20 superstar actors who had embarrassingly horrific auditions

Actress Dakota Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012 that she once got so into an audition that she took her shirt off, making for a really awkward and uncomfortable scene. "And then afterwards, they were like, 'Uh, that was great. That was really nice,' and I was like, 'Thank you,' and had to pick my shirt up off the floor and still talk to them and put it back on. It was inappropriate. And also still embarrassing, and I'm more embarrassed that I just told that story."

Anthony Anderson was candid about his worst audition experience during an interview with Us Weekly. "My worst audition experience was when I dressed up as a woman. I thought I [did] great. The director and producers thought otherwise," he said. 

Chase Stokes found stardom thanks to his role in Outer Banks. But did you know he auditioned for another Netflix show before that? During an interview with Access Hollywood, the young actor revealed that he bombed his audition for Stranger Things so badly he drove eight hours from Orlando, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia, "regretting every moment of [my] life on that."

During another interview with Backstage , Jamie Lee Curtis, known for stellar roles in Halloween and Freaky Friday, revealed she once walked out of an audition, saying, "I'm out," after realizing she wasn't prepared for the moment. 

Tom Holland told Backstage that he ruined a previous audition because he couldn't stop laughing in his scene partner's face. "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," he said. 

When Bradley Cooper was auditioning for the lead role in Green Lantern, the movie star revealed he insisted on doing a Batman impression for the character. 

"At one point, I actually walked back and saw it because they have it on the monitor while you're auditioning. I saw a little clip as they were rewinding it, and I thought, 'Oh my god, that can't be.' It looked like a Saturday Night Live sketch! I was like, 'Oh, I'm not getting this! Now I can really do my Batman!" he said on The Tonight Show. 

Although Zoey Deutch was hoping to book the role of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, she knew she wasn't getting the part during her audition. After the director asked her to read for a different role, she accepted defeat. "That one was a little painful," she said in 2022. 

Christy Carlson Romano was set to audition for the role of Mia in The Princess Diaries; however, she was forced to miss her audition because she was stuck on the set of Even Stevens. 

Chris Evans says he doesn't get starstruck ... unless it's when he's coming face-to-face with a legend like Ben Affleck. 

"I turned around, and it was [Afflek], and for some reason, 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 ok 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,'" Evans recalled during an interview with Backstage. 

It seems like a totally normal reaction if you ask us.

Ryan Reynolds revealed he once sang so terribly during an audition that he's hoping the recorded moment never sees the light of day. “It was pretty bad,” he admitted. "... if that tape surfaces at some point? That’ll be the death of me. Yeah. That was pretty awful.”

An actor who has had to deal with their humiliating audition going viral is Chris Klein. Although the actor wouldn't describe himself as a singer, he gambled on himself and auditioned for a role in Mamma Mia!

"Talk about a reason that I didn't get a part, man! I mean [laughs], oh my God. What a terrible thing! So, then, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, how many horrible auditions have I had?' Thousands," he told The Huffington Post. 

50 Shades of Grey became a blockbuster hit, but actress Lucy Hale struggled to get through the lines during her audition for the part. "It’s exactly what you thought it would be: a big monologue but very, very sexual. There were some things that I was so embarrassed to be reading out loud, but it’s one of those things where you have to commit wholeheartedly, or you’re going to make a fool of yourself," she told Cosmo. 

Elizabeth Olsen said there's one "bad audition" story that lives rent-free in her mind, and it happened while trying to secure a role in Game of Thrones. "I was doing the Khaleesi speech when she comes out of the fire. It was awful. I didn't get a callback," she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. 

This Twilight actor said when he auditioned to be in the Transformers franchise, he went into the meeting pretending to be American rather than English. 

"I thought I was being so funny," Pattinson explained to MTV. "I was saying I was from somewhere in America because I always kept thinking that if you say you're English, then they judge your American accent." He continued: "They knew I was English. So they were listening to my backstory about being from Denver, and they're like, 'What is this guy on?'"

The Barbie actress admitted she botched an audition after pulling up high on painkillers. According to Margot Robbie, her friend gave her medication to help ease her pain after having root canal surgery. 

"He said, ‘Here, take two’. And when he said, 'Take two,' I thought he meant to take two as the dosage, but he really meant to take two just in case I needed another one later," she told The Sun. 

Speaking of being under the influence ... George Clooney told E! News that he showed up to the Dracula audition inebriated because he was "supposed to play a drunk guy." He added, "Then Coppola called my agent and said, 'He was drunk!' That didn't work out."

Dave Franco once fell asleep during an audition after misunderstanding the director's cues behind the camera. After telling the actor to "slate," meaning state your name for the camera, Franco began to doze off. "At the time, I didn't know the terminology," Franco explained to MTV. "So what I hear is, 'Sleep real quick.' So, I'm like, alright. So I get comfortable, l put my head back, and I start sleeping for her," he told MTV.

Jennifer Garner prefers to stick with tradition, and when it comes to her auditions, that means wearing the same outfit throughout the process. However, after her fourth callback, Garner learned the casting director was concerned about her wardrobe. 

"'We do want to bring Jennifer back, but does she have any other clothes?'" the producers said to Garner's management team. "I didn’t get the job," she revealed on The Tonight Show. 

During an episode of CONAN, actor and comedian Kevin Hart said he impersonated a former NBA player in a Saturday Night Live audition; however, the joke didn't land because the casting team had no idea who the basketball player was. "When I did it, I stepped back as if it was great. I said, 'That's it,'" he said. 

Cole Sprouse revealed that he and his brother, Dylan, auditioned for Thing One and Thing Two in Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat. After being told to "go wild," the Suite Life Of Zack and Cody actors did exactly that. 

“You tell two 7-year-olds to go wild, and they’ll go wild,” he told Men's Health. “We broke a mirror on one of the walls of the dance studio and then somehow ended up in a full-on fistfight, totally unprompted.”