Tom Holland nearly appeared in Star Wars, yet the Spider-Man star failed to keep from laughing during his audition.
1. Harry Styles aspired to portray the titular character in Elvis, but got rejected by the movie director, Baz Luhrmann.
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The director revealed on Fitzy & Wippa radio interview: “The real issue with Harry is he’s Harry Styles. He’s already an icon. Harry and I came to a place, genuinely I mean — he was just desperate to put the suit on and explore.”
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Styles, on the other hand, was described by Luhrmann as “really talented” and having a “great spirit.”
Austin Butler won the part in the end.
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2. Andrew Garfield tried out for the role of Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia, but was turned down because he wasn’t “handsome enough.”
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Garfield shared with Entertainment Tonight: “I remember I was so desperate. I auditioned for Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia and I thought, This could be it; this could be it. … I remember I was obsessed.”
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When Garfield was rejected the role, he contacted his agent to find out the reason: My agent] eventually just broke under my incessant nagging, and she was like, ‘It’s because they don’t think you’re handsome enough, Andrew.'”
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Ben Barnes was eventually cast for the role.
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“Ben Barnes is a very handsome, talented man,” Garfield further shared. “So in retrospect, I’m not unhappy with the decision, and I think he did a beautiful job.”
3. Brenda Song claims she was turned down for Crazy Rich Asians’ audition round, as the actress was believed to be not “Asian enough.”
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Her mother is Thai, while her father is Hmong.
The Suite Life star told Teen Vogue: “A lot of people don’t know this, but I never got to read for Crazy Rich Asians, ever. Their reasoning behind that, what they said was that my image was basically not Asian enough, in not so many words. It broke my heart. I said, ‘This character is in her late to mid-20s, an Asian American, and I can’t even audition for it? I’ve auditioned for Caucasian roles my entire career, but this specific role, you’re not going to let me do it? You’re going to fault me for having worked my whole life?’ I was like, ‘Where do I fit?'”
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“I got myself together and said, ‘Brenda, there is only one you, and you can’t change who you are. You can’t change your past.’ I am so grateful for every job that I’ve done. All I can do is continue to put good auditions out there, do the best that I can — that’s all I can ask for.”
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Replying to Entertainment Weekly, Jon M. Chu, director of the movie in question, disputed Song’s story, in a twitter post: “would these words ever come out of my mouth? Nope makes no sense. I feel horrible she thinks this is the reason. The fact is I love Brenda Song and am a fan. I didn’t need her to audition because I already knew who she was!”
4. When Robert Redford auditioned for the starring part of Benjamin in The Graduate, he was informed that no one believed he would be able to portray a “loser.”
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Director Mike Nichols recounted with Vanity Fair: “I said, ‘You can’t play [Benjamin]. You can never play a loser.’ And Redford said, ‘What do you mean? Of course I can play a loser.’ And I said, ‘O.K., have you ever struck out with a girl?’ and he said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he wasn’t joking.”
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That’s Redford in 1965, one year after the premiere of The Graduate.
Dustin Hoffman was cast as the lead role, eventually.
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5. Robin Williams was rumored to be keen on portraying Hagrid or Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter franchise. However, the showrunners insisted on an all-British cast.
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Casting director Janet Hirshenson clarified the reasons director Chris Columbus rejected Williams for Hagrid’s role, in an interview with The Huff Post: [Williams] really wanted to be in the movie, but it was a British-only edict,” she said. “And once [Columbus] said no to Robin, he wasn’t going to say yes to anybody else, that’s for sure.”
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Colombus admitted with Total Film that it was “extremely painful” to let Williams know that he wasn’t able to portray Lupin, either. He went on to share with Insider, “Robin would have been brilliant [as Lupin]. It would have been a different interpretation.”
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In the end, Robbie Coltrane was cast as Hagrid, while David Thewlis took up the part of Remus Lupin.
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6. Zoe Kravitz was informed that she wouldn’t be able to audition for The Dark Knight Rises because she was too “urban.”
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The Batman actress told the Observer: “I don’t know if it came directly from [director] Chris Nolan. I think it was probably a casting director of some kind, or a casting director’s assistant. … Being a woman of color and being an actor and being told at that time that I wasn’t able to read because of the color of my skin, and the word ‘urban’ being thrown around like that, that was what was really hard about that moment.”
