Last week on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Steve Buscemi — from… well, everything — revealed that long before he was famous, he often found himself in rooms with casting agents and directors unable to connect at all.
“I was always hot and cold,” Buscemi explained. “I never knew if I should wing it, cause sometimes I’d be good if I went in the room and I didn’t really prepare. And then, the next time I’d do it, I would fail.”
And Buscemi has auditioned for the best of the best — including “Rain Man” filmmaker Barry Levinson when he was working on the 1987 movie “Tin Men.” He decided he had to “really prepare” for the meeting. “And I studied the sides, the script, and went in there and did my reading… did my audition, and he looked at me and went, ‘That was really good. That’s really good, Steve. Alright. Let’s do it again, but this time try it…’ and he gave me a very specific note.”
Buscemi listen and took the note. He was ready for another try. “And then I read it again the exact same way I just did,” he chuckled. “There was this silence and we both just looked at each other. I think I even said, ‘That was the same, wasn’t it?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s OK, it’s OK.’ Needless to say, I did not get that part.”
Another time he auditioned for EGOT-winner Mike Nichols and casting director Juliet Taylor, even though he knew he had a conflict. “My agent at the time said, ‘No, no, no. Just go. When are you gonna have an opportunity to meet these people?” So off Bescemi went, and he killed it… but when he revealed he couldn’t make the shooting dates, Taylor stared at him and said, “What is wrong with you?”
Of course, Buscemi has proven himself several times over — enough to impress the Emmys (he has one on eight nominations) — in such diverse projects as “Fargo,” “30 Rock,” “Reservoir Dogs,” and “Boardwalk Empire.” It’s a resume that doesn’t need regurgitating. He’s become such a recognizable face, in fact, he can play himself on “The Studio” in a season that also had cameos from legends like Martin Scorsese and Charlize Theron, also playing themselves.
Buscemi is far from the only famous actor to struggle with an audition — even a now-A-lister like Hugh Jackman, who has since gone from Wolverine to “The Music Man,” bungled what might’ve been his big break: the Benjamin Bratt role in “Miss Congeniality” — an experienced he described as “humiliating.”
“No one knew X-Men yet. I was a nobody,” Jackson once told Variety, though in spite of his unknown status he had the opportunity to shoot his audition with Sandra Bullock. He recalled thinking, “‘Holy shit! She’s amazing! And so quick and fast. I’m not even vaguely up to speed here.’ I was pedaling as fast as I could, but I didn’t know the script well enough.”
Years before her own series “Girls” made her a household name, Lena Dunham auditioned for Penny Marshall’s 2001 film “Riding in Cars With Boys,” and it did not go well… though not in a traumatic way.
“When I was 12, I met Penny Marshall in a failed audition for a film, ‘Riding in Cars With Boys.’ And that was really big for me,” Dunham related on “The Jess Cagle Show.” “I was treated actually really well. There was no cruelty. The only thing I’ll say is I understand why I didn’t get the role.
Dunham explained that Marshall asked each of the young performers to tell her their names, heights, where they were from, and… then… to smile. “And I said, I’m Lena, I’m from New York, and I don’t smile on command.’ And Penny Marshall said, ‘It’s called acting, honey.’”
Dunham, now an experienced director (whose “Good Sex” is filming now with Natalie Portman, Meg Ryan, and Mark Ruffalo), now sees things Marshall’s way. “The thing is, she was right,” Dunham said. “Would you hire an actor who is like I’m sorry, I can’t smile on command?’ The thing is, I’m with Penny on this one.”
You win some. You lose some. You learn some.
Watch Buscemi’s full interview on “The Late Show” below.
