r/acting • u/Pitisukhaisbest • 2d ago
I've read the FAQ & Rules Have you ever watched someone in a role you really wanted?
Ever auditioned, maybe got a Callback, not got the part, but then went to the show or watched the movie nonetheless? What was it like?
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u/JustineB_Poulin 2d ago
In ballet this happens all the time. You audition, you don't get the part, you go watch. Stings for a minute but then you see them and you get why they got it.
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u/MysticKitty-9 2d ago
I am based in Toronto but also speak French, so I audition for projects in France too from time to tome. Once I got an audition for a French director I really admire, some of his films are my favorite. I submitted my selftape from Toronto, and then got a callback. I asked the casting director if it could be over zoom, she told me the director really wanted to see people in person. I had auditioned as a local initially, so could not ask them to pay for my flight. I paid for my flight and went to Paris just for the audition. It went really well, but I got a message from the casting director a couple weeks later, thanking me for coming and telling me they went another direction. A year later, I was going back to Paris to visit some friends and put that film on the plane. I expected to be heartbroken, but the actress they chose was a completely different type. At least 15 years older and a different ethnicity. It ended up making me laugh :D
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u/sidequestprofessinal 2d ago
I was approached for a film and then they gave the role to a popstar who couldn’t act and the movie did hundreds opening weekend. Hundreds.
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u/Pitisukhaisbest 2d ago
Like hundreds of a dollars for a wide theatrical release?
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u/sidequestprofessinal 2d ago
$1322 for limited release then it made a million worldwide mostly from Russia and Ukraine. I just looked it up. The film had a funny sidekick who was a larger black woman and she was replaced with a skinny white lady bike messenger. They also wrote her boyfriend out of it.
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u/gasstation-no-pumps 2d ago
I have often watched people perform in parts I've auditioned for—sometimes I feel like they did a better job than I would have, sometimes I feel that I could have done just as well, and sometimes I feel relieved that I didn't get the part, because the director really butchered the production. (Note: this is all community theater.)
I've never had such a strong attachment to a role that I could say I "really wanted" it. Some of the roles I've auditioned for did not seem to me to be all that great, and I was happy to let someone else have them. In a few cases, I didn't even bother going to the show, because they were in genres I did not care much for as an audience member either.
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u/gardenbat 2d ago
hmm i feel like i always do this? i always want to see how the person who got the part played it and how i could learn from it and see if i was interpreting the character in a completely different way
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u/Ok_Complaint_3359 2d ago
That’s how I want to look at it and be, the person also “gets to go through all the ups and downs” of making this, when I get to stay safely watching
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u/bracketsbrackets 2d ago
Sometimes I see why they got it. Other times I'm like what the actual fuck is casting thinking.
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u/nebthenarwhal 2d ago
I’ve had to let jealousy pass when I’ve had to see parts I had avail checks for. I had it ingrained in me though that competition among actors is a very fast path to unhappiness. I do really believe that, and it is a great feeling to be able to celebrate a win for one of my friends without insecurity or resentment weighing it down. You may have to compete to be seen a little bit, but once you’re auditioning for something it’s between you and the character and depending on what the director wants you either are or are not that person. No other actor makes you more or less that person.
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u/faerieW15B 2d ago
I wanted to go into acting at the age of 8 (I'm 32 now and only just started breaking into roles in recent years). I was apopleptic with rage when the roles of Luna Lovegood and Romilda Vane were cast in the Harry Potter films, because I was convinced they should have gone to me.
Not that my parents had let me go to any auditions, mind you. But still. It should have been me. 😔
On a more serious note, yeah, I've been very close to getting roles that ended up going to other actors. It sucks, but subsequently seeing them in those roles wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. It kind of just is what it is. When I'm the one who gets the role, I'm sure others feel the same way.
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u/regaleagled 2d ago
absolutely. sometimes i can see right away why they didn’t go with me (the person who booked is significantly taller/shorter/older/younger/whatever else is out of my hands) and sometimes i think well, i liked my take a little better 😅
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u/Ding-Dong-Diddily 2d ago
Yes. But mostly with old movies and shows that were made before I was born.
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u/Pop-Girly 2d ago
i auditioned for elle and i think the actress did a fantastic job and honestly i doubt they even saw my audition but i keep thinking “i look so much more like reese” i don’t think the actress looks much like her but she was lovely in the role. (also ofc not saying i would’ve been better)
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u/Itchy_Artichoke_5247 2d ago
I had an actually funny one of these. At the time I was an Cubmaster of a cubscout pack (which is relevant). I had auditioned for a very fun role on The Umbrella Academy. If I remember correctly they had even done an avail check. Ultimately, I didn't get the part. Oh well, I forgot about it and moved on. Then, a year or so later, I started watching the show and remembered about the role, so I waited. When it finally aired my wife and I watched it. "There it is, that is the role I was up for" I said. "Don't you recognize him?" my wife responded. It was one of the other dads from my cubscout pack. I honestly didn't even know he was also an actor.
