14 Times A-List Actors Blew Major Auditions

There are bad auditions, and there are complete bombs.

Today, we know Jake Gyllenhaal as a bonafide leading man with matinee idol looks and loads of talent. The Academy Award-nominated actor has more than proved his range in films like Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, Zodiac, and Nightcrawler.

In the late 1990s, Gyllenhaal was on the cusp of stardom. He auditioned for the lead role of Frodo in Peter Jackson's big-screen trilogy adaptation, The Lord of the Rings. The problem was that no one told him he should use an accent. 

The actor revealed during an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that his LOTR audition was totally monumental, just not in a good way. 

"So I went in to read for it [the role of Frodo] - and I remember going into this room and there was a lot of stage directions - we didn’t have any lines to say, really it was just like finding the ring and you are supposed to open the thing and there is a ring there," said Gyllenhaal. "And I remember I didn’t really do it because I didn’t really understand - because there were no lines - so I walked up and sort of opened it up and was like: 'Was that good?'"

"Then I had to say the lines, and I didn’t do an accent for it," added Gyllenhaal. 

Jackson told Gyllenhaal exactly what he thought of his audition. "You are the worst actor that I have ever seen! Did anyone tell you that you are supposed to have an accent?"

When Gyllenhaal revealed that no one gave him that information, Jackson suggested he fire his agents. 

Chris Evans already had several impressive credits on his filmography - including Johnny Storm/Human Torch in two Fantastic Four movies - when he auditioned in front of Seth Rogen for the 2009 black comedy Observe and Report. However, the future Steve Rogers/Captain America wanted to show that he had more range. 

The actor called the act of auditioning "excruciatingly painful." His Observe and Report try-out may have been the most painful of his career. Evans described how he became overtaken by sheer panic on three separate occasions during the same audition:

I think maybe one of them was that Seth Rogen movie where he’s the mall cop. What the f*ck was it called? (Observe and Report.) I walked in the room, and there were Seth and the director and a producer, and for some reason, my brain just started shrieking, just screaming, "No, no, no." I began my audition, and about three lines in, I got this wave of sweats, and my face went red. Mid-audition, I said, "I’m sorry, guys. I’m sorry. I’ve got to stop." It’s even worse because they were incredibly nice about it, like, "No, it was great. You were doing great." I said, "Let me just go to the hallway and collect my thoughts." I go into the hallway, I collect my thoughts. I’m laughing at myself. Go back in, we start up again, and it f*cking happens again. My face just goes so red. I start sweating, and I have to stop again.

I go to my car, and I call my agent and I say, "That was a f*cking nightmare. Whether I get this movie or not, I can’t let that be the last taste they have in their mouths. I’ve got to come back tomorrow and do this again. You’ve got to get me back there. I’ve got to do it again." They were like, "All right, but they said you were OK." I’m like, "They’re lying. It was terrible." They got me back in a couple of days later and I’m back in. Don’t you f*cking know, it happened again! There’s a wave of heat and sweat, and I had to stop again. And I just say, "Guys, I’m so sorry... I’m just going to go." I did not get that role.

Mark Strong is known for his roles in Cruella, Sherlock Holmes, and Kingsman: The Secret Service. However, he also could have added James Bond villain to his filmography.

The British actor tried out for one of 007's antagonists when Pierce Brosnan was carrying the license to kill. In an ironic twist of fate, the man who helped to sabotage Strong's Bond audition was none other than future Bond portrayer, Daniel Craig. Strong and Craig are close friends - and apparently, drinking buddies. 

The night before Strong's audition, he decided to go out boozing with Craig. The result of his poor decision-making was a nasty hangover and a bombed audition. 

"I started, and then I just forgot my lines - couldn't remember what they were," Strong said. "I was sweating, it was a terrible experience, but I really learned from it."

Jamie Foxx earned Oscar gold for his performance as the legendary Ray Charles in the 2004 biopic, Ray. However, in the mid-'90s, Foxx was still very much a comedy television actor from In Living Color and The Jamie Foxx Show. 

Foxx admitted during a 2010 interview with Howard Stern that his audition for the role of Rod Tidwell (the part that would eventually earn Cuba Gooding Jr. an Academy Award) in 1996's Jerry Maguire was a monumental disaster on many levels.

The actor-singer got the chance to audition in front of Tom Cruise, and he made an impression on the movie star for all the wrong reasons: 

I kept looking at him. Imagine that you’re from Texas, and you’ve done a little bit of sh*t, but you ain’t seen no real f*cking stars, right? So, I’m just sitting there watching it, and we get to reading, right. And we’re reading. We’re reading, Howard.

And as I’m reading, you know, he does a dramatic pause, you know, but that’s his thing. I f*cking think he lost his place. So I take the script, and I say (points at the script) no, we right here, "Show me the money." And then you say... He says, "I know. I was taking a pause." I said, "OK, yeah. I’m f*cking this up."

"I blew it so bad that he just started laughing at me," admitted Foxx. The worst (and funniest part) is that the Top Gun star let him know just how awful he was doing. "Hey, guy. You gotta get it together," Cruise said to Foxx.

Foxx and Cruise would eventually work together on the big screen. The pair starred in Michael Mann's 2004 crime drama, Collateral. 

Quentin Tarantino has a long history of reigniting fading acting careers in Tinseltown. Child actor Macaulay Culkin was perhaps hoping that the auteur could jump-start his career as he did for John Travolta and Kurt Russell. 

The Home Alone actor auditioned for Tarantino's ninth (and maybe last?) film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. According to Culkin, he completely crashed and burned. 

“It was a disaster,” Culkin admitted. “I wouldn’t have hired me. I’m terrible at auditioning anyway, and this was my first audition in like eight years.”

Elizabeth Olsen had to earn her place in Hollywood. First, she had to battle being in the shadow of her older twin sisters, Mary-Kate and Ashley. Then, the actress also developed panic attacks around the time she made her impressive breakthrough movie debut in 2011's Martha Marcy May Marlene.

Olsen turned into an independent film star with work in the Sundance movies Kill Your Darlings and Wind River. Today, most people know her as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actress also impressed in Disney+'s first MCU small-screen series, WandaVision.

However, her career was not always smooth sailing. Olsen auditioned for the role of Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, and it did not go well. She said: 

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