Stars Recall Their Failed Auditions for Major Roles

Shortly before receiving her starring role on Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay revealed that she auditioned for the sitcom Friends multiple times. She told Amy Poehler on the Good Hang podcast that, “I did a lot of [comedy auditions]. I did Seinfeld and I did Single Guy, and I tested for Friends so many times. I think for Monica. I always thought I would end up being on a sitcom or doing comedy.” The actress lost the role to Courteney Cox, which did not come as a surprise to a psychic she saw around the same time who told her, “You see that face you’re doing right now? You see that face? […] You’re going to be famous for that face. You’re moving to New York and you’re gonna be famous for that face.” Hargitay did not believe him at the time as she was set on being a comedian in LA, but six months later she was offered the role for the franchise she’s been with for over 25 years.

Gigi Hadid revealed to Vogue that she auditioned for Disney’s live-action Tangled, but she was not selected for the role. She explained that her boyfriend, Bradley Cooper, has been encouraging her creative ambitions outside of modeling, and she even took singing lessons to prepare. “What do we do in this job anymore that scares us? I was really proud of my scene. The singing…I knew they were going to go with a real singer, but I’ll show you my audition scene later,” Hadid said while conversing with her co-cover star, Kendall Jenner.

Scott Porter revealed he was in the final four for the role of Captain America before losing out to Chris Evans. He explained, “That was, like, a big, I’m bent over, sobbing, heaving. Yeah, it was bad. Because all these press outlets had put my head on Captain America’s body and I started to buy in. I was like, ‘I can do this. Oh, no, no. Yeah, I can’t.’” However, he has no ill will, saying that he’s watched all Marvel movies since and doesn’t think anyone else could play the superhero besides Evans. Porter also revealed that Mike Vogel and Wilson Bethel were in the top four considerations as well.

In an interview with InStyle, Jessica Biel shared she auditioned for The Notebook and looks at the role as one of “those ones that got away.” She further reflected, “What would my career have been like if I had the opportunity to do that movie? Clearly, that one wasn’t meant for me.”

A$AP Rocky revealed in an interview with Variety that he auditioned for the role of Lando Calrissian in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. “My audition was trash. I was trash that day,” he recalled, before saying Donald Glover — who got the part — “was a way better Lando than I would’ve provided at that time. And I think he looked a little more like [OG Lando Billy Dee Williams] than me.”

Lucy Hale revealed during BuzzFeed’s Puppy Interview that she auditioned for the lead role in Hannah Montana, which ultimately went to Miley Cyrus, as a teenager. “When I still lived in Tennessee and I was 14 at the time, so this would have been … 21 years ago, and it was a couple years before they had cast Miley in it,” Hale recalled. “I remember the audition. It was a taped audition in Tennessee. It was the audition that made me want to be an actress. I remember that vividly. It was very, very cool.”

On Live with Kelly and Mark, James Marsden revealed his failed audition for Saturday Night Live. The show had a nationwide talent search, and Marsden auditioned with his peer from drama class. He explained, “It wasn’t even something like, ‘Create an interesting character,’ or whatever. It was like, ‘Do whatever silly thing you want to do.’ I don’t know why we chose to do this, but we clucked like chickens and just walked around each other.” The Golden Globe nominated actor didn’t get a callback, describing his chicken act as a “bad choice.” He then explained it was a dream of his to be an SNL cast member, and he would be down to host one day.

Austin Butler reveals he auditioned to be in the 2012 Hunger Games movie, during a BuzzFeed Celeb video the actor recalled his audition to play Peeta, “I don’t even think I got a callback for the character Peeta.”

Chris Pine confirmed a story from The OC casting director that he lost out on the role of Ryan Atwood due to his acne. “I had awful skin as a teenager, and then after college, my skin started breaking out again. I was going out for ‘The O.C.,’ which is a teenage melodrama. I can understand that they wanted to have pretty people doing pretty things, and bad acne is not a a key [asset],” he said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. He also said he wasn’t thrilled the casting director told the story in Welcome to the OC book, adding, “It’s no fun having bad skin… it was one of the most traumatic points of my life, but it is my story, man.”

Cole Sprouse recalled his failed audition with twin brother Dylan to play Thing One and Thing Two for The Cat in the Hat while speaking with Men’s Health. “We showed up to this dance studio, and our mom had put us in these stupid Thing One and Thing Two outfits to try and get the gig, and it was horrible,” he said, adding the only direction they had was to go “insane.” He continued, “You tell two 7-year-olds to go wild, and they’ll go wild, 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. Needless to say, we did not get the part.”