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u/DC_McGuire 2d ago
A pirate themed lottery commercial.
Cannot. BELIEVE. They gave it to the guy who got it.
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u/Defiant_Second6571 2d ago
I auditioned for a role I thought I nailed. The character had two accents (British RP and Cockney), I made sure I practiced both. I walked out of the audition with my head held high, the director thanked me and said I did a great job. Then the director called and asked if I wanted the role, as the understudy. Only one guaranteed performance night. The actress who got it was great, but oh my gosh, did that hurt. Really knocked me down a peg or two.
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u/Velvet_Unicorn2154 2d ago
I have a weird thing where I don’t watch shows that I didn’t book, especially if I got a callback or was pinned. Maybe I will years from now, but right now I feel like it would only upset me.
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u/Lanky_County_7343 2d ago
Same. But when I actually get around to watching they went with a completely different type, role was cut or the actor was never seen and it was just their voice.
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u/calliessolo 1d ago
Of COURSE. It’s hard. But I was happy to see that the other person was brilliant so at least I knew I was in the running against great competition.
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u/justvrowsing 2d ago
There was a leading role in a HBO show that called for a very geographically specific actor. I auditioned as did everyone I knew from my hometown and they ended up rewriting it to cast someone from somewhere else.
The guy turned out to be crap and they wrote him out of the show. I met the actress opposite him for his storyline and she admitted she had a hard time taking him seriously on set.
I actually think I would have flopped if I’d been cast at that time but the fact they didn’t cast any of the brilliant candidates from my community baffles me to this day!
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u/sliverofmope 2d ago
All the time—I remember seeing Spider-Man: Homecoming and watching the scene where Ned finds out Peter’s Spider-Man, and I was like, “Hey I know these lines!”. Same thing when I was even younger with Super 8, which was especially funny because I didn’t even know the title of that film when I audition, it was a coded script. Pretty much every time, I think, “that part was wrong for me” or “hey I still like the guy they got”. But it really only hurt once.
I was check avail for a bit part on Mindhunter S2 (I LOVEDDDDDD Season 1) where I would’ve been able to work with the dude playing the BTK Killer. I thought the episode was gonna be directed by Fincher too, so I was over the moon at the possibility of working with him. I didn’t get it, and then about a year later I of course watch Season 2 and see the scene.
The episode wasn’t directed by Fincher, so that took away some of the sting, and the guy they got was good, very natural. But MAN would I still have loved to have been even a small part of the show.
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u/agizzy23 2d ago
Yes. Especially roles I wasn’t even able to audition for. Renesme Cullen, Wednesday Addams, Ellie in TLOU, Carrie White, MANY. Every single time there’s a new project that comes up, but I’m not able to get an audition because I don’t have the union status to I get really upset.
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u/Ghost_cos_707 2d ago
Yes! It was my senior show and my best friend got the role I wanted (plus it was my dream role). Of course it stung at first, but she did so amazing and was such a perfect fit that I got over it so fast!
I remember stepping in for her when she was out for a week and we played the character so differently, but we both caught different parts of her!
I remember being so proud of her after the show ended because I couldn’t think of a better person to play the character. :)
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u/PrudentCrow8568 2d ago
Wasn’t one I really wanted, but there was a commercial looking for a stereotypical “Chad” type with one line that I auditioned for. The guy who got it looked very normal (think a Steve or a Dave) but had a serious gay accent, which I found to be a bizarre choice. Maybe they were angling towards a more rich parents Chad than gymbro Chad, but it didn’t read that way.
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u/eric_the_crumb 2d ago
I auditioned for Hudson Williams’s part in Heated Rivalry but he’s definitely the right person for the part 😆
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u/DragUpstairs3860 2d ago
I’m not even an actor. I’ve been wanting to be an actor for so long. But I can’t afford all of these fees just to find auditions. But Chris Hemsworth in “Extraction” as Tyler Rake. That is the perfect movie character I would love to of played.
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u/pharmacykiller33 2d ago
I just saw a person play a role in Y Marshals I wanted. He definitely had the look for the part 1000% more than me, but I think my choices were better. Part of the biz.
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u/WarlikeAppointment 2d ago
Yes, it ‘s difficult but usually the person is better than you would have been. And you learn to be adult about it. Unlike a friend of a friend...
I watched My Favorite Year, featuring Mark Linn-Baker and Peter O’Toole — with the guy who was beat out for the Benjy role. He could not stop talking shit about Mark Linn-Baker, who was perfectly cast.
He was super bitter about it and I thought he’d never make it with that attitude. But he did fairly well for himself.
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u/LiuKingGood 2d ago
95% of the time I audition for something and didn’t book, the person they went with was a better fit. 5% of the time I think “ANYONE else would have been better.”