"I felt like meat." 10 actors on their absolute worst audition ever.

Trying to make it in the world of showbiz is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Even stars like Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds have been rejected for a role or had auditions that didn't go to plan. And actors like Diane Kruger have experienced incredibly inappropriate auditions, that have left them feeling uncomfortable.

Simply put, Hollywood can be a bit of a breeding ground for some shocking audition stories.

From the likes of Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Chris Evans and Margot Robbie, here are 10 celebrities on their worst audition ever: and the full backstory behind it.

Watch: The auditions that scored actors their leading roles. Post continues below. 

Anne Hathaway.

Looking back, we know that the 2000s was a pretty awful time to be a female in the entertainment industry. Unfortunately for Anne Hathaway she was breaking through Hollywood just as this horrible treatment of young women was peaking in the industry.

In a new interview with V magazine the 41-year-old reflected on the "gross" chemistry tests she would have to endure when auditioning for a role.

Anne Hathaway. Image: Getty.

"Back in the 2000s — and this did happen to me — it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry, which is actually the worst way to do it," she said.

"I was told, 'We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?'" she recalled. "And I thought, 'Is there something wrong with me?' Because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross."

At the time she was extremely conscious of not wanting to ruffle any feathers so pushed on with the chemistry process despite feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

She said she was "terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labelled 'difficult'" despite being "so young."

"So I just pretended I was excited and got on with it."

Margot Robbie.

At the time, she was in "so much pain" that her friend offered her painkillers used to treat pain from root canal. 

"He said, ‘Here, take two’. And when he said, 'Take two' I thought he meant to take two as the dosage, but he really meant to take two just in case I needed another one later," she told the publication. 

Image: Getty. 

"Anyway, I woke up, and I was getting ready for this audition, didn’t get time to eat breakfast so, on an empty stomach, I had two. I’m driving and halfway there I was suddenly like, ‘Oh my God, what a lovely day it is!"

"I’ve got one hand out the window. I was off my head. It was a terrible audition, I’m sure!"

The Aussie actor also had to cancel her driving test she planned to go to after her audition to get her American licence. 

"Fortunately, my friend worked at Sony, which is where I was doing the audition, and I ran to her office and was like, ‘Can you give me food or something? I think I’m high. I’m not sure but I think I’m high, help me’. It was hilarious."

Diane Kruger.

Image: Getty. The film Troy was a blockbuster hit back in the day, with an impressive lineup of actors including Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger.

But it was Kruger who experienced a rather uncomfortable audition.

In a conversation at a Variety event, Kruger said she has "definitely come across the Weinsteins of this world from the get-go."

When auditioning for the role as Helen of Troy, Kruger said she had "to go to the studio head in costume" to give them an idea of what she would look like in character — a character that focused on Kruger's sex appeal heavily. She didn't directly name who the studio head executive was.

"I felt like meat, being looked up and down and was asked, 'Why do you think you should be playing this?'" she said.

"I think when I first started out, it just felt like, 'This is what it's like. This is what Hollywood is like'. Also, I come from modeling and believe me, they have their moments."

Chris Evans.

Image: Getty. Even Chris Evans knows how nervous it can be meeting a famous actor.

The Captain America star had an embarrassing moment when he met Ben Affleck while auditioning for his 2007 movie, Gone Baby Gone. 

"I walked in and I'm walking down the halls looking for this room, and as I passed a room, I heard 'There he is.' In my head I was like, 'That's Ben,'" he told Backstage.

Listen to The Spill: In this episode the ladies discuss Chris Evans and his leaked photo news. Post continues after audio.

"I turned around, and it was, and for some reason I instantly was nervous. 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?' And he said, 'Where'd you park?' And I said, 'At one of the meters.' And he said, 'Did you put money in it?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And he said, 'I think you'll be all right.'"

"From that moment, I just wanted to get the f**k out of the room. I just wanted to be anywhere but there. I sat down with my heart beating out of my chest; I was so mortified that I started this meeting off that way. I started giving him one-word answers... 'So, what was your last movie like?' 'Good.' 'What was it like to work with Danny Boyle?' 'Good.' I just wanted to get out of there. It was horrible, a complete disaster."

Unsurprisingly, Evans did not get the part.

Emma Stone.

Image: Getty. Emma Stone was just 12 years old when she missed out on an audition for the Nickelodeon series All That.

The La La Land actress didn't know she had to prepare characters for the audition, so she had to make some up on the spot. And things didn't exactly go so well.

"I remember that one was a cheerleader that couldn’t spell what she was cheering," she told Jimmy Fallon.

