Yahoo Lifestyle "Life Is Too Short To Completely Dehumanize Yourself": 10 Horrible Auditions Actors Walked Out Of
Have you ever wanted to walk out of a job interview? If you had to do countless job interviews a year, then you might get frustrated enough to follow through. While major stars are offered roles, most working actors have to audition for every part they want to play. Casting directors aren't always upfront about their exact expectations, and actors aren't always treated respectfully in auditions. So, it's not surprising that, sometimes, an actor decides to cut their losses and head for the door.
Here are 10 times actors walked out of auditions and why:
1.In 2023, Stephanie Hsu told the New York Times, "At the time when I was finishing school and living in New York, those roles were not available in the mainstream. And I had no interest in selling myself or just shrinking myself to an inappropriate cameo just so that I could say I added one more thing to my résumé. I remember in 2012, I went into a commercial audition, and they were like, 'OK, could you do it again, but with a more Asian accent?' And I said, 'I'm so sorry, but this role is not for me. I don't do that, and I'm not interested in this part.' I walked out, and I was fuming."
She continued, "I sat next to this actor and asked him, 'Did they ask you to do an accent?' He was Asian and spoke perfect English, and he was like, 'Well, yeah.' And I'm like, 'Did you do it?' And he said, 'I have no other choice.'
I understand that people want to make it, and they only see one path and have to bend and fold to have a life in the arts, but I always thought if that's how it's going to go for me, then I'm going to work at a bar or in a wood shop. I have to make things that matter to me. Life is too short to completely dehumanize yourself."
2.In 2015, The Magicians actor Candis Cayne told The Hollywood Reporter, "I went on an audition for Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Larry David was there. The part was for a trans woman who had to go to the bathroom really bad and decided she was going to go in the men's line because it was quicker. I said, 'Thank you for writing a trans part, but I can't audition because a trans woman wouldn't do this. I have to honor my community,' and I walked out of the audition."
As she left, she said, "But I love the show!"
3.In a 2016 editorial for NBC News, Twilight actor Justin Chon said that, after he drove two hours for an audition, another actor who'd just auditioned "immediately told [him] disgustedly, 'They want an Asian accent.'" So, Justin "decided not to enter the audition and drove the two-hour commute back home."
He wrote, "Early in my career, I did a fake-ass Chinese accent for a series of T-Mobile commercials in 2003. At the time, I thought, 'Hey, if I don't do it, someone else will.'
I immediately regretted the decision once I started shooting the spot. Since then, I have been able to navigate Hollywood without having to put myself in that situation again."
4.In conversation with Hong Chau for Variety's Actors on Actors in 2017, Diane Kruger recalled her "worst auditioning experience." She said, "I had to learn...a really, really long monologue [with] difficult lines. The audition was in this hotel, and, as you know, there's like ten people in the room. So I start the monologue, and [the director's] cellphone starts ringing, right? Like, in the middle of it."
She continued, "So obviously, it rings twice, three times. He picks it up. [He] doesn't say, 'Oh, I'm sorry.' Right? He just looks at it and goes, 'Start again.' So I start again, and the phone rings again. Like, he didn't turn it off. And he picks it up...He goes, 'Yeah, no, I'm in a thing right now. I'll call you right back. No, don't worry, we can have dinner wherever you want.' Like, literally, he was making dinner plans. And he said, 'Okay, go ahead. Sorry, start again.' And I did, and the phone rang again. And I didn't even let him answer it. I just, like, got my stuff and left.
That's so disrespectful, right? I mean, screw him."
5.In 2017, Awkwafina told Vice, "I've walked out of auditions where the casting director all of a sudden changed her mind and asked for accents. I refuse to do accents."
She continued, "And I think like — so far like a lot of the parts I've gone out for have been really real characters, and being Asian is not part of their plotline. I'm OK with having an Asian aspect if it's done in a genuine way. I'm not OK with someone writing the Asian experience for an Asian character. Like that's annoying, and I make it very clear, I don't ever go out for auditions where I feel like I'm making a minstrel out of our people."
However, in 2022, she addressed criticism she's faced for appropriating African American Vernacular English and using a "blaccent."
On Twitter, she said, "[A]s a non-black POC, I stand by the fact that I will always listen and work tirelessly to understand the history and context of AAVE."
Some activists criticized her statement as "too little, too late."
6.In 2017, Mads Mikkelsen told Short List, "I think I walked out on the Fantastic Four [audition]. I think I actually said, 'I can't do it. It's not about you, I'm sorry, this is wrong.'"
7.In 2018, Vikings actor Travis Fimmel told GQ Australia, "I hate [casting meetings]. Absolutely hate it. It's very unrealistic. There's people that like to get up and talk in front of people. I wasn't the kid that enjoyed reading out loud in class. I've walked out halfway through, embarrassed, plenty of times."
He continued, "I put myself on videotape. I can't remember the last job I got from actually auditioning. It's horrible. Nervous, sweaty, embarrassed. I feel like a little monkey. I just panic. I get out of there."
8.In 2024, Robert Downey Jr. revealed his "worst audition" to Paul Giamatti for The Hollywood Reporter. He said, "I went in for a Dr. Pepper commercial. They came out in the hallway, and they said, 'OK, you're the pied piper, and everybody wants to be like you.' And I just stood up and walked out of there."
9.In the same THR interview, Paul Giamatti said, "I auditioned for a musical once, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. You're supposed to burst into song. I just started laughing and I couldn't do it, and I walked out of the room."
10.And finally, James Gandolfini reportedly walked out of his first audition to play Tony Soprano on The Sopranos. In 2019, series creator David Chase told Deadline, "We were doing it in a little studio above a dance studio on 79th Street, and he came in, and he was all huffing and puffing. He started, and then he stopped in the middle of it and said, 'I can't do this today. I can't do this. I haven't prepared right.' And he left in the middle of the audition. And then there was a lot of negotiating and convincing, not on my part, but on the casting people's part."
He continued, "We all believed in him, but did we believe he would come back? He promised to return the following Friday, and then we get word that his mother is very ill, or had died. I swear I heard this. His mother died several years ago, but I swear that's what he told me or somebody did. And the reason I'm hesitating is because he didn't seem to me to be the kind of guy who would use his dead mother as an excuse, but I swear I heard that.
... And he didn't come in [on the new date we set] either. By then, people were having to convince me to read him. I could see where he was going [that first time], and I thought he'd be very good. Finally, somehow or other, he came to my house in Los Angeles, and we taped it, and that was the end of that."
Have you ever walked out of a job interview? Share your experiences in the comments!
