, it took several auditions before landing a part. And without feedback from the judges, it can be hard not to take the rejection to heart — especially at the appearance-based auditions.

"No matter how confident and comfortable as a person you are, standing there and smiling and having people talk about you and then not pick you for something that is considered traditionally very beautiful, is harming. It's really harming," Melanie told Insider.

She added, "Not getting picked shouldn't mean you're not beautiful. I say 'shouldn't' because obviously you go to 13 auditions and you're 18, 19 years old, you start to internalize this stuff whether you want to or not."

Three-time Disney auditionee Natalie said the "amount of value and self-worth" she put on the auditions was the worst part of her experience.

"The first time I was like, 'Well, this is gonna be the thing that makes me mean something,'" she told Insider. 

Still, some said the friendly and goofy environment made for a positive experience overall

Multiple people Insider spoke highlighted the friendly environment at their Disney auditions.

Natalie said she met other auditionees online and even stayed in the same hotel with some before the auditions to practice together. 

"The people that you meet doing auditions, they tend to be just really amazing people that have like this wide-eyed optimism about the world," she said.

Tremmel had a similar takeaway from her successful audition. 

"I've been to auditions in New York City. I've been to auditions all over, and everybody's just like really rude and abrasive. Not there," she told Insider. 

Although Disney auditions can be stressful, Jenna Parkany — who played Winnie the Pooh, King Louie, and Chip 'n' Dale at the parks — said there's also no need to be afraid of looking goofy.

In fact, at many auditions, there's an "animating" round where the casting directors are looking for over-the-top acting. 

"It is really a safe space to be as goofy and silly and creative as you want to be," she said. "I think that was what really attracted me to the audition process was they encouraged that storytelling and they encouraged those dramatic movements."

Representatives for Disney did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Watch:

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonyjrcNmq6GhnpzAbq3BqKytZZGqsarAyKiloqaXYrOwvoydoKymla56tLvMnqannV2stbC%2FjJ2mp51dnsFufo9raWZr