“You’re the worst actor”: How Jake Gyllenhaal botched his Frodo audition

Jake Gyllenhaal had no plan

On “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” Gyllenhaal himself recounted the embarrassing moment. “I went to the audition too – and I remembered walking into this room and there were a lot of stage directions. We didn’t have any lines to say. It was actually just about finding the ring. You were supposed to open the thing and there was a ring,” the actor recalls of the scene that apparently left him baffled. He “kind of” opened it and then asked himself: “Was that good?”

Things apparently got even worse when Gyllenhaal had to recite his lines later. The US actor lacked any British accent. Apparently the moment had now come when director Peter Jackson bluntly revealed to him: “You are the worst actor I have ever seen.“Jackson added, ‘Did anyone tell you to have an accent?’ and advised Gyllenhaal to fire his agents immediately.

The film trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”, which was released in cinemas in 2001, thrilled audiences with its outstanding actors. Sir Ian McKellen as the wizard Gandalf and Sean Astin in his role as the hobbit Samwise Gamgee, for example, remain unforgettable. But one actor in particular captivated the audience.

Elijah Wood played the title hero Frodo Baggins, who had to endure countless adventures in Middle Earth.

Actually, the US actor Jake Gyllenhaal would have liked to appear in front of the camera as Frodo, reports dailymail.co.ukBut during the audition he blamed himself to the core, so director Peter Jackson ultimately chose Elijah Wood.

Jake Gyllenhaal celebrated great success

Even though the audition for “The Lord of the Rings” was a big flop, Jake Gyllenhaal later enjoyed great success. Among other things, he landed the eponymous role in the mystery thriller “Donnie Darko” in 2001. In 2004, he played Sam Hall in Roland Emmerich’s disaster film “The Day After Tomorrow”. In 2008, he landed the lead role in the computer game adaptation “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” and in 2019 he impressed as Mysterio in “Spider-Man: Far From Home”.

But failures, such as the audition for “Lord of the Rings,” are also part of Gyllenhaal’s career. In the 2001 film “Spider-Man,” it was Tobey Maguire, not him, who got the role of Peter Parker. And in the film “Batman Begins,” it was Christian Bale, not him, who played the title character.