"And then there was another one that was actually pretty nuts: A babysitter who is possessed. So as she’s reading books to the kids, she’ll go like 'Goldilocks and the [sudden deep voice] THREE BEARS'."

Elizabeth Olsen.

Image: Getty. WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen missed out on playing the mother of dragons in Game of Thrones thanks to her "awful" audition.

"I auditioned for Game of Thrones. I auditioned for, like, the assistant to the casting director in a small room in New York with just a camera on me and them reading the script," she explained in a podcast with The Hollywood Reporter.

"I was doing the Khaleesi speech when she comes out of the fire. It was awful," she added. "I didn't get a callback."

The 32-year-old also recalled the cringey audition in an interview with Vulture in 2019.

"It was the most awkward audition I'd ever had," she said, before explaining that she had to read Khaleesi's monologue from the end of season one.

"She’s making this speech to thousands of people about how she’s their queen," she continued. "They didn’t know if they wanted a British accent or not. So, you did it in both. It was terrible. Anytime someone says, ‘Bad audition story,’ that’s one I remember."

Eddie Redmayne.

Image: Getty. Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne didn't land the role of Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens thanks to the "ridiculous" voice he put on during the audition.

"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're auditioning for the baddie. So if you're me, you then put some ridiculous voice on," Redmayne told Uproxxx.

The Fantastic Beasts actor shared that he tried to put on Darth Vader's voice when reading the lines. 

"After like 10 shots [the casting director's] like, 'You got anything else?' I was like, 'No'."

Redmayne did the same when he auditioned for Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, the 39-year-old said he tried to copy Ian Holm from The Lord of the Rings.

"I thought I was being brave, you know," he said.

"Before the word 'Baggins' had even come out of my mouth, [the casting director] said 'No, no, no! Own voice! Own voice!'"

Suffice to say, he did not get a call back.

Ryan Reynolds.

Image: Getty. Ryan Reynolds bombed at an audition when he was asked to sing.

"I was never a great auditioner. But I had one where I had to sing, and I'm a nervous singer," he told Taraji P. Henson during the Variety Studios: Actors on Actors series.

"I'm one of those people that… you know when you're in the shower, and you're like, 'This is pretty good?' But once I get out into the real world, it's just like my voice turns into a hammer that hits everybody in the face. So I did an audition where I had to sing, and it was pretty bad."

"It's one of those auditions that was so bad that I look back and I think, 'What if that tape surfaces at some point? That'll be the death of me.' Yeah. That was pretty awful."

Jennifer Garner.

Image: Getty. When Jennifer Garner started auditing for roles, she was told to wear the same outfit to her first audition and call back, so the casting director could recognise her.

So when she auditioned for a role in an Edward Burns film, she followed the same advice. Only the rule didn't apply for this audition.

"I did the audition and then I got a call back. So I though cool I'll definitely wear that little mini navy skirt and the white t-shirt again... So I went back for the second audition and I wore the same thing," she said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

"I went back a third time, and I wore the same thing again. Then I went back a fourth time, and I wore the same thing again... meanwhile it hasn't been washed."

Eventually casting told her agent, "We do want to bring Jennifer back... but does she have any other clothes?"

"I didn’t get the job," said Garner.

Seth Rogen.

Image: Getty. Seth Rogen and Jason Segel bombed out of an audition for the 2002 Eminem biopic 8 Mile. In his recent book, Yearbook, Rogen shared details of the "weirdest audition" where he tried out for the role of Cheddar Bob, who Evan Jones went on to play in the film.

Before auditioning for the role, the film's casting director asked the actors to bring a friend to exchange lines with, so Rogen asked Segel, who he didn't know was also trying out for the part at first.

"We asked our agents if our auditions could be scheduled one right after the other, so that one of us could audition for Cheddar, with the other reading the Rabbit part, and then we’d switch," he explained in his book.

"We had a sleepover at my apartment the night before the auditions so we could rehearse and then carpooled to the audition together."

Rogen said that he and Segel found some of the lines in the script like "Yo, yo, mothaf***a! It’s Chedda! What up, b****!", so amusing that they "started laughing hysterically" and "literally couldn’t make it through the auditions".

"As soon as one of us started the scene, the other would lose it," he recalled. "It was so silly, we couldn’t finish. We just excused ourselves and saw ourselves out, tears streaming down our faces."

"Auditioning is embarrassing in the best of times. Add the fact that one of my best friends is watching me do it and that we’re both reading for rappers from Detroit, which we could not have been less right for," he added.

This article was originally published on June 24, 2021, was updated on August 9, 2021, March 15, 2022, and April 24 2024.

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.