Chris Evans and Henry Cavill are more than household names at this point in the movie industry. Known for their roles as Captain America and Superman/The Witcher respectively, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for actors of that calibre to boss every audition they’ve gone for.
But that’s not the case as shared by both actors on different platforms. In an interview with Backstage, back in 2009, Chris Evans tried to audition for Seth Rogan’s Observe and Report, and it was a horrific audition.
Getting nervous as a performer is natural, but actors have to be able to conquer that on the spot. For Evans, at that moment, the anxiety got the better of him.
“I walked in the room, and there were Seth and the director and a producer,” Evans explained. “For some reason, my brain just started shrieking, just screaming, ‘No, no, no.’ I began my audition, and about three lines in, I got this wave of sweats and my face went red. Mid-audition, I said, ‘I’m sorry, guys. I’m sorry. I’ve got to stop.’”
“I go into the hallway, I collect my thoughts. I’m laughing at myself,” he continued. “Go back in, we start up again, and it f*cking happens again. My face just goes so red. I start sweating and I have to stop again.”
“They got me back in a couple of days later and I’m back in,” Evans added. “Don’t you f*cking know, it happened again! There’s a wave of heat and sweat and I had to stop again. And I just say, ‘Guys, I’m so sorry…I’m just going to go.’ I did not get that role.”
Henry Cavill also shared his audition horror story recently in Variety.
“We met many years ago, I believe it was 2003,” Cavill told Patrick Stewart in Variety. “You were casting for The Lion in Winter and I had been acting for three years at that stage. My first job was The Count of Monte Cristo when I was 17 years old. I left school one year early. I was extremely nervous to audition in front of an actor of your caliber. I went in to the audition and I had spent weeks learning my lines. By the time I had gotten in there, I had whipped myself into such a frenzy that I completely flubbed the audition.”
I guess even the best superheroes have anxiety attacks and fall short sometimes.
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