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Afterwards, Kravitz shared her thoughts on her Instagram: “I did not mention this to point any fingers or make anyone seem racist, namely Chris Nolan, the film’s producers or anyone on the casting team because I truly do not believe anyone meant any harm. I was simply giving an example of what it was like to be a woman of color in this industry at that time.” She further confirmed that she was auditioning for a “minor role” in The Dark Knight instead of Catwoman’s.
7. At first, Sean Young was cast as Vicki Vale in Batman, but was then replaced by Kim Basinger after her arm got injured. Young famously walked up to Warner Bros., with the outfit of Catwoman, attempting to persuade Tim Burton that she was suited for the character, but the director was unconcerned.
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During the BTS documentary, Shadow of the Bat, Mark Canton, Warner Bros. Executive detailed the event: “My office door flew open, which says a lot about how different security is these days, and Michael Keaton and I saw Sean Young dressed as Catwoman leap over my sofa and say, ‘I am Catwoman!’ We looked at each other and went, ‘Whoa.’
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Later, Young said to Hollywood Reporter that Burton didn’t appear at the studio to observe her stunt. “He wasn’t there. I guess he was hiding in the bathroom,” Young said. “Who knows? If these Warner Bros. executives now were really good businessmen, they’d let me play Catwoman today, and I’d make a smash amount of money. But they’re too stupid. You can lead people to water, but you can’t make them great artists. Nobody wants to take that risk, it’s too scary.”
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In an other effort to earn the role, Young appeared on The Joan Rivers Show with the costume of Catwoman, as seen above.
Finally, the part was given to Michelle Pfeiffer.
8. Tom Holland tried out for the part of Finn in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens but failed as he “couldn’t stop laughing” during the audition.
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The Marvel’s Spider-Man star shared with Backstage: “I was like four or five auditions in. … 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.”
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In the end, John Boyega was cast as the lead role.
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9. Eddie Redmayne was turned down after blowing his audition for the part of Kylo Ren in Star Wars.
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He talked about his audition with Uproxx: “They gave me like a Star Trek scene – or like something from Pride and Prejudice. It was one of those films. With films that top secret, they don’t give you the actual lines. So they give you a scene from Pride and Prejudice, but then they tell you you’re auditioning for the baddie. If you’re me, you then put some ridiculous voice on.”
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“[Nina Gold] 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,” he added. “And after like 10 shots she’s like, ‘You got anything else?’ I was like, ‘No.'”
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Adam Driver took up the part, eventually.
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10. Chris Klein tried out for the role of Sky in Mamma Mia! but was passed over when he acknowledged the musical role actually required singing.
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The American Pie actor told The Huff Post: “So an audition that I had done years ago for Mamma Mia! somehow, was put on to the web. And it’s a horrible audition. And I took a chance — I can’t sing! I don’t know why I was in there. But I took a chance! It’s a musical — let’s see if I can give it a shot. And, you know, the way that they put it out there, it gets taken out of context and all that kind of thing. It was really a dreadful audition. Talk about a reason that I didn’t get a part, man!”
The popular audition clip Klein mentioned is shown above.
Dominic Cooper was cast as the lead role, eventually.
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11. Finally, Freddie Prinze Jr. was said to be a strong contender for the role of Spider-Man in Spider-Man (2002), but managed to lose his chance at a meeting with director Sam Raimi.
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Prinze Jr. revealed on an episode of his podcast Prinze and the Wolf: “I got a meeting with Sam [Raimi], and I was super excited, super nervous. Went in and we sat down — it was only like three people that he was talking to — and I sat down and he goes, ‘So, tell me, tell me why you love Spider-Man?'”
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I go into this whole like universe of what my favorite parts of Spider-Man were, and I foolishly bring up the alien symbiote, which is Venom, right,” he went on. “When I left, I literally was like, ‘You just talked about Venom instead of Spider-Man for 25 minutes you stupid a–hole,’ and I drove home so upset and angry.”
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Tobey Maguire, of course, was cast in the part.
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