Robert Downey Jr. reveals he pitched himself to play Scarecrow in Batman Begins. During a Q&A for an Oppenheimer screener, the actor opened up, “I’m pretty sure that I heard like, ‘There’s this role, Scarecrow,’ and I was like, ‘psh, I’m Scarecrow,'” he continued, “I remember meeting for tea, and I was like, ‘He doesn’t seem like he’s really leaning in on this interview.’ And he was polite and all that, but I mean, you know, you can tell when someone is kind of like, ‘It’s not gonna go your way.'”

Jamie Campbell Bower reveals how he failed his audition for Harry Potter, during an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast he opened up, “They came to my school to look for potential Potters or potential cast members and pulled me out of a bunch of people. So I went to go to the audition.” He continued, “I went to go meet Chris Columbus [director] in London for the first Harry Potter, and they’d asked us to prepare a joke. I had just heard this joke about a fairy, like the reason why the fairy sits on top of the Christmas tree. It’s a really dirty joke because it’s a Christmas tree up somebody’s bottom, and I told this joke in the audition. I was like, ‘Well, f-cked that up. Time to move on.”

Josh Peck revealed he auditioned to play Edward Cullen in the Twilight films. On an episode of his Good Guys podcast, he claimed, “I remember it’s like 2006-7, they’re like, ‘Audition for this movie Twilight, it’s based on a book, it’s going to be great,” He added, “I send in my tape… [for] Edward. A month later, I’m with my manager, he goes, ‘It’s down to you and three guys. You’re close.’ I’m like, ‘Really?’ I hadn’t even had a tummy tuck yet, I’m like there’s no way, he’s got to be so shirtless. It’s not going to happen.” The role, of course, went to Robert Pattinson.

Aubrey Plaza says she “blew it” when she auditioned for Deadpool 2 role. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, she recalls, “I’d just come off a plane and I think I was shooting Legion at the time, I was really not in a good zone because auditioning — you have to be in an auditioning zone and I was in a work zone. That one hurt. Me and Ryan Reynolds, what could go wrong? We’d be so great together, but [I] blew it.”

The casting director for American Horror Story reveals Margot Robbie auditioned for the second season of the show, “Asylum.” In an interview with Backstage the director opened up, revealing: “Margot has a lot of ‘it’ factors, That’s the tough thing for casting directors who aren’t in the room [anymore] with actors. Margot is probably one of my favorite auditions of all time, and it was right before she broke out. She was such a star. It was crazy, her star appeal when she walked in the room. Even though she didn’t get that role, that was one of those things as a casting director where you go: This is a star, what do we do with her? Immediately, though, she was out of our realm of possibility of hiring. But that’s really the fun part of casting, is seeing the people whose careers are just rising.”

Adam Brody revealed on the Just For Variety podcast that he auditioned for the role of Peter Quill/Star-Lord in the 2014 Marvel film, Guardians of the Galaxy. “I wanted that one,” he said. While the part ultimately went to Chris Pratt, Brody only had good things to say about Pratt’s casting, calling the actor a “better fit” for the MCU character. “He is bigger, stronger, but tonally, I really dug it,” Brody said.

Jennifer Lawrence revealed she auditioned to be in the Twilight series while appearing on The Rewatchables. The Hunger Games actress shared, “I auditioned for Twilight, they turned me down immediately. I didn’t even get a callback, but my life would have been totally different.” However, she said how she handled her career would be similar to her post-Hunger Games projects, saying, “I have to churn out movies in between so that I’m not only known for this franchise. I was still in a franchise, so I was still trying to counteract the franchise-ness, and I would still be doing that if I was in Twilight.”

Dove Cameron has revealed she auditioned for the role of Glinda in the upcoming “Wicked” movie. While speaking to TheWrap, the 27-year-old shared, “I definitely went out for it. I know that for everybody who did go out for it, it was a very long process. It was one of the longer processes I’ve been a part of.” Although Ariana Grande was ultimately cast as Glinda, Cameron said she’s “really, really excited” to see the film and thinks Grande is “gonna kill it.”

Rosie Perez recalls her failed audition for the role of ‘Trinity’ in The Matrix, which ultimately went to Carrie-Ann Moss. In an interview with Variety the star opened up saying: “I was horrible. As I was walking out, I was like, ‘I know I didn’t get the job. I really sucked,’ and the Wachowskis were like, ‘No,’ and the casting director was trying not to laugh,” she continued, “And then finally I looked at her and I go, ‘I really sucked,’ and she just burst out laughing. We all were laughing. I just gave the Wachowskis a hug and I said, ‘Well, good luck with this.’”

