21 Actors Who Had Bonkers Auditions For Some Pretty Iconic TV And Movie Parts
Jake Gyllenhaal awkwardly didn't know he had to do a British accent for his Lord of the Rings audition.
1. Chris Hemsworth originally didn't land a final audition for Thor, instead his brother Liam was called back first.
When the final few actors, including Liam, weren't cast, they remembered Liam had an older brother and they called Chris back in.
2. Emilia Clarke ended up doing the funky chicken and the robot dances during her Game of Thrones audition.
Creator David Benioff jokingly said that she should "do a dance," and Emilia took him seriously.
3. While auditioning for Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Eddie Redmayne started doing a very bad Darth Vader impression.
After a few minutes, the casting directors asked if he could do anything else, and he simply said, "No."
4. Lea Michele was involved in a massive car crash on her way to her Glee audition — she was still pulling pieces of glass out of her hair when the audition started.
5. Lamorne Morris showed up for his New Girl audition wearing jeggings and a halter top, and he put "a bunch Vaseline on [his] legs" because the scene involved a Halloween party.
Lamorne originally auditioned for Coach and didn't get the role.
6. Harrison Ford was working as a carpenter in the building where auditions for Star Wars were being held and eventually George Lucas saw Harrison and brought him in.
While casting Star Wars, George originally didn't want to cast actors who had been in his other movies, which is why Harrison, who was in American Graffiti, wasn't called in.
7. Jake Gyllenhaal awkwardly had no idea he had to do a British accent during his Frodo audition for Lord of the Rings — director Peter Jackson informed him about it halfway through.
8. Sandra Oh apparently forgot her wallet and phone at home before her Grey's Anatomy audition, and ultimately left the audition early because she was so nervous.
9. During his audition for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Nicholas Holt was awkwardly told to do a "Hispanic accent" and to base it on Puss in Boots from Shrek.
10. While auditioning for the Tupac Shakur biopic, Michael B. Jordan lied and said he could rap, and had to come up with something on the spot.
11. Vilhelm Blomgren, who played Pelle in Midsommar, had to walk around "30 meters in the woods" and then perform a scene for his audition.
12. Jodie Comer ate a ton of blueberry pie while performing an eight page scene opposite Sandra Oh for her Killing Eve audition — Sandra brought props for the chemistry read and Jodie just committed.
13. During his audition for Green Lantern, Bradley Cooper started doing an impression of Christian Bale's Batman voice for no reason.
14. Emily Hampshire was so nervous during her Schitt's Creek audition that she started to "pull part of [her] shirt over [her] head" like she was hiding" right in front of Dan Levy.
Emily joked, "Lifting up my top is the wrong way to put it. I know the audience for that and Dan is not interested in that. Hiding is very different from flashing."
15. Only Kristen Bell and Ted Danson knew what The Good Place was about while auditioning, so Manny Jacinto, Jameela Jamil, D'Arcy Carden, and William Jackson Harper were given fake scenes to audition with.
Manny auditioned with a scene where his character was trying to get a job as an executive manager of a bank.
16. In fact, D'Arcy Carden didn't even know Janet was supposed to be an AI and was confused when a 15-year-old boy auditioned before her, and a woman in her sixties went in after her.
17. Riz Ahmed submitted around 15 different tapes while auditioning for Rogue One — each of them included a different accent and style for Bodhi.
18. January Jones didn't know she had to perform a "pole dance with no pole" for her Coyote Ugly audition — afterward, she was told she had "no rhythm."
19. During every audition for To All the Boys, Noah Centineo forced himself to slouch so that he never appeared taller than Lana Condor.
Part of the audition process was seeing their height differences, and Noah didn't want to seem so much taller than Lana Condor.
20. Brie Larson had absolutely no idea she was auditioning for Trainwreck — she thought she was just getting lunch with Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow several times for a few weeks.
Hilariously, Bill Hader also had no idea and just thought he was hanging out with Brie, Amy, and Judd.
21. And finally, Jamie Lee Curtis knew her audition for Field of Dreams was so bad that she stopped in the middle of it and just said, "Look guys, I’m really sorry, I’m out."
