These Actors Lied To Land Major TV And Movie Roles
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During an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2012, Mila Kunis admitted she told a sort-of lie about her age in order to land the part of Jackie Burkhart on That '70s Show. All the actors who auditioned for the show had to be at least 18 years old. Kunis was 14. She explained to Leno, "Legally I was 14, but I told them I was a little bit older... I told them I was gonna be 18, which is not technically a lie, cause at one point... I was gonna be 18."
Eventually, the producers figured out Kunis was underage, but put it aside because she was the best fit for the part. The Ukraine-born actress stayed on the show for eight seasons before transitioning to a career on the big screen.
- Films Acted In: Black Swan, Oz the Great and Powerful, Ted, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Book of Eli
- Age: 41
- Birthplace: Kiev, Ukraine, Soviet Union
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Fake it 'til you make it... or kill yourself trying? Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne lied to director Tom Hooper about being an experienced horseback rider, a skill set needed for period piece Elizabeth I. When Redmayne perched himself on a massive stallion surrounded by 40 stuntmen on horses, with Helen Mirren waiting in the wings, things went horribly wrong.
"They called action and I basically went ferociously down at 100 miles an hour. I almost killed myself, almost killed half of the crew," Redmayne revealed on Conan O'Brien's late night show. "Tom Hooper comes from behind Helen Mirren with a huge loud speaker and goes, 'You’re a f*cking liar, Redmayne.'"
Thankfully for Redmayne, Hooper didn't fire him, but rather sent the actor for horseback riding lessons.
- Films Acted In: Les Misérables, The Good Shepherd, The Other Boleyn Girl, Powder Blue, My Week with Marilyn
- Age: 42
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
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George Clooney was desperate to land decent roles and knew he needed to get into the Screen Actors Guild to have any chance of success in Hollywood. During an audition, he lied and said he was in a movie called Cat People. Unfortunately, for Clooney, the casting director he lied to was also the casting director on Cat People.
"You couldn't get a job without getting into the Screen Actors Guild, so everybody would make up these credits just to get in. They didn't have internet then so you got away with anything.
"I remember lying to a casting director about Cat People. She was like, 'You were in that?' I was, like, yep, and she goes, 'Because I cast that.' I finally just said, 'I can't get in the SAG. Help me!' She helped me get a job on a film called The Predator. The movie never came out. But I got my SAG card."
- Films Acted In: Batman & Robin, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, From Dusk till Dawn, Gravity
- Age: 63
- Birthplace: USA, Lexington, Kentucky
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In order to get the part of high-powered executive black marketeer Lydia Rodarte-Quayle on AMC's Breaking Bad, Laura Fraser lied when studio heads asked whether she speaks German. The Scottish actress admitted only after she was cast and had appeared on the show that she lied her way into the role. Outside of a few basic phrases she learned in school, Fraser doesn't speak German.
Fraser learned her lines phonetically. She recalls thinking, "Oh no, what’s coming? It was corporate-speak German and it was a nightmare – it took me days to learn a little paragraph. Now I bore my family with it – it’s my party trick."
- Films Acted In: Vanilla Sky, A Knight's Tale, The Man in the Iron Mask, Titus, A Christmas Carol
- Age: 48
- Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland, UK
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When thinking about all the actors who have played James Bond, most don't even recall George Lazenby as 007. The Australian model had no acting experience whatsoever when asked to audition for Bond by a casting agent he had dated. The first thing Lazenby did in his attempt to replace Sean Connery as Bond was get a complete makeover.
"He went to Sean Connery’s barber, Kurt’s, then in the basement of the Dorchester. He asked for his hair to be cut like Bond. Kurt then told him who was Connery’s tailor, and Lazenby went to get a suit. At Anthony Sinclair, no bespoke suit could be readied in time, but there was one Connery had rejected. It fit Lazenby like a sartorial Excalibur."
Then, Lazenby concocted some lies. When casting director Dyson Lovell took the actor to meet producer Harry Saltzman, Lazenby thought up a fake acting resume en route to the meeting. Later in the vetting process, Lazenby buckled under his lie, confessing to director Peter Hunt.
"I’ve never acted a day in my life. I’ve modeled but never spoken in front of a camera.’ And he’s looking at me, ‘What? And you say you can’t act? You’ve fooled two of the most ruthless men I’ve ever met in my life. Stick to your story, and I’ll make you the next James Bond.’"
Lazenby only played Bond in one film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). He was offered a long term contract to appear in additional Bond movies but got some bad advice from a friend and refused the generous offer. Sean Connery came for Diamonds Are Forever (1971) before giving way to Roger Moore.
