"You're A F*cking Liar" – 18 Actors That Lied About Accents, Talents, Injuries And More To Their Directors And Producers

"If you’ve got an English accent you can get away with it. I’d say I went to Oxford, too. I did it for years."

People lie in the workplace all the time, particularly to their superiors. Whether it's getting a role, keeping a role, or trying not to disrupt production, there are plenty of reasons that actors will lie to directors.

Universal Pictures

So, here are 18 times actors have lied to their directors and producers:

1. Keanu Reeves – The Matrix

Warner Bros.

Keanu clearly knew what a big deal The Matrix would be, so much so that he decided to push through what sounds like a serious injury in order to keep his part as Neo. 

He spoke about meeting up with the Wachowskis, loving the script, and agreeing to the intense training/filming programme, but failed to mention the issue: "I had a bulging disc and I had a fractured disc too, and I started losing feeling and balance."

He revealed that he had to train in a neck brace for the demanding fight scenes, saying:

"My spinal column was being sausaged basically, so I had to have a two-level fusion on my spine before training, and they put a plate in my neck. But I never actually told anyone because I didn't want to tell anyone I wouldn't be able to do the film."

2. Paul Mescal – Normal People

BBC One

I'm sure Paul wasn't the only one to put off learning to drive, but when the role for Normal People required someone who could drive, he had some pretty strong motivation. 

It was Paul's agent who lied to the producers on his behalf, which he revealed, saying: "My agent was like, 'We are not losing this job over you not being able to drive so I'll tell production that you can and in the meantime, you go off and rattle through as many lessons as you can.'" 

Thankfully, the lie and lessons seemed to have paid off, because we see Paul driving in the series that really skyrocketed his career, 

3. Anne Hathaway

Focus Features

The audition for Brokeback Mountain went incredibly well for Anne, with her saying, "I left that room knowing that I had closed it, locked it, and welded it shut. I just knew it was mine."

But one final thing that director Ang Lee asked her before she left, as Anne remembered, was "Oh, by the way, can you ride a horse?" Anne described why she lied and said yes: 

"My parents have given me a lot of gifts in my life, and one of them is: If you're ever asked if you can do anything, say yes. You can learn anything in two weeks if you're motivated enough. So I'd never been on a horse, and I replied, 'Oh yeah, I'm a really good rider.'"

So, she put herself to work and learned how to ride, but her first day with the horse didn't quite go as planned: "I was given a horse on set without being told it was a verbal command horse, so I couldn't figure out how to make it ride. And I went to a rehearsal in front of 300 extras, all of whom work in rodeos, and the horse wouldn't do a damn thing I wanted it to. And at the end, it threw me in front of everyone."

4. Eddie Redmayne – Elizabeth I

Channel 4 / HBO

Eddie also told an equestrian fib, one that almost had disastrous consequences. It was in an audition for a mini-series – Elizabeth I. As Eddie left the audition, director Tom Cooper asked if he'd been on a horse before, to which Eddie confirmed he had. The problem was that Eddie was referring to when he was around four and could barely get it to move. 

His lie became glaringly obvious about three weeks later: 

"I was on a gigantic stallion with 14 Lithuanian horses stomping behind me. I’m thinking at one point, ‘Do I admit I can’t ride?’ I was too embarrassed to admit it and he [Hooper] calls, ‘Action!’ And I gave the horse a gentle nudge and it went off 100 miles an hour and I’m just holding on for dear life! I just heard, ‘Cut!’ And Tom Hooper arrived and said, ‘You’re a f**king liar!’"

Eddie believes that Tom made him pay for this lie when they were filming Les Miserables: "On day one all the revolutionaries were rehearsing together and Tom announced that my character, Marius, was gonna have to leap onto a horse whilst brandishing a flag! So that was my penance – my payback for that lie to him years ago.”

5. Robert Pattinson

Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images

Robert Pattinson is acutely aware of how much competition there is in the acting industry, as proven by his actions when he took to get work when he was unemployed. The actor had been out of work for a few years when he decided to try his luck in Los Angeles:

“I’d been unemployed for ages, and when I came to Los Angeles all the casting directors would ask what I’d been doing for the past few years. I’d say, ‘Oh, I was at RADA’ – if you’ve got an English accent you can get away with it. I’d say I went to Oxford, too. I did it for years." 

