Chris Evans’ most embarrassing audition: “I just wanted to get the fuck out of the room”
Bad audition stories are the crème de la crème of Hollywood. The ritualistic process of baring your emotions before a casting director or filmmaker, only to be rejected and see the film plastered all over billboards, is a somewhat mortifying process. When it is a director you admire, there is nothing more humiliating than meeting them with the pressure of making an impression, which can sometimes be enough to make it the worst interaction you’ve ever had.
For many actors in Hollywood, these types of situations are the bread and butter of talk show interviews and dinner party conversation starters, with countless performers revealing their innermost embarrassment at fluffing up an opportunity they desperately wanted.
While you might picture Chris Evans as the image of composure, particularly after years of playing assertive superheroes in the Marvel franchise that never take no for an answer, the actor has his own audition horror story that led him to make an awful impression on someone he deeply admired.
Ben Affleck is perhaps the definitive Boston actor in Hollywood, only rivalled by Ayo Edebiri, with the city even declaring a national Ayo Edebiri day every year. But before Edebiri, Affleck and Matt Damon did wonders for the reputation of the city through their breakout film Good Will Hunting, which took place in their beloved city and showed it in a new light in cinema.
But Chris Evans also shares this in common with Affleck, which led him to be very nervous about meeting him during an audition for Gone Baby Gone. Directed by Affleck himself, the film follows two private detectives investigating the disappearance of a four-year-old girl. Evans booked an audition for the project, which was upended by his nerves over meeting Affleck and his desire to make a lasting impression on a fellow Boston native.
When discussing this, Evans said, “I don’t get starstruck. ‘m fine. Especially Ben—he’s a Boston guy, I should be fine. I walked in and I’m walking down the halls looking for this room, and as I passed a room I heard ‘There he is.’ In my head I was like, ‘That’s Ben.’ I turned around and it was, and for some reason, I instantly was nervous. I went in and shook his hand, and the first thing I said was ‘Hey, how ya doing—am I gonna be okay where I parked?’ And he said, ‘Where’d you park?’ And I said, ‘At one of the meters.’ And he said, ‘Did you put money in it?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘I think you’ll be all right.’ From that moment, I just wanted to get the f*** out of the room.”
While it’s not the best way to begin a meeting, it’s not completely awful. But unfortunately for Evans, it only continued to go downhill from there, with the actor saying, “I just wanted to be anywhere but there. I sat down with my heart beating out of my chest; I was so mortified that I started this meeting off that way. I started giving him one-word answers. They put me in a rocking chair, so I’m just rocking and twisting, just nervous. ‘So, what was your last movie like?’ ‘Good.’ ‘What was it like to work with Danny Boyle?’ ‘Good.’ I just wanted to get out of there. It was horrible, a complete disaster. So obviously, I did not get that job.”