- Films Acted In: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Gettysburg, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Game of Death, Batman Beyond: The Movie
- Age: 85
- Birthplace: Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia
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Laurence Fishburne got his start acting at 11, when he played Josh Hall on daytime soap One Life to Live. He eventually left One Life to Live to play Tyrone Miller, AKA Mr. Clean, in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now when he was just 14. How could a 14-year-old boy be allowed to play a soldier in a notoriously grueling movie about the Vietnam War?
He lied. Fishburne told Coppola he was 16. The actor was on set for the film from 1976-1978, living in the jungles of the Philippines, working alongside several of the most acclaimed actors in cinema, including Martin Sheen, Dennis Hopper, Marlon Brando, and Robert Duvall. Fishburne credits Coppola for having a major influence on his craft: "As an actor, Coppola trained me. That was my training ground."
- Films Acted In: The Matrix, Apocalypse Now, Man of Steel, The Matrix Reloaded, Boyz n the Hood
- Age: 63
- Birthplace: Augusta, Georgia, USA
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Rachel McAdams really wanted to work with acclaimed director Terrence Malick. When considered for the part of Jane in To The Wonder (2012), she was asked whether she liked horses or had an issue working with them. McAdams lied, saying she loved horses. In truth, she's allergic to, and was terrified of, horses.
McAdams controlled her allergies with antihistamines and overcome her fear of horses. She said during an interview with The Guardian, "My first day of the shoot I was in the middle of a corral with 50 horses who had never before been touched by humans. It's like when people ask if you can ride for a medieval film – you think you can just get away with it. And I did, somehow!"
- Films Acted In: Mean Girls, The Notebook, Wedding Crashers, Sherlock Holmes, Midnight in Paris
- Age: 45
- Birthplace: London, Ontario, Canada
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Robert Pattinson is one of the most recognized movie stars in the world. Well before he was cast as Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies, the British actor had a difficult time finding work. After spending two years as a struggling actor in Los Angeles, he got desperate and lied about some important details.
To boost his resume, Pattinson claimed to have attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and Oxford University. He also pretended to be American when surrounded by too many other British actors, to make himself stand out from the crowd.
Whether it was his fabricated back story or acting talent, Pattinson landed the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005, and his career took off.
He confessed his fib to the Daily Mirror after he was already famous:
"I'd been unemployed for ages, and when I came to Los Angeles all the casting directors would ask what I'd been doing for the past few years. I'd say, 'Oh, I was at RADA' if you've got an English accent you can get away with it. I'd say I went to Oxford, too. I did it for years. But it didn't work when loads of English people started moving to Los Angeles. So then I pretended to be American for a bit. When Twilight came out I still tried to pretend to be American but people thought I was insane, so I stopped."
- Films Acted In: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Twilight, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, The Twilight Saga: New Moon
- Age: 38
- Birthplace: Barnes, London, England, UK
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Who says a young lass can't fool a veteran director? When 14-year-old Chloë Grace Moretz auditioned in front of Martin Scorsese for the part of Isabelle in 2011's Hugo, the native Georgian told the Academy-Award-winning director she was British.
Moretz came clean during a December 2011 interview with The Mirror:
"He flew [British co-star Asa Butterfield] and I out to New York to audition in front of him and I spoke in a British accent the whole time. I'd lived in London for five months when I was filming Kick-Ass, so I knew the rhythm of the accent, which is one of the main things you have to pick up. There's huge difference in the way the British act and speak, and I stayed in character with Marty until the end.
"When I thanked him and walked out, he said, 'Hold on, did I hear an American accent?' I said, 'Maybe', and he replied, 'You tricked me'. But it worked because I got the part. Sometimes you have to do whatever you can to get the role."
- Films Acted In: Kick-Ass, Hugo, (500) Days of Summer, Dark Shadows, Bolt
- Age: 27
- Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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- Brokeback Mountain
- Focus Features
During Anne Hathaway's audition for Brokeback Mountain, she took her parents' advice and lied to director Ang Lee about her skill set. She admitted as much in an interview with Out magazine:
"When I left the audition, the last thing Ang said was, ‘Oh, by the way, can you ride a horse?’ My parents have given me a lot of gifts in my life, and one of them is: If you’re ever asked if you can do anything, say yes. You can learn anything in two weeks if you’re motivated enough. So I’d never been on a horse, and I replied, ‘Oh yeah, I’m a really good rider.’ So I knew I had to learn to ride, and I got really, really, really good."
Although the Oscar winner learned how to ride before production began, the lie came back to haunt her. When she got to the set, Hathaway didn't realize the horse she was given only responded to verbal commands. Therefore, she was unable to figure out how to ride it. The truth came out during rehearsal in front of hundreds of extras.