Patricia Arquette told Variety she bombed an audition for Jerry Maguire. “Everyone was saying, ‘Oh, this is just a formality, you’re gonna read with Tom Cruise for ‘Jerry Maguire,’ but this is your part, you got it,’ and I blew it,” she recalled. Renee Zellweger landed the role instead, with Patricia adding, “I actually think she was better for it, and she was great.”

Chase Stokes opens up about his failed audition for Steve Harrington in Stranger Things. In an interview with Access Hollywood the Outer Banks star revealed: “I forgot all the lines and absolutely effed up, I drove eight hours from Atlanta back to Orlando regretting every moment of my life on that.”

Penn Badgley recalls auditioning for Aaron Paul’s part in Breaking Bad, referring to it as “the one that got away,” during an interview with Buzzfeed, the actor revealed: “One I got close on was Breaking Bad, it was between me and Aaron Paul, we tested. And actually, that was the best television script I’d read at that point. That was the one that got away.”

In a recent interview with Sirius XM, Noah Centineo opens up about some of the failed auditions he’s had in the past. The Fosters alum said he auditioned for the role of Austin in Disney’s Austin and Ally, which was ultimately given to Ross Lynch. Centineo also revealed he went for the lead role in The Maze Runner, which was given to Dylan O’Brien, in addition to losing multiple roles in Netflix series 13 Reasons Why and Teen Wolf. The actor goes on to reveal how he handles the rejection, saying: “It’s not really a real, I don’t really take it as rejection. I think that’s the wrong way to think about it. I think the right way to think about it is I’m auditioning for a role. I’m bringing everything I possibly can to it. If they’re not okay with that, that’s fine.”

Joe Jonas revealed he auditioned for The Amazing Spider-Man. “I remember years ago I was up for Spider-Man and I was so, so excited and it was the year Andrew Garfield got it. Obviously, he was the right one. I remember that was a big thing at the time, going back for callbacks and the director [Marc Webb] used to be a music video director. So I was like, ‘I got an in here.'”

Taylor Swift looked back on her failed audition for Les Misérables while appearing on The Graham Norton Show. “Basically, I was up for two roles. I had the look of Cosette and the range, vocally, of Eponine. So it was established I was there for a good time but not for a long time—I wasn’t going to get the role,” she said, adding that she was asked to do a screen test with Eddie Redmayne anyway. “When I got there they put me in full 19th Century street urchin costume and told me they were going to paint my teeth brown and I was like, ‘You are going to do that after I meet Eddie Redmayne right?’ But no, they made me look like death and it became a nightmare. When I met Eddie I didn’t open my mouth to speak!”

Hugh Jackman revealed he lost out on a role in Miss Congeniality while speaking with Variety. Of a reading opposite Sandra Bullock, he recalled thinking, “Holy s—! She’s amazing! And so quick and fast. I’m not even vaguely up to speed here.” He added, “I was pedaling as fast as I could, but I didn’t know the script well enough. I was impressed that she was in there. I didn’t expect her to be in there.” He lost the role to Benjamin Bratt, adding, “That’s humiliating, when your agent says, ‘I don’t want you to get this job, but just go get it.’ And then you don’t get it.”

Dylan McDermott reveals he auditioned for the role of Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride, in an interview with Sirius XM McDermott admits, “I was up for the Mandy Patinkin role. It was very close. I was young… but that audition opened the doors to many other things. I think I got in the line of fire because of it, but suddenly just I was off of it, but I was, cause it was the same casting directors, uh, that opened a lot of doors, but I really loved that movie and I, I had this whole, full blown character ready to go, but Mandy was fantastic in it, but I think that that kind of sticks in me somewhere.”

Zoey Deutch opens up about how she auditioned to play Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games franchise, in an episode of Lights Camera Barstool the actress revealed, “I screen-tested for Katniss, but knew I didn’t get it, because in the screen test, he was like, ‘Why don’t you read this other part?’ But, yeah, that one was a little painful.”

Lena Dunham opens up about her failed audition for Riding In Cars With Boys, in an interview with SiriusXM she revealed, “The only thing I’ll say is I understand why I didn’t get the role because she asked all of the young actors to say our name, our height, where we were from and smile. And I said, ‘I’m Lena. I’m from New York. And I don’t smile on command.’ in which Penny Marshall responded, ‘It’s called acting, honey.'” Dunham continued, “The thing is, it’s like, she was right, like, would you hire an actor who was like, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t smile on command’?”

