How many times have you watched the Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens teaser trailer? Probably enough to scour every frame for clues to what the J.J. Abrams-directed sequel is actually about. Though we only saw a handful of actors in the trailer — and mostly those who couldn’t be identified because of the shot — there is one actor you definitely didn’t see: Eddie Redmayne. And you won’t be seeing him in the actual film either — not through lack of trying on Redmayne’s part, but because of what he calls a “catastrophically bad” audition.
In an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Redmayne spoke about his audition disaster. He says, “My Star Wars audition was pretty catastrophically bad. There’s this wonderful casting director called Nina Gold, who I absolutely love. I went in and did this scene, and after seven times of trying to play … (Gold) was like, ‘Got anything else, Eddie?’ I said, ‘OK, that’s a childhood dream crushed.'”
That wasn’t the first time that Redmayne blew his chance at starring in a major film franchise. He also admits to having a terrible audition for The Hobbit, revealing, “I did a very awful audition for The Hobbit too, trying to do my Bilbo Baggins impression.”
Of course, Redmayne is currently enjoying some very positive reviews for starring as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Then again, he didn’t get to wield a lightsaber or Sting when he played the famed theoretical physicist, did he?
via The Hindu