These Actors Lied To Land Major TV And Movie Roles

During an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2012, Mila Kunis admitted she told a sort-of lie about her age in order to land the part of Jackie Burkhart on That '70s Show. All the actors who auditioned for the show had to be at least 18 years old. Kunis was 14. She explained to Leno, "Legally I was 14, but I told them I was a little bit older... I told them I was gonna be 18, which is not technically a lie, cause at one point... I was gonna be 18."

Eventually, the producers figured out Kunis was underage, but put it aside because she was the best fit for the part. The Ukraine-born actress stayed on the show for eight seasons before transitioning to a career on the big screen.

Fake it 'til you make it... or kill yourself trying? Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne lied to director Tom Hooper about being an experienced horseback rider, a skill set needed for period piece Elizabeth I. When Redmayne perched himself on a massive stallion surrounded by 40 stuntmen on horses, with Helen Mirren waiting in the wings, things went horribly wrong.

"They called action and I basically went ferociously down at 100 miles an hour. I almost killed myself, almost killed half of the crew," Redmayne revealed on Conan O'Brien's late night show. "Tom Hooper comes from behind Helen Mirren with a huge loud speaker and goes, 'You’re a f*cking liar, Redmayne.'"

Thankfully for Redmayne, Hooper didn't fire him, but rather sent the actor for horseback riding lessons.

George Clooney was desperate to land decent roles and knew he needed to get into the Screen Actors Guild to have any chance of success in Hollywood. During an audition, he lied and said he was in a movie called Cat People. Unfortunately, for Clooney, the casting director he lied to was also the casting director on Cat People.

"You couldn't get a job without getting into the Screen Actors Guild, so everybody would make up these credits just to get in. They didn't have internet then so you got away with anything.

"I remember lying to a casting director about Cat People. She was like, 'You were in that?' I was, like, yep, and she goes, 'Because I cast that.' I finally just said, 'I can't get in the SAG. Help me!' She helped me get a job on a film called The Predator. The movie never came out. But I got my SAG card."

In order to get the part of high-powered executive black marketeer Lydia Rodarte-Quayle on AMC's Breaking Bad, Laura Fraser lied when studio heads asked whether she speaks German. The Scottish actress admitted only after she was cast and had appeared on the show that she lied her way into the role. Outside of a few basic phrases she learned in school, Fraser doesn't speak German.

Fraser learned her lines phonetically. She recalls thinking, "Oh no, what’s coming? It was corporate-speak German and it was a nightmare – it took me days to learn a little paragraph. Now I bore my family with it – it’s my party trick."

When thinking about all the actors who have played James Bond, most don't even recall George Lazenby as 007. The Australian model had no acting experience whatsoever when asked to audition for Bond by a casting agent he had dated. The first thing Lazenby did in his attempt to replace Sean Connery as Bond was get a complete makeover.

"He went to Sean Connery’s barber, Kurt’s, then in the basement of the Dorchester. He asked for his hair to be cut like Bond. Kurt then told him who was Connery’s tailor, and Lazenby went to get a suit. At Anthony Sinclair, no bespoke suit could be readied in time, but there was one Connery had rejected. It fit Lazenby like a sartorial Excalibur."

Then, Lazenby concocted some lies. When casting director Dyson Lovell took the actor to meet producer Harry Saltzman, Lazenby thought up a fake acting resume en route to the meeting. Later in the vetting process, Lazenby buckled under his lie, confessing to director Peter Hunt.

"I’ve never acted a day in my life. I’ve modeled but never spoken in front of a camera.’ And he’s looking at me, ‘What? And you say you can’t act? You’ve fooled two of the most ruthless men I’ve ever met in my life. Stick to your story, and I’ll make you the next James Bond.’"

Lazenby only played Bond in one film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). He was offered a long term contract to appear in additional Bond movies but got some bad advice from a friend and refused the generous offer. Sean Connery came for Diamonds Are Forever (1971) before giving way to Roger Moore.

Laurence Fishburne got his start acting at 11, when he played Josh Hall on daytime soap One Life to Live. He eventually left One Life to Live to play Tyrone Miller, AKA Mr. Clean, in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now when he was just 14. How could a 14-year-old boy be allowed to play a soldier in a notoriously grueling movie about the Vietnam War?

He lied. Fishburne told Coppola he was 16. The actor was on set for the film from 1976-1978, living in the jungles of the Philippines, working alongside several of the most acclaimed actors in cinema, including Martin Sheen, Dennis Hopper, Marlon Brando, and Robert Duvall. Fishburne credits Coppola for having a major influence on his craft: "As an actor, Coppola trained me. That was my training ground."