The Wildest Things Stars Did To Land A Dream Role

There are several stories of actors who have made it big in Hollywood with no experience at all. "Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence, for example, was scouted by a talent agent while she was walking around New York City when she was just a teenager. Then there is actor Mel Gibson, who was attending a friend's audition for "Mad Max" when the film's director liked his rugged look (he had just gotten into a bar brawl the night before), and with no acting experience at all, landed the lead role. Both Lawrence and Gibson went on to become Oscar-winning A-listers. 

However, not every actor in Hollywood got their big break that easy. In fact, many stars have admitted to doing the unthinkable to stand out among other actors fighting for the same part in a leading film or TV show. Be it bold audition tape strategies, career-changing improvised moments, or creative costume ideas, each of these stars did anything they could think of to land their dream role. 

For Jada Pinkett Smith's role as Fish Mooney in Fox's "Gotham," the actor went above and beyond to get the part. While speaking about the show with fellow castmates Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, and Sean Pertwee at PaleyFest2014 (via Collider), Smith shared her memorable audition story. "I came in with a gown and a short black wig, with a young man on a leash, who had no shirt on and 'liar' written across his forehead with lipstick," she recounted. "That was my first introduction to Danny. I thought, 'Forget it, instead of talking about who Fish Mooney is, let me just show him.' I went method on it, definitely.'"

Her bizarre tryout earned her the role of Fish Mooney, but the actor only got the chance to play the character during the show's first season and had a recurring role in Season 2 and Season 3, where her character, who came back from the dead, was ultimately killed off.

Talking about what drew her into the role of Fish Mooney to The Root, Smith said, "She was created for [the] television show, and the creator [Bruno Heller] drew me. He was so open to my input in regards to helping create the character. When people give me that kind of freedom, nothing more excites me." 

When Natasha Lyonne caught wind of Netflix's hit show "Orange Is the New Black," she was ready to let her own, as she put it in an interview with The New York Times, "time in various holding cells" help her get the role. As Entertainment Weekly noted in 2012, Lyonne's "tussles with drug addiction and the law" got her arrested more than once.

She told Backstage that she used her experiences to her advantage when she was given the script for "OITNB" while she had a minor role in Jenji Kohan's "Weeds." "I went back to set and I started being like, 'Hey, just so you know, I've also spent some time in prison,'" she recalled. "I started essentially trying to let the producers know in a friendly, still-professional, healthy boundaries way that I actually related to some things [in the script], and don't be confused by my spray tan for this role, I actually am somebody who can play prison and has some firsthand experience.'" Lyonne later learned that Kohan essentially hired her for the role in "Weeds" to see if she was ready for something bigger. 

Lyonne was offered the job and ended up getting nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her role as Nicky Nichols in "Orange Is the New Black."  

Actor and stand-up comedian Louie Anderson wanted to do something nice for his fellow comic actor Eddie Murphy when he spotted him and his friends dining at the same restaurant in Los Angeles. The "Baskets" actor recalled to Backstage that paying for the "Trading Places" actor's tab led Murphy to pay it forward in a big way.

"I knew him as a comic, but we didn't hang out together," Anderson explained. "He came in and had about five or six people with him, and I said to the waiter, like any good Minnesotan would do, 'Hey, put Eddie's check on my American Express, but don't tell him I did until after I leave. I'm not doing it to be a showoff.' And then I got a call the next day that that was a really nice thing and Eddie wants you to do a part in 'Coming to America.' The bill was $661. You should do nice things, my mom taught me."

Anderson reprised his "Coming to America" role for the movie's 2021 sequel "Coming 2 America," and shared with CBS Los Angeles how fun it was to get the cast back together. "Everybody looks good," he said. "I am the token white guy, that's what Eddie Murphy called me in the first movie. It was great getting back together with everybody and it was a great experience." 

