8 Embarrassingly Bad Movie Auditions Starring Famous Actors

3. Brad Pitt (Backdraft)

Role? Brian McCaffrey

Did he get the part? No.

Today, Brad Pitt is a reliable leading man and a proven box-office draw, but in the very early 90s, he was neither, as proved by a completely unconvincing audition for a role that eventually went to William Baldwin.

It's only a brief clip, but from start to end, Pitt looks utterly confused by the whole thing, failing to deliver his lines with any sense of flow and seemingly not understanding what the hell he's even saying.

His vacant expression didn't help either, and here, he's a far cry from the engaging, charismatic Brad Pitt we've come to know and appreciate in everything from Inglourious Basterds to Fight Club.

Fortunately, he landed a breakout role in Thelma & Louise shortly after, a part that, funnily enough, was originally intended for William Baldwin, who had to drop out to star in Backdraft.

We're sure Pitt is not ruing how things played out at all.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!