Chace Crawford said he was “extremely devastated” after not getting role of Jason Street in ‘Friday Night Lights.’ Crawford stated that he and his then-roommate Taylor Kitsch both auditioned to be on the series — and while Taylor landed the role of Tim Riggins, Scott Porter wound up getting cast as Jason.

Andrew Garfield told Variety he auditioned for the Prince Caspian role in the Chronicles of Narnia films and believes it came down to him and Ben Barnes, who landed the part. After asking his agent why he didn’t get it, she told him, “It’s because they don’t think you’re handsome enough, Andrew.” He added, “Ben Barnes is a very handsome, talented man. So in retrospect, I’m not unhappy with the decision and I think he did a beautiful job.”

Gabrielle Union tells Corden about a failed audition for “The Matrix.” “Everyone and their mother was auditioning for ‘The Matrix’. I went to audition, to me, I needed to feel like the most powerful, beautiful and amazing woman in the world, so of course, I wanted to channel Janet Jackson,” she said. “I literally find the exact outfit from her album cover. I draw in the damn mole. I fully committed.” “I play Janet the whole time, waiting for the audition, in there early. No one’s going to stop me… in walks Janet Jackson,” she recalled, “I’m pretty sure there was a restraining order of sorts.”

Matt Damon revealed he auditioned twice to play Robin on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. First, he audition to play Batman’s sidekick for the original 1989 Tim Burton film, but the role was ultimately cut from the script. He later auditioned for 1993’s “Batman Forever.” Chris O’Donnell already had the part, but they were haggling over money,” he exaplined. “The studio was flexing, basically, by flying in two other people to screen test. They wanted Chris, but they just wanted him for a price.” O’Donnell landed the role.

Salma Hayek and Jada Pinkett Smith were both up for the role of Trinity in “The Matrix.” “We were one of the four finalists for ‘The Matrix,'” said Hayek on “Red Table Talk.” “We had jumped through many hurdles and screen testing and many auditions, and they brought these stunt coordinators from Asia, and it was the physical test.” “Now I’m flexible. I’m agile, but I’m lazy,” the she added. “I never really went to the gym and they said to me, ‘You have to run,’ I go, ‘To where?’ ‘Around, you have to run around…’ They never called me again after that day.” Carrie-Anne Moss ultimately got the part.

During a recent episode of the “Welcome to the OC, Bitches!” podcast, casting director Patrick Rush revealed that Chris Pine was a finalist for the role of Ryan Atwood. “We saw Chris Pine, he was really really really good but – this is painful. At the time Chris Pine’s skin was really really bad and that broke my heart because I was a kid with acne. I remember thinking he was so good,” Rush admitted.

“One Tree Hill’s” Hilarie Burton revealed that her now-husband auditioned for the show years before they met. On the “Drama Queens” podcast Burton said, ““When I met Jeff, he was like, ‘Oh, I auditioned for that show.’ I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ My husband, Jeffrey, auditioned for [Craig] Sheffer‘s part.” “He was like, ‘Yeah, you know, I liked the whole gritty garage guy, that edgy thing,'” she recalled. “Had Jeff shown up in those tight jeans that Sheff was wearing, I would have definitely had kids earlier!”

Nicholas Hoult recalls the time he auditioned for “The Chronicles of Narnia. “One of my all-time worst [auditions] was definitely Prince Caspian,” he told EW. “They asked if I could do a Hispanic accent. I was like, ‘What would I base that on?’ They were like, ‘Have you seen Shrek? Puss in Boots.’ I was doing the scene, but in my head before saying each line, I was trying to do my impression, saying [in a Desperado voice] ‘I am Prince Caspian!’ It was horrendous. It sounded more like Borat.”

Henry Cavill talked about the time he lost the role of James Bond in “Casino Royale” to Daniel Craig. “I probably could have prepared better,” he told “Men’s Health.” “I remember the director, Martin Campbell, saying, ‘Looking a little chubby there, Henry,'” Cavill recalled. “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.”

Chris Evans recalls botching his audition for “Gone Baby Gone” after being starstruck by Ben Affleck. “I turned around and it was [Ben], and for some reason I instantly was nervous,” he told “Backstage,” “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?'” “From that moment, I just wanted to get the f— out of the room. I just wanted to be anywhere but there,” Evans continued. “It was horrible, a complete disaster. So obviously, I did not get that job.”