19 Celebrities Who Bombed Their Auditions For Iconic Roles

This is a heaping serving of secondhand embarrassment.

Kylin

• Published in Film & TV
• April 30, 2022

Our favorite celebrities are usually our favorites because of the parts they play. It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Chris Evans as Captain America, Tom Holland as Spiderman, or Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen.

What would Lord of the Rings be like if Elijah Wood wasn’t Frodo, but Jake Gyllenhaal? Would the endearing love and friendship between Frodo and Samwise be the same if it was Sean Astin opposite Gyllenhaal?

We will never know for certain since Jake Gyllenhaal apparently BOMBED the shit out of his audition for the role of Frodo. Ultimately embarrassing himself in front of Peter Jackson, who called him “the worst actor” he’s ever seen.

There are a surprising amount of stories like Jake Gyllenhaal’s, and I’m not sure anyone would have really considered the fact that our beloved actors actually go through auditions, good and bad. And we gathered 19 stories from different actors regarding the iconic roles they auditioned for, and ultimately failed, in hilarious or embarrassing different ways.

So, if you’re looking to feel a little better about yourself and some silly mistakes you’ve made in the past, or are in the mood for some prime secondhand embarrassment, keep scrolling. Because celebrities are just like us after all.

1. Emma Stone

Emma Stone auditioned to be a cast member on the sketch comedy show All That but wasn't prepared at all. She shared her story on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, saying she thought she would be given sketches to perform, but actually needed to have three characters of her own prepared.

She did her best in the moment, and threw something together in the five minutes prior to the audition, but obviously, that wasn't enough to land her a spot.

2. John Krasinski

John Krasinski may be beloved by many as Jim from The Office, but over the past few years, he's really broadened his horizons as an action hero and horror movie survivor. He also attempted to dip his toe into superheroes and auditioned for the role of Steve Rogers in Captain America.

Krasinski told Ellen DeGeneres that he "acted [his] heart out," but when it came time to try on the Captain America costume things went awry. Just as he was getting the costume up past his hips, apparently Chris Hemsworth walked by and told him, "Ya look good, mate!"

Krasinski joked about the comment taking it out of him, that he immediately started to take off the suit. "He was just, like, jacked! He was like, 'You're gonna look great in that suit.' And I was like, 'Don't make fun of me, Hemsworth,'"

3. Nicholas Hoult

Nicholas Hoult calls his audition for Prince Caspian "one of my all-time worst." The direction he was given for his audition was to do a Hispanic accent, and when he wasn't sure what they meant by that, they told him to model it off of the Shrek character Puss in Boots.

“I was doing the scene, but in my head before saying each line, I was trying to do my Antonio Banderas impression, saying [in a Desperado voice], ‘I am Prince Caspian!’ It was horrendous. It sounded more like Borat.”

4. Tom Hiddleston

Hiddleston auditioned for the part of Will in Pirates of the Caribbean while hungover. He received the script at 5 p.m. the day before his audition and went out drinking to celebrate a friend finishing their final exams instead of taking the time to memorize his lines.

5. Elizabeth Olsen

The Scarlet Witch couldn't charm her way through her audition for the part of Daenerys Targaryen for HBO's Game of Thrones. Olsen shared that she auditioned for the assistant to the casting director, having prepared and performed "the Khaleesi speech when she comes out of the fire."

She called her audition "awful" and said she didn't receive a callback. 

6. Jake Gyllenhaal

As we mentioned earlier, Jake Gyllenhaal bombed his audition as Frodo in The Lord of the Rings series.

Gyllenhaal described his audition in an interview with Jimmy Fallon, explaining that the first scene was just a bunch of stage directions of him looking at the ring, which he didn't understand the significance of.

He was told to open a box, find a ring inside, and react.

"I didn't really do it, because I didn't understand there were no lines."

Peter Jackson was apparently less than impressed

When he had the chance to audition with lines, he didn't do so well with those either. "I didn't do an accent for it," he shared.

"[Peter Jackson] literally turned to me and said, 'You are the worst actor I've ever seen. Did anyone tell you you're supposed to have an accent?' I was like, 'No.' And he was like, 'Well, fire your agents.'"

Unfortunately for Jake, that wasn't the only audition he made a mess of

In the same interview, the actor told Fallon that he was very confident with a character voice he had made up (it was sort of a lisp) for the character of Jesse in Dude Where's My Car? After the first reading, the producer asked him to do it without the accent he was initially so proud of.

7. Chris Klein

Chris Klein had his audition for Sky in Mamma Mia leaked (and subsequently ridiculed). "It was really a dreadful audition" he admitted, and shared that he couldn't sing but decided to take a chance with the audition.

To save you some time from Googling the cringeworthy audition, you can just watch it here:

8. Timothée Chalamet

Chalamet auditioned for the role of Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and later recalled, “I read twice and I left sweating, in a total panic. I called my agent, [UTA’s] Brian Swardstrom, and I said, ‘Brian, I thought about this a lot and I have to go back and knock on that door and read again.'" His agent ended up talking him out of going back, and the role ended up going to Tom Holland.

That wasn't Chalamet's only audition flop

Chalamet confused Psycho with American Psycho while preparing for the role of Norman Bates for the tv series Bates Motel, and based his audition on the personality of Patrick Bateman.

9. Jamie Foxx

Foxx shared on Howard Stern that he was so starstruck by Tom Cruise that he flubbed his audition for the part of Rod in Jerry Maguire. So badly, in fact, that Cruise started laughing at him.