- Films Acted In: The Dark Knight Rises, Alice in Wonderland, Brokeback Mountain, The Princess Diaries, Ella Enchanted
- Age: 41
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
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British actor Daniel Craig used to say he was a skilled horse rider in order to land parts. He had no experience riding horses, but got away with the fib for a while. "The horse movies I had done before had so little money that I didn't have the chance to practice. I would just turn up to shoot and get on a horse pretending to know what I was doing - sometimes just to get the part."
Craig could no longer fake it when he was cast in the science fiction/western genre bender Cowboys & Aliens (2011); he needed to learn how to ride for the movie and wound up liking the experience. "I was on a horse every day for two weeks before we started shooting this movie so by the end, had I had the land, I would have bought a horse!"
- Films Acted In: Casino Royale, Skyfall, Road to Perdition, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Quantum of Solace
- Age: 56
- Birthplace: Chester, Cheshire, England, UK
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In order for Carla Gugino to land her first movie role in Troop Beverly Hills, she shaved a couple of years off her age. She told producers she was 14 when she was 16. Gugino didn't confess until she felt the job was totally safe. Years later, she came clean on The Late Late Show with James Corden:
"Before IMDb, you could lie about your age, and I was fully rewarded for it because I was 16, and I said I was 14 to get the job. And I got it! … I told the director three weeks in, once I knew I couldn't get fired 'cause we'd shot enough. I was like, 'Just so you know, I am 16.' I thought for sure he was gonna be like, 'No big deal,' but he was like, 'I would've never hired you if I knew you were 16.'"
- Films Acted In: Sin City, Watchmen, American Gangster, Night at the Museum, Sucker Punch
- Age: 53
- Birthplace: Sarasota, Florida, USA
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In order to snag the role of Diane Farrow in Love Potion No. 9 (1992), Bullock lied about her age. She admitted in 1993:
"They said, 'We want an older scientist.' I go there and I say I'm 29. After a while, you have no idea how old you are because you've lied so many times. I always said I would never lie, but one time, when I didn't it worked against me. So I figure you just keep them guessing."
Bullock scored the lead role in the romantic comedy. In 1994, the future Academy Award winner hit full stride in her breakout role as ballsy bus driver Annie in Speed.
- Films Acted In: The Blind Side, Crash, Gravity, Speed, The Prince of Egypt
- Age: 60
- Birthplace: Arlington County, Virginia
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- Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Liam Hemsworth certainly looks like he could play volleyball. As an aspiring young actor, he auditioned for The Last Song, starring Miley Cyrus. When asked whether he could convincingly play volleyball, Hemsworth said yes.
During an interview Collider, when discussing the biggest challenges of making The Last Song, he confessed the volleyball was especially difficult:
"Volleyball was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Before we started shooting, they asked me, 'Do you play volleyball?,' and I said, 'Yeah, no problem.' And, I turned up for the first day of volleyball practice and I was honestly really scared to shoot the volleyball part because it takes a lot of skills to play that game and I didn’t have them, at all. I said to Julie Ann, 'I think we’re going to need a double,' but it’s hard to find someone as big as me. We had days where it was just us, and we were playing pretty good against extras who hadn't played before. We looked okay then. But, we had a day where we had 300 extras there, watching us play against professional volleyball players, and they made us look stupid."
- Films Acted In: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Expendables 2, Knowing
- Age: 34
- Birthplace: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Due to the graphic nature of the hilariously raunchy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), all the actors who auditioned for the film had to be at least 18. Nicolas Cage wanted the part of Brad Hamilton (which went to Judge Reinhold), so the 17-year-old actor lied, saying he was 18. Producers figured out Cage was fibbing, and the actor later stated he didn't get the part of Brad because he was a minor and therefore couldn't work the hours needed for a larger role.
Despite being a minor, Cage scored a bit part in the movie, playing one of Brad's friends. Cage has said his first screen role on the set of Fast Times was a "terrible experience."
"I was surrounded by actors, whose names I won’t mention, who were not very open to the idea of a young guy named ‘Coppola’ being an actor. So that movie was instrumental in me changing my name because of the kind of unfortunate responses to my last name… They would congregate outside my trailer and say things, like quoting lines from Apocalypse Now, and it made it very hard for me to believe in myself."
The Academy Award-winning actor changed his stage name from Coppola to Cage not long after. In case you didn't know, his uncle is Francis Ford Coppola.
- Films Acted In: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Raising Arizona, Kick-Ass, The Outsiders, Ghost Rider
- Age: 60
- Birthplace: Long Beach, California, USA
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