10 Movie Auditions You Would Not Believe
7. The Force Was Not Strong With Eddie Redmayne
Even when an actor has scaled the heights of the industry, even nabbing a Best Actor Academy Award, you can still be asked to read for a role before you are formally offered it.
Eddie Redmayne found himself in this exact predicament, fresh off an Oscar win for his turn as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Kylo Ren in the new Star Wars adventure, The Force Awakens, was the role up for grabs and Redmayne knew how big an opportunity it was...to his detriment.
He described the audition as "catastrophically bad". The story goes that Redmayne went into the room and attempted to read the part in a variety of ways, only to be met with "Got anything else, Eddie?" from the legendary Casting Director, Nina Gold.
Redmayne agreed that they should "part on this one" and confessed it was a "childhood dream crushed." He went on to lead the new J.K Rowling excursion into the pre-Harry Potter Wizarding World, Fantastic Beasts, while the role of Kylo Ren went to the expertly cast, Adam Driver.