Movies

Taylor Swift recalls 'nightmare' screen test with Eddie Redmayne for Les Misérables movie

Redmayne said he, too, panicked, because he'd eaten pungent "garlic dough balls" before the scene.

By

Published on October 28, 2022 11:12AM EDT

Perhaps Taylor Swift's Les Misérables screen test with Eddie Redmayne was the antihero all along.

"Basically, I was up for two roles," the Midnights singer-songwriter said on Friday's episode of The Graham Norton Show, on which she appeared as a guest alongside Redmayne. "I had the look of Cosette and the range vocally of Éponine, so it was established I was there for a good time, but not for a long time. I wasn't going to get the role."

She continued, "But they asked if I would like to go to London to do a screen test with Eddie, who is one of my favorite actors, and I thought, 'This isn't an experience I am going to get again in my life,' so I said yes."

Swift then recalled arriving to the set of director Tom Hooper's Oscar-winning 2012 production, where the crew put her in a "full 19th-century street urchin costume" for the character, complete with painted-on brown teeth.

"I was like, 'You are going to do that after I meet Eddie Redmayne, right?'" she said. "But no, they made me look like death and it became a nightmare. When I met Eddie I didn't open my mouth to speak."

Taylor Swift, EDDIE REDMAYNE, LES MISERABLES, 2012 — Taylor Swift recalled a nightmare audition with Eddie Redmayne for the 'Les Misérables' movie. Amy Sussman/Getty, Cinematic Collection/Alamy Stock Photo

Redmayne, too, was nervous about wrapping his arms around Swift for the scene — but because of his own issues.

"I thought we would just be singing off each other — I didn't know we would be in each other's arms," he said. "My overriding memory of it is that I had had pizza and garlic dough balls beforehand, and all I could think about was my garlic breath while Taylor was dying in my arms and I was trying to show emotion."

While Swift bagged neither the role of Éponine nor Cosette (the parts went to Samantha Barks and Amanda Seyfried, respectively), Hooper later cast her in his critically maligned Cats movie musical in 2019.

Swift and Redmayne's episode of The Graham Norton Show will air in full on BBC America.

Check out our daily must-see picks — plus news, celeb interviews, trivia, and more — on EW's What to Watch podcast.

Related content: