Short Film
Casting Call - "Her Truth, His Shame" (Lead Roles Only)
Details
Episode:
1
Union:
Not designated
Area of media:
Short Film
Network:
Paid?:
Yes
Rates:
Non-Union Rate: 300$/Day (Plus travel stipend and accommodations)
Deadline:
Jan 2, 2026
Auditions:
No in-person auditions. Booking on self-tapes only
Shooting starts:
Feb 1, 2026 
Shooting finishes:
Feb 1, 2026 
Shooting locations:
Montreal
Cities for response:
Toronto, Montréal, Ottawa
Comments
This is a great opportunity for actors to work as leads in an ultra-professional environment as well as copy the content for their reels.
Storyline
HER TRUTH, HIS SHAME is a contained, performance-driven 6-episode vertical drama about how doubt can do more damage than any actual affair. Mason, a sensitive dad who grew up with a cheating father and a bitter, controlling mother, lets his mom Lydia’s poison get inside his head. One visit, one pamphlet, and one quiet line — “Blood tells, Mason” — are all it takes for him to secretly take his little boy Max for a paternity test and shatter the trust in his marriage.
When Sienna, his warm, steady wife, discovers the test, the confrontation is brutal and intimate. In seconds, a solid family becomes a war zone. Sienna’s choice to throw his betrayal back at him with one devastating lie — “Max isn’t your son” — forces everyone to show who they really are when security is ripped away. Lydia moves to reclaim her son. Sienna flees to her sister’s. Mason is left alone with the truth from the lab: Max is his. He destroyed his family for nothing… except the ghosts in his own head.
Across six tight episodes, the story lives and dies on close-up work: explosive fights that flip into icy calm, quiet thumb-on-photo moments, blocked numbers, and a final, fragile group hug that may or may not hold. And in the post-credits sting, a new message suggests this cycle of suspicion started a generation before Mason — questioning not just his wife’s fidelity, but his own origins.
As an actor, you’re stepping into a story where the villain isn’t a person, but a thought: “What if they’re lying to me?” When love, history, and paranoia collide in a tiny living room, whose voice would you choose to believe?
Roles
Role typeRoleGender & Age range
LeadMASON COLEMale 30 - 40 Years old
Description
(Male, Early 30s, Any Ethnicity)

Mason is a sensitive, artsy kid who never fully grew out of people-pleasing. He grew up with a cheating father and a mother who never healed—she calcified. Now a husband and dad, he’s terrified of repeating his parents’ mistakes, but that fear makes him easy to manipulate. One visit with Lydia and one glossy pamphlet is all it takes for him to secretly test his own child and blow up his marriage.

Wardrobe:
Grounded, everyday mid-class dad: jeans, soft T-shirts, flannels/hoodies, worn sneakers or socks at home. In earlier scenes, casual but put-together. As things spiral, slightly more rumpled—unshaven, shirts half-tucked, hint that he’s not really sleeping.

Screen Time:
Heavy (central POV; appears in every episode and the stinger).

Performance Arc:
Soft, slightly anxious dad who wants everyone happy ? son torn between his wife and mother, trying to “keep the peace” ? man who actually believes his worst fear when Sienna says Max isn’t his ? shattered father learning Max isbiologically his and realizing he destroyed his family over doubt ? broken, accountable husband begging for a chance to rebuild ? final version: a man willing to set hard boundaries with his own mother to protect his child and marriage, even as he learns he may have been a victim of this pattern as a kid.

Key Scene Moments:
Living room beat watching Max play while Lydia quietly chips away at him.
Kitchen confrontation where Lydia says, “Wake up, Mason. I’m not his grandmother,” and slides over the paternity pamphlet.
The moment he admits to Sienna, “When I look at him… I don’t see me.”
Breakdown when Sienna tells him “Max isn’t your son” and leaves with the boy.
Phone call from the clinic: “Yes. Max Cole is biologically your child.”
Final boundary moment: blocking Lydia’s number while Sienna watches, then joining Max in a group hug.

Stinger: reading the hospital document that suggests his own paternity was questioned.

Required Range:
Needs to play deep shame, panic, and conflicted loyalty in extremely tight close-ups. Must be able to turn on a dime from defensiveness and anger to gut-punched vulnerability. Strong at listening, sputtering half-starts, and living in silence—this role lives in hands shaking around a phone, eyes over a picture frame, breath catching when he realizes he’s become his parents. Emotional crying required.

Special Skills:
Comfort with emotionally intense confrontations, child co-star work, and handling phones/paperwork as props in precise blocking.
Role typeRoleGender & Age range
LeadSIENNA COLEFemale 20 - 30 Years old
Description
(Female, Late 20s–Early 30s, Any Ethnicity)

Sienna is the warm, steady center of the family—quietly fierce when it comes to protecting her son. She adores Max, loves Mason, and has never once given him a reason to doubt her. Which makes his decision to test their child behind her back a soul-level betrayal. Her love doesn’t vanish overnight, but her trust does. Her choice to lie—“Max isn’t your son”—isn’t about cruelty; it’s about forcing Mason to feel the free-fall she just experienced when the clinic called her first.

Wardrobe:
Soft, practical, lived-in: leggings or jeans, oversized sweaters, tees, house socks. Reads as “real mom,” not curated influencer. At Jenna’s apartment, slightly more guarded—hoodie, ponytail, minimal makeup. By the final episode, a subtle return of color and softness as she cautiously leans back toward hope.

Screen Time:
Heavy (present in every episode except parts of the solo-Mason/Lydia scenes; featured strongly in 2, 3, 5, and 6).

Performance Arc:
Content, slightly tired mom who thinks her family is solid ? blindsided wife hearing the word “paternity” from a clinic caller ? woman hollowed out by the idea that her husband chose his mother’s voice over hers ? steel-spined Sienna dropping “Max isn’t your son” and walking out with her child ? calm, almost eerily controlled ex sitting at Jenna’s, explaining why she lied ? cautious partner considering reconciliation on her terms, not his, as she watches Mason block Lydia.

Key Scene Moments:
Discovering the test through a clinic confirmation call and confronting Mason: “You still chose her voice over mine.”
Delivering the line, “If you really believe that… then you won’t have to wait for the test.”
The bombshell: “Your mother’s right. Max isn’t your son,” played with devastating calm.
Confession at Jenna’s: admitting she lied to make him feel the fear she felt, and that she’s never given him a reason to doubt her.
Moment with the divorce papers hovering under her hand.
Final couch scene: agreeing to counseling and clear boundaries, but reminding him forgiveness isn’t the same as forgetting.
Stinger hallway look when she realizes Lydia once did the same thing to Mason.

Required Range:
Subtle, grounded, emotionally precise. Needs to move from sobbing betrayal to icy stillness without ever feeling theatrical. Must be capable of weaponizing calm—the quieter she is, the scarier it feels. Strong silent acting: listening to Mason, deciding mid-beat whether to stay or go, leaving questions in her eyes even when her mouth says “maybe.”

Special Skills:
Comfort with intense close-up emotional work, child interaction, and physical closeness with the Mason actor (hugs, hand touches, bed tuck-in scenes; no explicit intimacy).