Casting Ouch!
What was your worst audition? We asked celebs to recall their most trying tryouts.
Billy Baldwin: "I auditioned for Days of Our Lives. The script called for 'an Alec Baldwin type,' and I still didn't get the part."
Cindy Crawford: "[Director] Mike Nichols asked me to do a reading for him. It was my first year modeling, so I hadn't seen a script before. So I just read it—no emotion, no nothing. Afterwards he said, 'Well, I guess you can read.' "
Dennis Hopper: "Before my audition for Giant, I tried to introduce Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor to my parents, but I was so nervous that I couldn't remember [the stars'] names."
Harvey Fierstein: "At my worst audition, the producer took me aside and said, 'Get out of the business because you have no talent whatsoever.' Over a year later she was my understudy."
David Arquette: "I auditioned for the villain in [the upcoming film] Starsky & Hutch, but I wasn't prepared. My hand shook, and I was sweating and stuttering. Apparently Vince Vaughn [who got the part] doesn't have that problem."
Paula Abdul: "There were so many! I'd wait hours for auditions and then be cut before they saw me dance because I was too short."
Camryn Manheim: "The part said, 'Grossly overweight woman, about 200 pounds.' So I go in and they tell me I'm not fat enough. I said, 'I weigh 220 pounds.' They said, 'You're lying.' So I said, 'You're right—I weigh 225.' "
Danny Bonaduce: "At a comedy club audition back in my drinking days, I showed up really bombed. I passed out under a table, and when they called my name, I hit my head."
Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos): "I drank all this water before one audition when I was 7. They kept me waiting over an hour, so when I finally got onstage, I ended up peeing in my pants."
Tina Fey: "At an audition to play a Dunkin' Donuts employee for a commercial, they only had one uniform that everyone used. The person wearing it before me sneezed all over it. It was kind of demoralizing."
Bruce Willis: "The Cotton Club, because I thought I was supposed to make one of the producers laugh, and it didn't work out very well. He told me to get out."
Joely Fisher (Baby Bob); "A casting director used her breast pump during one audition. She was not into boundaries."
Alan Cumming: "My weirdest was for Woody Allen. He was hiding behind a pillar during my audition so I couldn't see him. It was odd."
Gabriel Byrne: "We sat at a big glass table, and when I cleared my throat, phlegm landed on the table. I tried to clean it off, but they were revolted. I didn't get the job."
Eric McCormack: "Before I went into one audition, I had to pee and ended up standing at the urinal next to the guy I was auditioning for. Afterwards that was all I could think about."
Jim Belushi: "After I auditioned for Brian De Palma for the part of Al Capone in The Untouchables, he called my agent and said, 'What the hell was that?' "
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