Often, when actors reach a certain level of notoriety, they no longer have to audition in the traditional sense. When they’re well enough known, casting directors, producers, and directors will already be aware of their abilities, which renders an audition somewhat redundant. In this case, actors may be offered a role that fits their skills out of nowhere, or they may sit down with the director or producers to discuss the role and see what they have in mind for it. More rarely, roles are written with a specific actor in mind for them, and there are a couple of these on this list.
From younger actors, like Timothée Chalamet, to more seasoned performers, like George Clooney, there are a lot of A-listers who get offers for parts without auditioning. Sometimes, this even leads to some of their most iconic roles, which, unsurprisingly, suggests that it’s easier for casting directors to match parts with actors whose work they’re familiar with than going off a few auditions. So, which actors have reached that point in their careers? Here are 11 actors who no longer have to audition for their parts in movies.
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11 Michael Fassbender
Pathe Distribution
After working for almost a decade, Michael Fassbender got his big break in Steve McQueen’s Hunger in 2008. The movie follows a man leading a hunger strike in a Northern Irish prison during The Troubles, focusing on what happens to someone when they are pushed to such an extreme. In conversation with The National, Fassbender revealed that once Hunger premiered at Cannes, he stopped having to audition, saying, “You spend years just trying to break into a room and get a role and then people want to take you to lunch?” After this, he went on to star in acclaimed movies such as Fish Tank, Jane Eyre, Shame, and Steve Jobs.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
10 Adam Driver
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Although he is now primarily known as Kylo Ren in the Star Wars franchise, Adam Driver was once an indie darling. With roles in Frances Ha and Lena Dunham’s Girls, he made a name for himself as a versatile comedic and dramatic actor. It’s this rich back catalog that enables him to receive offers for roles without auditioning. Even roles as prolific as Kylo Ren. Director of The Force Awakens, J. J. Abrams, flew Driver out to Los Angeles and offered him the role personally. Despite never having led a large franchise movie, his filmography clearly provided enough proof of his talents.
9 Timothée Chalamet
Sony Pictures
When Paul Mescal’s casting in Gladiator 2 was announced, there were also tweets claiming several other popular actors auditioned, including Timothée Chalamet. His agent responded to one such tweet by saying, “I know one of these actors was shooting a film in the Middle East for the past several months - and he hasn’t auditioned for anything in more than 7 years,” (via Cinema Blend). For Chalamet’s breakout role in Call Me By Your Name, he wasn’t required to audition. It seems that, since then, he hasn’t had to audition again. With so much buzz around him, and clearly demonstrated talent, it’s no wonder that he is being offered exciting projects like Little Women and Dune.
8 Uma Thurman
Miramax Films
In Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman made a name for herself playing Mia Wallace. A high-profile movie like that, which also received almost universal acclaim and earned Thurman an Oscar nomination, will surely catapult an actor into stardom. Additionally, it was while working on Pulp Fiction that Tarantino was so impressed that he and Thurman began working on ideas for another movie together, free of an audition. This project became Kill Bill, which pushed Thurman further into the limelight. It’s hard to argue with someone like Tarantino when he says someone is good enough not to audition. In an industry that is all about connections, Thurman made a great one pretty early in her career.
7 Eddie Redmayne
Universal Pictures
Eddie Redmayne began his career working on mid-range British productions. The early-2010s is when his work started to gain some traction. He worked on My Week With Marilyn alongside Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, and played Steven Hawking in The Theory of Everything. As a result of these notable roles, one of which he won an Oscar for, he became a valuable actor to have in your movie. When it came time for the Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, he was offered the lead role of Newt Scamander without being required to audition. Redmayne took part in The Aeronauts and The Trial of the Chicago 7 alongside his work on the Fantastic Beasts trilogy, but it will be interesting to see what direction his career takes with more time on his hands now.
6 Emma Stone
Summit Entertainment
Emma Stone has been a star for a long time. Movies like Superbad, Zombieland, and Easy A helped her reach household name status over ten years ago. With such a large, diverse, and well-known body of work out there, it’s unsurprising that she doesn’t have to audition for roles anymore. One example of a role she received without auditioning is Mia in La La Land. The movie’s director Damien Chazelle saw Stone performing in Cabaret on Broadway and decided she’d be a perfect fit. She then went on to win an Oscar for the performance, so he clearly had the right idea.
5 Bill Murray
American Zoetrope / Elemental Films
It didn’t take long for Bill Murray to become the A-list household name that he is. With movies like Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, and Rushmore to his name, in the earlier days of his career, there was no denying his magnetic screen presence. Therefore, it’s not hugely surprising that directors were, and are still, competing to get him in their movies. Murray is an example of an actor who had a role written specifically with him in mind: Bob Harris in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. It’s a bold move placing all your eggs in one basket like that, but if you succeed, then you’ve already written a character to play up a specific actor’s strengths.
4 George Clooney
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Unsurprisingly, George Clooney is an actor who doesn’t have to audition for roles. From his first hit with the show ER, to playing Batman, or a more understated role like in Solaris, he’s really done it all. No one is going to doubt that Clooney can pull off a role they want him to play. Since he started off slowly, with many rejections, he has discussed the strangeness of transitioning from taking anything you can get to becoming more discerning with your roles. Once he got to a certain level of fame he can sometimes be become the deciding factor in whether a movie will get made.
3 Peter Dinklage
Warner Bros. Television
Everyone now knows Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones, but how did he get there? Prior to the show, he’d had roles in some great projects like Death at a Funeral, Elf, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. However, with his stardom not being on the level of those like Clooney and Murray, it might come as a surprise that he got his role on Game of Thrones without auditioning. The writers who adapted the books to the screen had Dinklage in mind the whole time and were lucky enough that he agreed to the role. As a result of the show, he’s now a sought-after leading man with impressive performances in I Care a Lot and Cyrano backing up his talents.
2 Ryan Gosling
New Line Cinema
Ryan Gosling is another actor whose past film experience is broad, covering comedy, romance, and drama. He has also been part of big studio productions, like The Notebook, and more obscure indie movies, such as Song to Song and Blue Valentine. His willingness to be part of a project of any scale and his talent when doing so means he’s likely to be sought after by directors frequently. Gosling recently discussed being contacted by Greta Gerwig for the role of Ken in Barbie, and how he saw his daughter’s Ken doll lying in the dirt afterward, which persuaded him to take on the role.
1 Margot Robbie
Warner Bros.
Margot Robbie got her start in acting on the Australian soap opera, Neighbours in 2008. She had some smaller roles in other projects like About Time, and The Wolf of Wall Street. But, it was the movie Focus with Will Smith that made an impact. When Smith had already been cast in Suicide Squad, it was decided that Robbie would play Harley Quinn as a result of the chemistry she demonstrated with Smith in Focus. Although Suicide Squad was critically panned, her performance was seen as the one redeeming factor of the movie. Therefore, after this, she received big roles in high-profile movies like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Babylon.
