Whitney Cummings thought she was being punked during “Megalopolis ”audition: 'It was just so humiliating'

Whitney Cummings recalled a "humiliating" audition with director Francis Ford Coppola for his sci-fi drama Megalopolis that ended with, of all things, a bottle of Francis Ford Coppola wine.

In an episode of her Good For You podcast, the comedian and actress revealed that she auditioned for the film starring Adam Driver, and the experience felt like it was straight out of the prank reality series Punk'd.

Related: Whitney Cummings gives birth to first child: '3-D printed a human'

"This was such a core trauma for me," said Cummings, sharing that she spent days memorizing a few pages of lines and nearly four hours in hair and makeup for what ultimately ended up to be a strange audition process.

"Everyone is so quiet. There’s no vibe of, ‘We’re at an audition. Hey, what’s up? Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you,'" recalled Cummings of the atmosphere. "It’s just so awkward. I go in, I’m like, ‘So, where do you want to start first?’ And he’s, like, ‘Oh no, no, we’re not going to do the scene.’ I was like, ‘OK, It’s three days of my life.'”

Instead, Coppola "would just throw things at me,” said Cummings of the improvisational nature of the audition. Cummings said she was instructed to bid farewell to her son going off to war in an English accent, as well as confront her husband for leaving her for her sister in an Australian accent. "Because I did the show Punk’d, I was like, if I’m being punked, this is actually genius," said Cummings.

The comedian said she "disassociated" during the process. "I started glazing over, and then he was, like, ‘That was great.’ I don’t know where I went. I just completely disassociated," she shared, recalling that she was just "improvising my head off" and confused as to why she was improvising with Coppola of all people, as opposed to other actors.

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Cummings said she was on the verge of tears and "embarrassed" by the ordeal. But, uh, she didn't leave empty-handed. "He gives me a signed copy of his new book. He signed it in front of me as if I had shown up to an autograph signing," recalled Cummings. "And then gave me a bottle of Francis Ford Coppola wine. It was just so humiliating . . . and so confounding in that moment.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Coppola's reps for comment on the anecdote.

Cummings didn't specify which role she auditioned for, but the film — centered on a conflict between an architect and mayor set in the utopian future — also starred the likes of Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Chloe Fineman, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, and Shia LaBeouf, among others.

Related: Francis Ford Coppola says Megalopolis isn't 'woke,' features actors 'who were canceled'

Emmanuel spoke about the improvisational nature of her audition for the sci-fi earlier this year, telling The Hollywood Reporter that it "didn't really feel like an audition." “We played a fun game where he asked me to select a line from a song, a movie, a poem, anything," she recalled. "To be honest, I can’t remember what I chose in the end, but he asked me to say that line in different scenarios. Say it like the butt of a joke, like you’re breaking really bad news to somebody, like you’ve just heard the worst news in the world, like you’re celebrating, just over and over in all these different ways."

That looseness extended to rehearsals, with the cast engaging in similar theater-style games. “It was a fun way to help the actors get connected, be playful and spontaneous," said Emmanuel.

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