Today the force is with fans around the world with the first trailer arriving for "Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens." And the J.J. Abrams directed sequel brings with it an entirely new cast to join the old school heroes for the next adventure in the saga. As you’ll probably remember, no shortage of names were rumored for the movie as casting got underway, and it’s likely many of those folks got phone calls to read for the movie. But for Eddie Redmayne, things didn’t go well.
Recently stopping by the podcast Happy Sad Confused, the actor shared how things went pear shaped when he stepped in to audition for the movie.
“Recently my ‘Star Wars’ audition was pretty catastrophically bad. There’s this wonderful casting director called Nina Gold, who I absolutely love,” Redmayne shared. “I went in and did this scene, and after seven times of trying to play… [Gold] was like, ‘Got anything else, Eddie?’ I was like, ‘No, I want out.’ ‘I think we’re going to have to agree to part on this one.’ I said, ‘Ok, that’s a childhood dream crushed.’ ”
Oof. The actor also says he botched his audition for "The Hobbit" too. But it seems he’s made of tougher stuff, and with an awards season contending performance in "The Theory Of Everything" continuing to pick up great notices, and the blockbuster "Jupiter Ascending" around the corner, we reckon he’s doing just fine.
Hear the good-natured Redmayne share his embarrassing tale below — it starts about the 28th minute. [MTV]