Fans best know actor Emilia Clarke from her extraordinary portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen on HBO's "Game of Thrones," and trying out for the demanding role was its own level of challenging. While most people would think that vying for the part of the Mother of Dragons must take seriousness and a lot of intensity, the show's creators David Benioff and D.B Weiss shared that what Clarke really needed to do was make the president of HBO crack a grin. 

Before presenting her with the 2018 Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year, the co-creators recounted the lengthy audition process that went into casting Dany. For her final round of tryouts, Clarke had to perform in front of the president of HBO. "We were smiling. He wasn't. It was quite possibly the least inviting audition environment we had ever witnessed," Weiss shared. As the president remained expressionless, Clarke asked if she could do anything else, and Benioff asked, "Can you dance?" And immediately, Clarke did the robot.

"She did it with commitment and she did it well... and even the president had no choice but to smile," Weiss said. "She got the job 10 seconds after she left the room and the two of us ran to tell her before she left the building because letting her get on an 11-hour flight home without knowing seemed like cruel and unusual punishment." 

Leonardo DiCaprio was only 15 years old when he landed the part of Tobias "Toby" Wolff in Michael Caton-Jones' film "This Boy's Life," but to earn his first major film role, a young DiCaprio had to wow co-star Robert De Niro and the rest of production. And as he told Deadline, he believed his "outspoken" and "ballsy" attitude is what ultimately won over the Hollywood veteran.

DiCaprio shared that he also improvised a scene with De Niro that involved a condiment that might have been the reason why he earned the part. "I remember there was this mustard jar sequence, and just thinking to myself, 'S***, I've got to do something... memorable. I've got to do something to just rattle these people's cages,'" he recalled. "I went in and they were doing the mustard jar sequence, and [De Niro]'s like, 'Is it empty, is it empty?' And I just stood up and threw my chair down, or something, and screamed at him, 'No, it's not empty.'" After believing that he had just ruined his chances at nabbing the role, DiCaprio added, "I guess they kind of liked it because Bob [De Niro] was like, 'That kid was...there's something interesting here.' And they brought me back.'"

Kit Harington bravely walked into his audition for the part of Jon Snow in HBO's "Game of Thrones" with a black eye, not knowing that it actually might have helped him land the role of the resilient and strong-willed character. In an interview with W Magazine, the actor revealed that he had gotten into a fight at a McDonald's the night before his big interview after a man was verbally insulting the woman he was with. However, the man turned out to be much taller than Harington, and he left the fast-food restaurant with a shiner. 

The actor nailed the tryout, and the rest is history. "I think that man who punched me in the face may have helped me get the job, so if you're watching, thank you," Harington said in W. 

However, casting director Nina Gold told Insider that she did not remember Harington with a bruised eye because his "GoT" audition was just so impressive. Gold said, "I remember that he was quite tired because he'd been doing eight shows a week in 'Warhorse' for a year. Then he started doing the audition and playing Jon Snow and he was completely brilliant. I do recall the emotional impact of his audition and being blown away. Kit is a phenomenal actor." 

Picturing 6'5" actor Joe Manganiello as the scrawny Peter Parker in the "Spider-Man" movie is hard, but that's the role the star initially auditioned for back in the early '00s. While the part ended up going to Tobey Maguire, Manganiello found himself better suited as high school bully Flash Thompson, which he ended up also reading for the same day. 

Speaking with Kevin Smith at San Diego's Comic-Con in 2018, Manganiello shared that he first tried out for Spider-Man, but had also prepared his lines for Flash, which in the back of his mind, he knew he was better suited for. "I actually initially auditioned for Peter Parker as well. I wore my glasses and I had a button-down shirt and I came in and read for Peter Parker, knowing full well ... If I'm Peter, who's Flash? Like a lineman from the Dallas Cowboys or something." The actor also told Smith that the casting director advised him to try out for the Flash, and he was already ready to go. "I unbuttoned the button-down shirt, took the glasses off and turned into Flash," he shared.

Manganiello ended up scoring the part of Flash Thompson in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man," which happened to be his first major movie gig.