8 Wild Things Actors Have Done For Their Auditions

While reading for a role usually involves getting into character and acting out a scene from the script, some actors admit that the things they have done were a little more bizarre. From slapping another actor to pretending to be a wolf, these stars say that they did whatever it took to impress the casting director.

Here are the wild things these stars had to do in their auditions…

1. Jada Pinkett Smith

When Jada Pinkett Smith was up for the role of Fish Mooney in “Gotham,” she went all out for her audition. Looking back, Jada shared that she not only got into character with her outfit but she also literally brought a man on a leash with her.

“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 in lipstick. That was my first introduction….I thought, Forget it, instead of talking about who Fish Mooney is, let me just show [them]. I went Method on it, definitely,” Jada said during a PaleyFest panel.

2. Emma Stone

Emma Stone says she had a really strange experience when she auditioned for the role of Abigail Masham in “The Favourite.” When it came time to read in her lines in front of director Yorgos Lanthimo, he asked her to pant between words — despite her character never doing that in the film.

“I auditioned for Yorgos, he had me pant like I was giving birth throughout the lines,” Emma  shared during a press conference. “I think he just does this to everyone.”

3. Nicholas Hoult

Emma Stone’s “The Favourite” co-star Nicholas Hoult had an equally strange experience while auditioning for the film. He says that director Yorgos Lanthimo asked him to hum over other actors who were speaking — and then asked him to imagine force fields around the audition room.

“Yorgos asked me to hum while the person I was with said their lines, and then I had to imagine force fields around the room and sculpt them into things,” Nicholas explained. “There were lots of games like that throughout rehearsal as well. I’m not sure how it affects the performance.”

4. Margot Robbie

Margot Robbie was in the middle of the audition process for the role of Naomi Lapaglia in “Wolf of Wall Street” when she decided to get a little bold in order to impress director Martin Scorsese. While she was reading an argument scene with Leonardo DiCaprio, the script called for the pair to kiss but Margot spur of the moment decided to slap him instead — and it actually paid off.

“He ends it saying, ‘You should be happy to have a husband like me. Now get over here and kiss me.’ So I walk up really close to his face and then I’m like, ‘Maybe I should kiss him. When else am I ever going to get a chance to kiss Leo DiCaprio, ever?’ But another part of my brain clicks and I just go, Whack! I hit him in the face. And then I scream, ‘F–k you!’ And that’s not in the script at all. The room just went dead silent and I froze,” Margot told Harper’s Bazaar.

Looking back, Martin says it was that moment that “clinched” Margot’s part in the movie.

5. Brian d’Arcy James

Brian d’Arcy James was willing to do whatever it took to get a role in Damien Chazelle’s film “First Man.” When he was in the audition process, the studio told him they were having a difficult time envisioning him as a pilot so Brian went all out to get into character. He picked up an Air Force jumpsuit from a costume designer he knew and then reached out to a friend who had a plane.

“So I basically got a costume and then I talked to my friend David Turner, who is an actor who happens to be a pilot, and I asked him if I could use his plane to do a little photo shoot of me dressed as an Air Force pilot….[H]e was able to help me get a friend of his who owns an airport and who strangely also happens to be a semi-professional photographer to take a little bit of his day and do a makeshift photo shoot of me standing next to a plane in a fighter pilot costume so I could just show them. ‘Look, if you’re having a hard time envisioning what I would look like, let me show you.’ And it worked!” Brian shared.

6. Chloë Grace Moretz

In 2011, Chloë Grace Moretz auditioned for a role in “Hugo,” but the character she wanted to play was British. Since she wasn’t as well known back then, Chloë lied in her self-tape audition, using her best British accent to convince casting agents she was actually from England. She continued the ruse at her in-person audition and while the agent admitted she knew Chloë wasn’t British, she recommended she keep up with the lie when she met Martin Scorsese.

“The casting director knew I wasn’t British, but she knew I was willing to lie, and she liked me. And she was like, ‘Lie to Marty. It’ll work!’ I’d already lied in my self-tape and I lied with her so she was like, ‘Keep lying,’” Chloë said on “The Late Show,” adding that she eventually even created a full backstory for her British persona.

7. Hugh Laurie

When Hugh Laurie submitted his first audition for “House,” it wasn’t in the best conditions. Hugh was actually in the middle of Namibia shooting “The Flight of the Phoenix,” so he had to get creative while filming his audition. In the end, he had to seclude himself in a tiny bathroom because he says “it was the only place with enough light.” Despite recording the tape in a tiny bathroom in Namibia, he clearly nailed the role — and director Bryan Singer even thought that Hugh was American and not British.

8. Tom Holland

Tom Holland admits he’s always doing strange things in auditions but one of the weirdest was for director Andy Serkis. While Tom didn’t specify which film it was for, he says that he read his lines — and then was asked to do it again as a wolf!

“Often we do strange things for auditions, but I think your audition might be the strangest thing I’ve ever been asked,” Tom said to Andy on an episode of “The Graham Norton Show,” adding, “I did the scene…and [Andy] said, ‘Thank you, that was great. Now do it as a wolf.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So all I did was [put my hands on my head to make ears].”

9. Harry Hamlin

When Harry Hamlin went to audition for the role of Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” he didn’t even know he was in the audition. When he arrived at the production studio, he met with Steven Spielberg, who said that George Lucas was running late. In the meantime, he asked if Harry and actress Stephanie Zimbalist, who was auditioning for Marion, could bake George a chocolate cake — without instructions. It turns out that the kitchen was filled with hidden cameras and was all a part of the audition to see if Harry and Stephanie had chemistry.

“It never occurred to me…that we were actually in the audition while we were making the cake,” Harry told Page Six. “I’d been riffing on how annoying Steven Spielberg was to my friend Amy, so hey, guess what? I didn’t get the part, OK, and I’ve never worked with Steven Spielberg, and I grant you that I never will work with Steven Spielberg and I never learned how to make a cake.”

10. Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin’s audition for “The Fly II” in the 1980s didn’t quite go according to plan. It turns out that Josh was a little too intense when getting into character and overcommitted to the metamorphosis scene during the audition.

“I went in there and I totally committed…But I was on the ground and I was frothing at the mouth, because he’s in a chrysalis, he’s in a cocoon. What happens to one that’s human that’s not used to something like morphing from one thing to another? One would imagine it would be a painful process, would one not?” Josh explained on “Hot Ones.”

The audition got an awkward reaction from the casting team and by the time Josh got home, his agent had called him to ask “What the f–k did you do in there?”