10 Actors Who Bombed Huge Auditions
8. Jake Gyllenhaal - The Lord Of The Rings
The Lord of the Rings is arguably one of the greatest film trilogies of all time, it won 17 Academy Awards over the stretch of the three movies, and it still holds up even after more than 20 years. Can you imagine watching it now with Jake Gyllenhaal in the role of Frodo Baggins?
The actor went in to audition, the first part of which didn't involve reading any lines. Instead, this was to be the moment Frodo found the ring. Gyllenhaal, unaware of the true gravity of the moment, didn't really play it accordingly, and so was off to a bad start.
Things got even worse when it came to the dialogue, as nobody had bothered to tell him he was supposed to speak with an English accent. He simply read the lines in his normal speaking voice, something that just would not have worked in Middle-earth, no matter how hard he tried.
Gyllenhaal was ultimately let down by his agent, and was subsequently told by Peter Jackson that he was the worst actor he had ever seen. That's something that has really got to sting coming from anyone, but Gyllenhaal has kindly proven that statement wrong in the decades since.