He stopped these fibs when more British people moved over to LA, however, and then  pretended to be American instead. 

6. Sadie Sink – Stranger Things

Netflix

After binge-watching the show before her audition, Sadie was certain that she couldn't let this opportunity pass. So, when it came to the audition, she had to tell a little lie in order to keep her chances high: 

“They wanted a girl that had skateboard experience, and I didn’t have skateboarding experience at all. They asked me, ‘Oh, do you have any rollerblading experience?’ I was like, ‘Uhh sure I do,’ which was technically not a lie because I have rollerbladed before. In reality, I probably haven’t skated for a year.”

When she was actually in the audition, she got a scare when she saw a pair of skates in the corner, as she remembered: "I was doing some scenes, and all of a sudden, I look into the corner of the room and see a pair of roller blades. I’m like, holy crap, they’re going to make me rollerblade!"

Despite her "freaking out" about the potential of her lie being undone by some bad rollerblading, they never asked her to skate, and, of course, she'd go on to land the part.

7. Rachel McAdams – To the Wonder

Magnolia Pictures

Rachel was determined to land the role in To the Wonder, so much so that she hid her allergy to and fear of horses. In fact, she was so excited to work with director Terrence Malick, that when he asked if she had a problem with working alongside horses, she said "I love horses." 

So, it must have been daunting working with so many of the animals that she's both terrified of and allergic to, as she explained: "My first day of the shoot I was in the middle of a corral with 50 horses who had never before been touched by humans." 

She worked through the fear though, even if her eyes did get a bit itchy and swollen. 

8. Chris Hemsworth

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Chris has become one of Hollywood's biggest stars, and none of his roles were bigger (in stardom and stature) than Thor in the Marvel franchise. But, according to Chris, the casting call for the god of thunder was somewhat of a rarity in Hollywood, as it asked for someone over 6'1".

While Chris' height may have been a blessing in that particular role, he revealed that he's usually forced to lie about his height when auditioning for something, in order to not be disregarded for being too tall.

"There are certainly things I’ve wanted to go up for which I’ve been totally wrong for physically. And I normally lie about my height [6'3"] and say I’m shorter”

9. Halle Berry – Bruised

Netflix

The Oscar winner had to put up a serious fight (literally) while portraying a retired MMA fighter making their return to fighting. It was during her training that she encountered a serious issue, where she was kicked in the torso and actually broke two ribs. 

Worrying that it would threaten production, she decided to keep it secret from the producers, as she explained: 

“It threatened production so I made the decision not to tell anyone in case we were shut down. I carried on and I think the fighter side of my training took over. It was only when we finished that I told everyone, and I went to the hospital.”

10. Chloë Moretz – Hugo

Paramount Pictures

Chloë ended up lying to a Hollywood titan in order to bag the Hugo role, when she auditioned in front of Martin Scorsese, as she recalled: "The casting director knew I wasn't British but she knew I was willing to lie, and she liked me. And she was like 'lie to Marty, it'll work,' and I was like 'okay.'"

So, on the day of the audition, she went in donning a British accent. Her response to his question, 'where are you from?' was to make up that she was from Cambridgeshire, and that her parents were horse breeders. The lie paid off, and Scorsese hired her for the role. 

It wasn't actually until well into production that her story fell apart. She'd been speaking in her British accent the whole time until one day she let that slip away, and reverted to her very American accent while speaking about being from Georgia... He didn't mind though, of course, joking around and saying "good on ya" to Chloë when he realised.

11. Jodie Comer – Killing Eve

BBC America

Jodie was a sensation in her role as Villanelle in Killing Eve, but she also told a bit of a lie when she was auditioning for the part, and it was regarding the different languages and accents she'd be taking on. She spoke about adopting the old horse-riding audition tip when they asked her about the languages. 

"When I auditioned [for Killing Eve] they told me about the languages. You always get told that if you're asked in an audition if you can ride a horse, you say yes, even if you can't. That's what I did with the languages." Judging by the success of the show and her performance, it clearly paid off. 

