The road to Hollywood is paved with obstacles. No matter how big the star, they all got their start pretty much the same way: standing awkwardly in a room in front of a casting director.
Some stars, however, have more memorable audition stories, while others are just plain strange. See for yourself and check out these 10+ actors who had weird auditions for their famous roles.
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Eddie Redmayne.
Eddie Redmayne came very close to playing Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens .
Sadly, the actor started doing a very bad Darth Vader impression, which didn’t help.
Lamorne Morris.
Supposedly Lamorne Morris showed up to his New Girl audition wearing nothing but a pair of jeggings and a halter top.
It is a pretty “Winston” outfit, I have to admit.
Jake Gyllenhaal.
When Jake was auditioning for The Lord of the Rings , he had no idea he’d have to do a British accent .
He found out halfway through the audition.
Lea Michele.
While en route to her Glee audition, Lea was in a terrible car crash . She still made it on time and hadn’t even had the time to pick the glass out of her hair.
Chris Hemsworth.
Chris wasn’t the only Hemsworth brother to audition for the role of Thor .
His younger brother, Liam, was initially the one who got the callback.
Michael B. Jordan.
While auditioning for the lead role in the 2Pac Shakur biography All Eyez On Me , Jordan said he could rap .
This was a total lie and he was called out for it.
Jodie Comer.
When Jodie Comer arrived at her audition for Killing Eve , she didn’t expect Sandra Oh to bring props.
The pair went full method and ended up gorging themselves on a blueberry pie.
Emily Hampshire.
Emily was apparently so nervous during her audition for Schitt’s Creek that she began slowly pulling her shirt over her head – right in front of Dan Levy!
Riz Ahmed.
Riz Ahmed was determined to show his character range for the role of Bodhi in Rogue One .
He submitted 15 different audition tapes, each with a different accent.
Vilhelm Blomgren.
Midsommar is a weird film, so it makes sense that the actors had to undergo strange auditions to get the parts.
Vilhelm had to walk 30 meters into the woods.
Brie Larson.
Sometimes actors don’t even realize they’re auditioning for a role.
Brie just thought she was having frequent lunch visits with Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer when she landed Trainwreck .
Bradley Cooper.
While he was auditioning for the role of Hal Jordan in Green Lantern , Cooper apparently started doing a Christian Bale ” Batman voice ” for no reason at all.
Harrison Ford.
Harrison Ford was working as a carpenter in the same building that George Lucas was holding auditions for Star Wars .
The story goes that Lucas saw Harrison and invited him to audition.
Sandra Oh.
On the day of her Grey’s Anatomy audition, Sandra was so nervous that she completely forgot her wallet and phone.
Her anxiety was so bad that she even left the audition early to try and find them.
Emilia Clarke.
Emilia isn’t afraid to laugh at herself.
She even showed off her dance moves to David Benioff by doing the Funky Chicken and The Robot during her audition.
Adam Devine.
Adam was grossly misinformed when it came to his audition for Pitch Perfect . Adam originally thought (based on the title) that he was auditioning for a baseball movie.
He ended up singing the theme song from Full House .
Nicholas Holt.
“One of my all-time worst [auditions] was definitely Prince Caspian ,” he said.
“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.’”
January Jones.
For Coyote Ugly , January Jones had to get creative.
“‘You’re going to pole dance , but there is no pole.’ And I just turned beet red. It was awful, and he said something like, ‘Honey, you did a great reading, but you’ve got no rhythm.'”
Aaron Paul.
You can actually watch Aaron Paul’s real-life audition for the role of Jesse Pinkman on AMC’s Breaking Bad .
It’s a miracle that Aaron even got a callback. He bumbles and flubs his lines at multiple points.
Noah Centineo.
Noah was too tall for his own good, co-star Lana Condor revealed.
“Later, Noah told me he would stand behind me and scrunch down to make himself look shorter ,” Condor said, “It’s sweet, that’s how much he wanted the job.”
Chris Evans.
Chris Evans became starstruck with Ben Affleck and lost the role in Gone Baby Gone .
“‘Am I going to be okay where I parked ?’ He was like, ‘Where did you park?’ I said, ‘At a meter.’ And he was like, ‘Did you put money in the meter?’ And I said, ‘Yep.’ And he says, ‘Well, I think you’ll be okay.'”
James McAvoy.
James McAvoy was so terrified at the idea of singing and playing the guitar at his audition, that he planned an escape partway through.
He started crying uncontrollably and pretended he’d received a phone call from a friend in the hospital.
Jamie Lee Curtis.
Jamie Lee Curtis’ audition was so bad, she walked out!
“Yeah, I auditioned very poorly for “Field of Dreams.” For some reason, and I don’t remember why, I just wasn’t prepared for it.”