Apparently, there was a moment when Cruise took a dramatic pause and Foxx thought he had lost his place and pointed out where they were. Later in the audition, Foxx asked Cruise to speak up when he was speaking softly.

The producer ended up taking Foxx out of the room to level with him.

10. Tom Holland

Tom Holland was asked to audition for Finn in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, but he kept laughing through it, he shared in an interview with Backstage. 

"I remember my audition for Star Wars. I was like four or five auditions in, and I think I was auditioning for John Boyega's role. I remember doing this scene with this lady, bless her, and she was just a drone. So I was doing all of this, like, 'We gotta get back to the ship!' And she was going, 'Bleep, bloop bloop, bleep bloop.' I just couldn't stop laughing. I found it so funny. And I felt really bad, because she was trying really hard to be a convincing android or drone or whatever they're called. Yeah, I obviously didn't get the part. That wasn't my best moment."

11. Kayode Ewumi

Kayode Ewumi joined the ranks of bombing the audition for the role of Finn in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, too. The actor called it one of the top three worst auditions of his life, and said his American accent sounded Indian.

Also, if you're thinking Ewumi looks familiar, it's probably this:

12. Michael B. Jordan

Michael B. Jordan didn't fare much better while auditioning for the same role as Holland and Ewumi. Who knew the role of Finn was so tricky to cast?

Jordan has called the audition one of his "worst to date," saying, "I just couldn't wrap my brain around some of the sides. When you're reading for these high-level projects, there's never really any specificity in the sides. Everything is super gray and a secret. Reading it through, I just couldn't connect it. Definitely bombed that one, for sure...I'm pretty sure I ran out of there."

13. Lucy Hale

Lucy Hale auditioned to play Anastasia in 50 Shades of Grey, an audition which she later called herself "naïve" for. She shared with APEntertainment that she was "mortified" by her audition, where she read a very "sexually forward monologue" and "didn't really even know what [she] was saying."

14. Tom Hanks

Early on in his career, Tom Hanks auditioned for the lead of Danny in the tour of Grease. He had to sing "Alone at the Drive-In Movie" for his audition, but he had a head cold for the first two times he went to audition.

The casting folks were kind and understanding and told him to come back again each time. He finally got to audition sans head cold for the third time, but he never received a callback.

15. Chris Evans

Jamie Foxx wasn't the only actor who was starstruck during an audition. Chris Evans shared how he was super nervous when we saw Ben Affleck during his Gone Baby Gone audition:

"I instantly was nervous. I went in and shook his hand, and the first thing I said was, 'Hey, how ya doing — am I gonna be okay where I parked?' And he said, 'Where'd you park?' And I said, 'At one of the meters.' And he said, 'Did you put money in it?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And he said, 'I think you'll be all right.' From that moment, I just wanted to get the fuck out of the room."

With the amount of secondhand embarrassment I feel from that exchange, it's no wonder Evans felt ridiculous. "It was horrible, a complete disaster. So obviously, I did not get that job," he finished.

16. Mahershala Ali

Mahershala Ali  told Jimmy Kimmel about how he blew his audition for Xaro Xhoan Daxos on Game of Thrones. He called it “one of the worst auditions of my life."

The audition he had planned involved some power stances in a chair, but when it came time for the audition, there were only high, backless stools in the room. The change in seating threw him off and made him come across as awkward and stiff.

17. Eddie Redmayne

Eddie Redmayne auditioned for Kylo Ren in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and shared the details of his "catastrophically bad" audition. Due to the secrecy of the project, the actor didn't get actual lines, but a scene from Pride & Prejudice and was told that the character was a baddie.

So, Redmayne decided the best course of action was to act out the scene in a ridiculous voice:

"That was really a hilarious moment. Because it was Nina Gold — who I have to thank a lot because she's cast me in several films — and she was just sitting there, and I was trying again and again with different versions of my kind of 'koohh paaaah' [Darth Vader breathing sound] voice. And after like 10 shots, she's like, 'You got anything else?' I was like, 'No.'"

Redmayne also made the same mistake in another audition

Eddie Redmayne shared that when he auditioned for Bilbo in The Hobbit he tried to copy the way Ian Holmes originally played the character. He didn't get further than a few words into the audition before he was stopped and told to "use his own voice."

18. Jared Leto

Jared Leto auditioned for a small bit part in Star Trek: The New Generation, it was only one line in the show. He told E!: "I was terrible and definitely did not get the part."

19. Henry Cavill

Henry Cavill auditioned for James Bond in Casino Royal, and described how he was reenacting a scene from another Bond film where James Bond was only wearing a towel. Cavill shared in an interview with Men’s Health: "I probably could've prepared better. I remember the director, Martin Campbell, saying, ‘Looking a little chubby there, Henry.’ I didn’t know how to train or diet. And I’m glad Martin said something, because I respond well to truth. It helps me get better.”

Henry Cavill "Chubby"??

Whatever you say, Martin.

I don't know about you, but there's something extremely cathartic about knowing some of our favorite celebrities also make embarrassing choices or have cringeworthy experiences in their professional careers.

It's not just us "regular" folks that do something embarrassing that haunts us for the rest of our lives while we're struggling to sleep at 3 a.m. Maybe getting a little TOO specific here...

Either way! If you enjoyed this peek into the lives of some of the most popular actors and actresses, be sure to share it with your friends!

Kylin