With casting calls and breakdowns leaking online regularly these days, many high-profile movies don’t even use their own script in auditions. While Disney and LucasFilm underwent the enormous casting process forStar Wars: The Force Awakens, it became clear that most of today’s high-profile young actors were auditioning for this highly-anticipated movie, including rising starEddie Redmayne. During an interview for his upcomingFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the actor says he’s pretty sure he auditioned for the iconic villainKylo Ren.
Eddie Redmaynepreviously teased hisStar Wars auditionduring a podcast appearance last November. Since he mentioned that he had often lost out toDomhnall Gleesonfor roles in the past, like Bill Weasley in theHarry Pottermovies, many believed thatEddie Redmayneauditioned forDomhnall Gleeson’s character General Hux. During a new interview withUproxx, the actor revealed that he believes he was actually auditioning for Kylo Ren, although he doesn’t know for sure.
“So, I was going for, I think, forAdam Driver. They gave me like aStar Trekscene - or like something fromPride and Prejudice. It was one of those films. With films that top secret, they don’t give you the actual lines. So they give you a scene fromPride and Prejudice, but then they tell you you’re auditioning for the baddie. If you’re me, you then put some ridiculous voice on.”
The actor also teased part of the audition process itself, where he was going through different variations on the iconicDarth Vaderbreathing sound. Apparently though, the actor couldn’t quite get it right, although he thanked casting directorNina Goldsince she helped him out numerous times earlier in his career. Here’s what the actor had to say below.
“That was really a hilarious moment. Because it was Nina Gold, who I have to thank a lot because she’s cast me in several films. And she was just sitting there and I was trying again and again with different versions of my kind of “koohh paaaah” [Darth Vader breathing sound] voice. And after like ten shots she’s like, ‘You got anything else?’ I was like, ‘No.'”
Despite not landing the iconic role ofKylo Renin thisStar Wars movie,Eddie Redmayne’s career hasn’t turned out so bad. The actor won an Oscar last year for his portrayal ofStephen HawkinginThe Theory of Everything, and he will continue reprising his Newt Scamander role in upcomingFantastic Beastssequels. Still, we’ll never know howEddie Redmaynemight have fared as Kylo Ren inStar Wars: The Force Awakens.
