14 Famous Actors Who Bombed Important Auditions
The moral of the story is: If you’re young, handsome, well-connected and driven by an ungodly and unearned confidence, things will work out for you.
Nobody Talks to Meryl Streep That Way
When she was a 26-year-old aspiring actress, Streep was encouraged by the son of a director to try out for 1975’s King Kong. The Italian director didn’t know she was bilingual, and she heard him ask his son in Italian: “Why did you bring me this ugly thing?”
Jamie Lee Curtis Gets a Mulligan
She was auditioning to play the wife in Field of Dreams, but stopped partway in and threw in the towel: “For some reason, and I don’t remember why, I just wasn’t prepared for it… I just — excuse my French — fucked it up.”
Kevin Hart Did an Impression of a Nobody, Impressing Nobody
Okay, NBA point-guard-turned-analyst Avery Johnson isn’t nobody, but it was a big swing to expect Lorne Michaels to recognize him. He initially thought he nailed it — “When I did it, I stepped back as if it was great” — only to quickly realize Michaels had no clue who or what he’d just done.
Zac Efron Just Loves Smiling; Smiling’s His Favorite
Director Adam Shankman explicitly told Efron not to smile during his audition for Hairspray, but the dude kept his goofball grin on for the whole thing. Shankman was ready to pass on him without a second thought, but his sister, who was responsible for some of Freddie Prinze Jr.’s and Channing Tatum’s early success, convinced him that Efron had what it takes to transition to adult stardom.
Josh Brolin Freaked Out the Squares
Auditioning for The Fly II, Brolin went all-in with a mouth-frothing fly transformation that left a strong impression. By the time he got home, he had a message on his machine from his manager: “What the fuck did you do in there? You scared them.”
Bradley Cooper Couldn’t Switch Off Batman Mode
In the middle of auditioning to play Green Lantern, Cooper saw some playback and realized he was just doing a less-than-stirring rendition of The Dark Knight: “I couldn’t not do Christian Bale’s Batman.” It’s never a good sign when the director tells you to “be regular and talk.”
Nicholas Hoult Went Full Borat
Hoult was aiming for a Hispanic accent while auditioning to play Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia, and missed the mark by quite a bit: “I was trying to do my Antonio Banderas impression. It was horrendous. I sounded more like Borat.”
Jake Gyllenhaal Left His Westron Accent at Home
While auditioning to play Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, he did some uninspired pantomime before launching into some test lines in his very non-British accent. Peter Jackson’s main note was, “You are the worst actor that I have ever seen.”
Matt Murdock Forgot to Not Act Blind
A casting director stopped him in the middle of his audition for Han Solo in Solo and asked, “Why aren’t you looking at me?” He realized that, after two years of playing Dardevil, he’d “gotten into a habit of not making eye contact, because the only thing I had done for two years is play someone who is blind.”
Did Emilia Clarke Think She Was Auditioning for a Millennial Cringe Compilation?
Clarke asked if there was anything she could do to “lighten the mood” after her audition, which sounds like it didn’t go very well at all. David Benioff made everything worse by asking her to dance — gross — and she busted out the goddamn robot. Despite this gross display of adorkability, she landed the iconic part of Daenerys Targaryen.
Timothee Chalamet Played the Wrong Psycho
At 14 years old, Chalamet was told that Bates Motel was like a “young Pyscho.” When he set out to do his research on Netflix, it took him to American Psycho. He showed up to the audition ready to play a young Patrick Bateman instead of a young Norman Bates.
Jenette Goldstein Brought Heels to a Gunfight
When she showed up to audition for Aliens, Goldstein “thought it was about actual aliens, you know, immigrants to a country.” She arrived in high heels and makeup, and was confused as to why everyone else was wearing army fatigues. Reportedly, her muscular arms were enough to get her invited back for another audition in more Colonial Marine Vasquez-esque duds.
Chris Hemsworth’s Mommy Got Him a Do-Over
Hemsworth bombed his initial audition, but says his mom’s help recording a second taped audition got him back in the room. In reality, his friendship with Joss Whedon probably helped a little more, but we digress. He also chalks it up to sibling rivalry — his brother Liam had gotten multiple callbacks for the same part, inspiring him to enlist his mom into the war.
Zach Braff Was Hung Over
Braff went out partying the night before his audition for Scrubs, and bombed spectacularly: “I went in and definitely did a shitty audition.” His agent advised him to pull a George Costanza and just show up again, like nothing ever happened. No one remembered his first attempt, and he knocked his second out of the park.