12. Jameela Jamil – The Good Place

NBC

When Jameela up and left for LA with a career change in mind, she'd been a TV presenter and radio host but had no acting experience. So, when she auditioned for what would become her breakout role in The Good Place, she was forced to employ a bit of fabrication:

"I told the casting director that I had acting experience, which was a lie. I told her I’d been onstage, but I was talking about my school days.” 

She also lied about the type of acting she'd done, when Michael Schur asked if she had any improv comedy experience, her response was: "I love improv! Did loads of that on the theatre in England!’”

13. Idris Elba – The Wire

HBO

It was the casting director that instructed Idris to keep his real birthplace secret from the producers of The Wire for the interview: "She said 'I love you, I gotta bring you into this audition, but you have to promise that you can't tell him you're from East London.'"

She instructed Idris to go in and speak with an American accent. Throughout the first three auditions, Idris continued to speak in an American accent, and the producers seemingly believed him, but it all came spilling out in audition number four. 

The producers began to ask about his upbringing, which was when Idris couldn't keep the lie going – "My parents told me not to lie—you gotta look someone in the eye and be honest," he said. Thankfully, this didn't prevent him from being part of the show, and Idris was given the role of Stringer Bell. 

14. Josh Brolin – No Country For Old Men

Miramax Films

Josh had only just landed his role in No Country For Old Men, and with it, the chance to work with the Coen brothers when he got in a serious motorcycle accident. The crash left Josh with a collarbone that he described as "snapped in half." While he did mention the accident to the brothers, he wasn't completely honest about the extent of his injuries, as he explained: 

"I lied to the Coens and told them it was only a hairline fracture. I coached my doctor on what to say to the Coens, which could have gotten his license taken away." 

Of course, the brothers eventually found out, but at that point, it was too late to replace him: 

"It was about a month into shooting when Ethan finally said, 'What happened to the collarbone? We need to know at this point. You are in the movie at this point, we can’t replace you now-so what happened?' And I said, 'It snapped, it snapped in half.” 

15. KJ Apa – Riverdale

The CW

The Riverdale actor had a bit of an accident when he was filming a rather intense scene. It was a scene where he was supposed to be repeatedly punching ice, but he got a little bit too excited. The actor actually ended up breaking his hand but, for some reason or another, decided against telling anyone. 

“I wasn’t really punching the ice, but I got a little bit too excited. I was punching a foam mat … [that was] sitting on the ice. … It was cold, so I didn’t really feel it. It wasn’t until 20 minutes after that I realised I broke my hand. I didn’t tell anyone.”

16. Laura Fraser – Breaking Bad

AMC

When Laura was auditioning for Lydia in Breaking Bad, she slightly embellished her mastery of the German language. They asked if she spoke German, and she responded, "Absolutely, yeah . . . I speak some German.” She was actually referring to having done some German in school when she was 12. 

So, when the time came to learn her lines (which mainly consisted of corporate jargon in German), it was a bit of a struggle. She spoke about the process: "It was a nightmare. It took me days to learn that little paragraph. Now I bore my family with it. It’s my party trick."

17. Liam Hemsworth – The Last Song

Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures

When Liam was auditioning for The Last Song, they asked him if he played volleyball, to which he replied, "Yeah, no problem." When the day to film the volleyball scenes came up though, Liam was understandably nervous, saying: 

"I turned up for the first day of volleyball practice and I was honestly really scared to shoot the volleyball part because it takes a lot of skills to play that game, and I didn't have them at all. I said to Julie Ann, I think we're going to need a double,' but it's hard to find someone as big as me."

With a fair amount of practice, he started to look good playing against the (inexperienced) actors, but when it came to playing the professionals, he said: "We had a day where we had 300 extras there, watching us play against professional volleyball players, and they made us look stupid."

18. Helen Mirren – Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Warner Bros. Pictures

The legendary actor broke her finger while filming Shazam! Fury of the Gods, but due to her desire to "be accepted" by the stunt team, she decided to keep the injury secret. On hiding the injury, Helen said: 

When you're in that stunt world, the stunt people are so brave, and you want to be accepted by them. I'm sucking up to the stunt people."

Helen sustained the injury while miscuing a movement in one of the fight scenes, and ended up making contact with the wall.

What are some other actor lies you know about? Let us know in the comments below!

Thumbnail credits: Mike Coppola/Getty Images