20 actors who shared wild audition stories

No one can say that Lea Michele isn’t committed. Just before her Glee audition, the actress was in a car accident. Producers told her she could come back another time, but she refused and arrived at the audition with glass in her hair. 

Wild is often a bad thing in audition stories. One of Jennifer Lawrence’s worst moments came early in her career, when she was told to lose 15 pounds in two weeks. And that was only a small part of the nightmare audition. 

Cole and Dylan Sprouse auditioned for the live-action Cat in the Hat back in the early 2000s. The duo went for the roles of Thing One and Thing Two, and they were told to “go wild.” The twins took the direction to heart, breaking a mirror and getting into a brawl in the process. 

Once at an audition, Kumail Nanjiani was asked to exaggerate his Pakistani accent to make him seem funnier. Nanjiani was not about it and said as much. He didn’t get the part, but he stands by his decision. 

Taylor Swift auditioned for both Cosette and Eponine for 2012’s Les Misérables. The singer said she knew she wasn’t going to get either role, but she still had to dress in costume and have her teeth painted brown for the audition. 

Gina Rodriguez was once asked to return after an audition, but instead, they wanted her to wear a tight dress. Confused as the choice didn’t make sense for the character, Rodriguez asked for an explanation. She was told by casting agents that they needed to make sure she would look good on a magazine cover. 

In the early days of Hugh Jackman’s career, the Australian actor auditioned to act opposite Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality. At his audition, he tested with Bullock, which caught him off guard. Jackman praised Bullock’s performance, but he said his audition was a nightmare. 

Tracee Ellis Ross once arrived at an audition in an outfit she thought appropriate for the character. She had some extra clothes with her, so casting agents made her change, forcing her into a much skimpier outfit than she had come in. To top it off, they made her change into another woman’s bra. 

Dakota Johnson will do whatever it takes to get a role … or so it seems. The actress shared that, during an audition early in her career, she took off her shirt despite being told it wasn’t necessary. 

Lana Condor was once told at an audition to act more like Hello Kitty. The actress was not only confused but also insulted by the direction she found demeaning and racist. 

Tina Fey has always had a great sense of humor. When the actress auditioned for a McDonald’s commercial early in her career, she could tell from the jump that she wasn’t going to be hired because she had a scar on one side of her face. During her audition, she said, “Hi, I'll have a Big Mac and my scar will have an orange soda.”

Alison Brie auditioned for a part on Entourage in the 2000s. Had the actress gotten the part, she would’ve had to have worn a skimpy outfit, and the audition reflected that. During it, Brie was asked to take her top off. She was wearing a bikini top underneath, but the request was still a bit shocking. 

When auditioning for a specific role, Jennifer Garner wore the same outfit to every round of her audition. The casting agent reached out to her team and said that while they loved Garner, they wondered if she had any other clothes to wear. 

When Bella Thorne was a child actress, she lost out on a role because, during the audition, the director thought Thorne was flirting with him and felt uncomfortable. The feedback is still wild to Thorne. 

Jake Gyllenhaal auditioned for The Lord of the Rings back in the day. He explained in an interview that, “We didn’t have any lines to say, really. It was just, like, finding the ring, you are supposed to open the thing, and there’s a ring there … I remember I didn’t really do it, because I didn’t understand it because there were no lines. So, I walked up, opened it up, and was like, ‘Is that good?'” The audition was so bad that the director told Gyllenhaal to fire his agent. 

Henry Cavill auditioned for James Bond in the 2000s. At the audition, the director told the actor he looked chubby. Cavill’s feelings were hurt, but he ultimately took the feedback and learned how to train and diet. 

During the pandemic, Hollywood shifted to Zoom auditions, and one of Lukas Gage’s went so poorly that it went viral. The casting director on the other side of the audition clearly didn’t realize his microphone was still on and made nasty comments about Gage’s apartment and socioeconomic status. 

When Meryl Streep was in her mid-20s and auditioning for a role, a director started speaking Italian, saying Streep was ugly. Little did he know that Streep speaks Italian, and she told him off in said language. 

Not all crazy audition stories end badly. When Matt LeBlanc auditioned for Friends, he showed up with an injury on his face as a result of drinking the night before. LeBlanc was honest about the injury, and the world knows how things ended up for him with that show. 

Ryan Gosling was once interrupted during an audition. The actor was delivering an incredibly emotional monologue when the director took a phone call. Gosling, of course, fared well in his career despite the uncomfortable audition.